Doorhandle First Rally

@accent, good camera work lol, I love this when the jumps appears xD

But seriously, I suggested something like two possible cameras that you can switch - one for this classic game that you’re basing on felling, and second one to casuals like most people xD

I do just use a standard microUSB cable, so no reason it shouldn’t unless it doesn’t work on OS’s other than win 10

About tracks:

The game will have at least 5 different rally stages, because I have thought of 5 different themes or styles of track that I want to have. Each is located in a different country (hence the different characteristics of the terrain and road that make up the theme/style of each track). Each country MIGHT have more than one track but that would mean, if I decided to have for example 2 tracks per country, that I would then have to make 10 tracks instead of 5. And that’s a lot more work if I want to make them look and play good.

I’ve chosen these countries based on the typical rally roads in them having a distinct feel and character:

Finland
Wide gravel roads, little elevation changes except for some YUMPS, no hairpin corners except maybe at intersections. Forest, fields and lakes in the scenery.

Sweden
Like Finland, but in winter.

Poland
Narrow tarmac and wet mud, hay bale chicanes, farm houses right next to the road, possibly tons of spectators.

Either Australia or South Africa
Varying terrain, loose dirt and uneven road surface. Rocks and bushes.

Greece
Twisty mountainside road with lots of hairpins.

There are other countries that would fit these themes but these ones felt right for me.

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I use a PS2 controller :stuck_out_tongue: basically the generic twin joystick USB that windows can detect and use without needing any special software. I use it with ETS2, AssCo, LFS, etc

Just to counterbalance all those people with controllers: I don’t even own a controller I can plug into the PC.

Although that said given I have several emulators, I ought to get one.

Emulators are how I get to play Gran Turismo 2 and 4 with an XBox 360 controller, making them way better :wink:

I don’t really have an outlet to report on my progress with this game and I probably shouldn’t keep spamming this forum with thist stuff, so any suggestions for that are welcome. This is currently the only place beside facebook where I talk about it, but maybe I should start a blog or something for it? I like sharing this stuff because my previous game projects have always gotten stuck on lack of skill to make them but this is the first one that has been steadily rolling onwards for almost a week now and I know exactly how to do most of the things I want to do this time.

That being said, the development of the Finland track has officially begun!

I have the first iteration of the basic layout of the track done in the terrain editor. As it is now, the stage takes about 3 minutes to complete. I feel like around 5-ish minutes would be a better amount but that would require a lot more winding roads, which would be fine for some other countries but don’t feel very Finlandy.

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well, i suppose it’s in off topic and not as useless as my spams in the true or false, so i see no harm in keeping us updated here.

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I say go ahead and update here. Making an exterior site depends on whether you think interest will significantly extend beyond this forum (it might). But posting here is more convenient for us :stuck_out_tongue:

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I’m soo going to stalk this thread :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: this is a great project… I could actually pay for this.

Early access version? XD

I’ll play if you make a port for my smart WiFi connected washing machine :stuck_out_tongue:

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What about a Patreon page or something?

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Poland? Well, cool, actually we have a rally going on for 80 years, I guess (Rajd Polski)

Good to know that this game goes on and on :smiley:

As soon as I have the first track in a properly playable state, I’ll maybe put together a super early super secret test demo thing and upload it to my website that I just remembered I have (paying 70 euros per year for something I don’t remember owning :smiley: ). That version is going to just let you freely drive around with no actual gameplay, just to see the current driving physics which are dodgy as heck but still weirdly enjoyable for me at least with a controller. I tried tweaking the keyboard controls a bit but they got only maybe marginally better before I decided it wasn’t worth my time just now.

No promises on when that’s going to be out; it’s coming somewhere between now and never. Remember I’ve never made a finished game before, I just have like a million started ones because I have more ideas than skills to make them, but I’m learning and somewhere there is a treshold where I will be able to go through with an idea and this feels like I’m getting close to that.

I am, though, having a bit of a problem with making textures for the track: it is winter. I want to take photographs of trees but they have no leaves. I haven’t found any good free to use pics on the internet either. The smart thing to do would be to make the Sweden track first as that’s a winter track but I’d grow bored of all the white and gray real soon while testing it. But we’ll see.

Oh, and I KINDA know why rear wheel drive isn’t working. It seems to simply be a matter of getting the wheel friction, suspension and torque values set just perfectly right, but I have no idea what those perfect values would be to get the feel that I want. I’d also need to figure out how to simulate anti roll bars and lift the center of mass up a bit to make it more realistic. Currently the center of mass is unrealistically low because without anti roll bars the car will just roll over in the first bend otherwise.

With AWD there’s also a problem with suddenly snapping back out of a powerslide (because front wheels suddenly start to grip again and pull) where you need Jedi reflexes to not spin out. I don’t know if that’s just me being bad at driving (and the game being super realistic by accident!) or if the front wheel slip needing adjustment.

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I’ve seen lots of Polish rally videos on youtube and you guys seem to have a delightfully active and enthusiastic rally scene (I don’t know if you really have, that’s just what it looks like based on those videos), that’s why I chose it as one of the track locations.

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Dude we would totally be down to form a beta tester group

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YEAH

JUST DO THE FRIKKIN STRATOPOLONEZ TOO XDDDDD

@accent There’s an active amateur rallying scene here too. What about it? Best and most popular cars in this discipline are Ford Sierra, Ford Escort, Honda Civic, Fiat Seicento, Fiat 126p, Cinquecento, even Daewoo Lanos :smiley: (giving suggestions about another car category)

Huh. Adding anti roll bars made the car feel more… weighty? Like you feel the momentum of it more when turning, and scandi-flicking it requires a bit more effort. I’m not completely sold on the different feel even though it is clearly easier to control now and more realistic (edit: further testing turned this around; I’m lovin’ it now). Handbrake turns work now, because the realistic center of mass that I can now have seems to be an important factor in it. Still no luck on getting rear wheel drive to work though. It just weirdly bogs down, it feels like driving in deep mud.

Interesting side effect of making this game has been that I’m learning more about the physics behind why cars behave the way they do. Like, not the mathematics of it, screw that, but intuition. Everyone interested in racing (in games or otherwise) should make their own racing game.

Here’s a tree btw:

But now: beer! Beer!

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This is a good read if you’re building race sims - https://www.scribd.com/document/28277185/Beckman-The-Physics-of-Racing

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Game’s still unnamed. Was thinking of “Sideways Rally”.

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