IntelliRacers: A Featureful Vehicle Racing AI Toolkit [Development Thread]

NOTE: This Asset is a WIP, but I will be posting regular developer logs here.

IntelliRacers is a vehicle racing AI toolkit with never-seen-before features which greatly reduce the time required to set up your scenes. It also includes a realistic vehicle AI algorithm making your games look like a AAA title. All you need to set up your racing game is a vehicle physics package and IntelliRacers.

Planned Features:

• Car will slow down based on how much it has to turn so no headache of setting waypoint speeds
• An Automatic waypoint position calculation system using NavMeshes (see Post #7)
  
• Hermite Spline based waypoint paths, creating smooth paths for the vehicles to follow thus waypoints only need to be placed on curves in the track
• Modify the waypoint position on an axis and speeds for different difficulties without having to set up new paths
• Compatibility included for major vehicle physics packages like Edy's, UnityCar and Realistic Car Controller. I can also include support for other physics packages on request.
• Accurate waypoint based steering
  
• Clever Obstacle Avoidance and Overtaking algorithm
• Positioning (placement 1st, 2nd etc) system for all AI vehicles and the player
• Global Scene manager with settings like Grid Position (if needed).
  
• Mobile Optimized

Maybe Features (If there is enough demand/requirement):

• Cop Mode
• A car will run around the track and automatically place waypoints on the required positions
• Multithreading (maybe only in Unity 5, but we'll see).

I may introduce the "Maybe Features" as an extension on the Asset Store. If you feel that there should be some other feature that I missed/that should be included in this package, please reply and let me know.

Previews
v0.01 (just an arbitrary version number):

I will be selling this Asset for 50$ with the full source code. Please vote on the poll (truthfully, it'll help me in making decisions) above and let me know what you think! If you have any more questions/suggestions please let me know.

Developer Log:

• May 6, 2015: Development initiated
• May 25, 2015: Post #2
• May 29, 2015: Post #5
• June 3, 2015: Post #7
• June 6, 2015: Post #9

 

• Completed Waypoint System (including making a spline from waypoints and speed calculation)
• Completed basic input system with support for some popular vehicle physics packages (some improvement is left)
• Completed waypoint following system with accurate steering values based on steering angle of vehicle
• Work started on Obstacle Avoidance system using raycasts.

 

Show screenshots and video.

 

@carking1996 Yes I will very soon, stay posted or watch this thread. Expect some media in a week

 

I have decided of doing away with the automatic waypoint calculation system as it wasn't producing desirable results. Instead I've moved to a bob following system in which the vehicle will slow down according to to how much it has to turn a few metres ahead. This has produced good results, and only requires changing of a few numeric variables (by the user) to get the required braking on different vehicle physics platforms. I will post a small video demonstrating this system in a day or two.

 

I have added a preview video as @carking1996 requested, although it's come out a bit dark, I don't know why. I have just placed the waypoints on the track and tweaked a few variables and recorded the video. The vehicle physics used in the video is Edy's vehicle physics. The AI calculates the amount to brake in runtime.

 

A great feature has been added to IntelliRacers! If you choose to, it can now automatically calculate waypoint positions based on a baked NavMesh. You just have to give the script the road mesh(es) and it will bake the NavMesh and automatically calculate the waypoints. There is one caveat though. The NavMesh system will calculate the shortest path, which is not always the best racing line. So a bit of tweaking will be required, but mainly only repositioning the waypoints by a couple of units. A video will be uploaded, but I can't say how long, Jun 7-27 I will be busy with a course (Artificial Intelligence in Georgia Tech, so all the better!) and I don't know how long I will be able to work or whether I will have internet access or not.

 

Looks awesome!

 

Obstacle Avoidance has been completed, I will upload another video as soon as I can.

 

I'm very interested in this, I hope you can finish it as soon as possible

 

How will it handle offroad/drifting in different conditions.

And can you post a video showing how the vehicle handles being put in tricky situations, i.e it has driven into a wall etc, or been turned around.

How about a video showing 10 AI cars on the track and how they interact and resolve certain situations like crashes/bumps, getting knocked off track

Right now your video shows nothing unique or exciting... just a car driving around a track which I could have programmed in a couple of hours with a simple waypoint system.

 

@Meltdown I understand, but right now, I've elected to scrap the whole thing and start from scratch. I'm working on a pretty advanced obstacle avoidance system, and am also working on an algorithm to automatically place waypoints on a mesh. I'll delete this thread and start over.

 

If I where making a car game this would be a great addition