Kart Demo - WIP

I would agree with the post above, when I was moving fast I seemed to lag a little. I don't have good specs so its me not you. I think you can find some good demo implementations of turning up and down the graphics on the asset store, for free.

 

@JamesArndt

The game looks sick man, i will keep an eye on this one.. I will test it and let you know..

I do have a question, how do you make the track curves? for some reason i find it very hard..

 

I'm working on the graphics settings...it's part of the menu system which I haven't messed with at this point too much at all.

 

So I created the Kart Driver model, and today am in the process of rigging him in Maya. You’ll notice some odd deformations around the legs. That’s because I’m right smack in the middle of adjusting the default weighting on the model. Looking forward to animating this guy to ride around in the Karts!

 

I'm trying to get my AI cars playing turning animations based on the angle of the wheelcolliders in turns. It's an open wheel GoKart so the drivers just sit there kind of static now. Trying to trigger them to play their steering turn animations based on the angle of the WheelCollider. It's not working however. Here's my code so far:

Code (csharp):

1. #pragma strict
2.  
3. var wheel : WheelCollider;
4. var aiKartDriver : GameObject;
5. var isTurning : boolean = false;
6.  
7.  
8. function Start () {
9.  
10.     aiKartDriver.animation["idle"].wrapMode = WrapMode.Loop;
11.     aiKartDriver.animation["turnRight"].wrapMode = WrapMode.ClampForever;
12.     aiKartDriver.animation["turnLeft"].wrapMode = WrapMode.ClampForever;
13.     isTurning = false;
14. }
15.  
16. function FixedUpdate () {
17.  
18.     var steer : float = wheel.steerAngle;
19.    
20. // control for using maxWheelAngleBeforeDrag variable to control the driver's animations
21.     if (steer > 1)
22.         {
23.         //aiKartDriver.animation.CrossFade ("turnRight");
24.         Debug.Log ("TURNING RIGHT");
25.         isTurning = true;
26.         }
27.     else if (steer < -1)
28.         {
29.         //aiKartDriver.animation.CrossFade ("turnLeft");
30.         Debug.Log ("TURNING LEFT");
31.         isTurning = true;
32.         }
33.     else if (steer > -1)
34.         {
35.         //aiKartDriver.animation.CrossFade ("idle");
36.         Debug.Log ("NOT TURNING");
37.         isTurning = false;
38.     }
39. }

 

EDIT - Fixed above issue by ditching this script completely and using the built-in waypoint pathing code to trigger my animations.

 

Okay so I've been busy working on another iPad project for myself, so the Kart Demo got neglected for a few days. I came back with a vengeance and smoothed out the physics on the player vehicle and the AI now path smoother (they also have turning wheels now!). Still need a new set of Waypoints for the blue AI. I've also implemented a new driver model (completed modeling, normal mapping, rigging and animations, etc.)...the same model has been applied to the AI. It was a bit tricky getting the AI models to play their animations without having any keyboard control input to trigger them.

I ended up hooking into the existing script for Waypoints that controls turning of the AI wheels/car ( I used it's wheelAngle variable to to set an "if-else"). This would readout a numeric degree of that variable, which I could read from and say, well if the degree number is +15 or greater play the "TurnRight" animation... else if the degree number is -15 or less play the "TurnRight" animation, else play the "Idle" animation (which is a static animation right now.)

I've also got the mini-map working in the build too. It's actually pretty solid right now. I may polish the little blip texture a bit, but it's pretty much completed. I used a second GUI camera in scene, set its viewport clipping so it only appears in a section of my game window. I set the camera depth for the mini-map to always render on top of the game camera, placed in a GUITexture for the map of the track, placed (3) 16x16 blip textures for AI and the player and created simple code that makes them follow their assigned transforms (i.e. player or AI vehicles).

I feel it's really coming along now, starting to look like something finally!

Check the latest build out at : http://www.fatboxsoftware.com/#/kart-demo/4565740225

 

This is looking very good !
You did a very good job !

Just an idea, rather than using so many checkpoint that we could miss, you should close the track a little bit more, by putting some pile of tires or stuff like that.

Good luck.

 

Or some hay bails.

 

This will be amazing when finished, I race karts and i'm very excited to see the outcome!

 

Project is not dead. I actually just finished optimizing the Kart model, the driver model and the environment for mobile purposes. Want to be able to port this to the Android and iOS devices, tablets, etc. I just got a hold of NGUI some time back and am in process of converting existing GUI code, and assets to an NGUI based GUI. I am nearly ready to implement AI into this track. The visual elements on the wall (signage, banners) are all stand-in, will replace with some realistic looking signage/banners. Also the UI will be redone and is stand-in as well.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16956434/Kart_Race_Demo/WebPlayer/WebPlayer.html

UPDATE:

Hi everyone. I know you've all seen me posting up stuff with my GoKart project. Well I'm finally getting a coherent funding and marketing campaign together to get this game in production full time. Here is the new URL and web site I have up for the game. I'm also finishing up an IndieGoGo funding campaign to finance the game, but the it's not live yet (so no links to it anywhere yet). Check out the web site and if you feel so inclined give the Facebook page an official like! Thank you for following me and all of the support.

http://www.superkartracing.com/

 

It's starting to look very polished, good job! The only thing that I can see is that there is a black line thingy in front of the car. I'm not sure what it is, but its kinda distracting while turning.



Other than that, good job.

 

Ah someone else on the Facebook community pointed this out as well. I finally discovered what it was...turns out it was some artifacting from the shadow projector on the world. I'll have a fix in the next build.

 

Web playable update: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16956434/Kart_Race_Demo/1-18-13_Webplayer/WebPlayer.html

Converted all in-game HUD elements to NGUI. Now they're rocking 2 draw calls of the entire UI (1 is for the font and other for UI elements.) I am aware of the position indicator doing it's bugginess. What is occurring, is that when the player and AI are equal in Laps Completed, Waypoints Passed and are relying on Distance to Next Waypoint to calculate who's in front..well that value is jumping back to 0 at each way point being passed (resets value). So I think because the data is relying on the rapidly changing value to determine race position in these circumstances, it's glitching a bit. Once you determine a lead by passing more waypoints in general or more laps, the position indicator is fine. It's a bug and I'll fix it.

I've also added in driver camera functionality if you click the camera icon in the top of the game window. Helps with the sense of speed a bit, but I'll do more with the far camera's sense of speed when I get to that. For now I'm working on getting the second functional AI vehicle in...I intend to have a race between (3) Karts.

 

Wow im a horrible driver! Those things turn fast! I really like this looks like alot of fun. It would be good if you added a feature to create your own tracks, not sure if its been mentioned before though. Keep up the good work

 

Started up an official Facebook page for this game. Trying to get a social media base built up for it, to show off more stuff and to help aid the Kickstarter that I'm setting up. Help support a fellow Unity developer

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Super-Kart-Racing/345003288854776?ref=hl

 

Go the official web page up and running for the game!

Super Kart Racing - Official Site

 

This looks awesome James! Really good work.

Have you thought of implementing a camera waypoint system so that the player can look into the turns? I think it will help me with my driving. lol

 

@lockbox - Actually I really like that idea a lot. I'm going to do some research on any common methods to approach this. Maybe something that might be simpler than actually using waypoints and lookAt. I'm thinking this might actually be something that could be tied into a smooth animation when turning. I animate the kart, the driver...why not animate the camera to look towards a turn as well?

 

Hey James nice work.
Ahh i never get such stable vehicles in unity. They flip over easily. Do you use some kind of force (other than shifting the center of mass) to prevent it from flipping at turns?

By the way, that black projector bug, make sure that the borders of the image you are using for the projector cookie are completely white (if you are using alpha from grayscale) and keep a thick border around the shadow in the image.
hope it helps.

 

Very nice!

2 quick notes:

1. The repeating concrete pattern on the floor is a bit too noticeable, and is not up to the quality of the rest of your game.
2. The gray walls are a bit drab, IMO. The track (and game) would be more inviting if you added some color to the walls to made it look less like a basement or warehouse.

Keep up the good work

 

This is what our local track looks like:

 

What a pain, but I finally got the entire web site upgraded from Flash to HTML5. Had to be done! Now I have a great place where I'm going to post all of this feedback and input and put it down in a "to-do" or "bug" list.

Super Kart Racing Official Web

 

Keep up the good work!

 

Nice work!

 

I've implemented a "to-do" list based on user feedback on the current state of the online demo. These are items to tackle directly, and are almost taken verbatim from user feedback. Let me know if you've played the demo and have something to suggest that isn't on this list.

Super Kart Racing Official Page

 

@ Everyone Else - Thank you for the feedback and encouragement!

@ Roylen - Thank you for the tip to fix that projector bug. As for the stability of vehicles in Unity, there are a bunch of factors that I usually adjust for a while to get it stable.

Some tips I might offer:

Gravity settings in Unity, tweaking them to help keep the car grounded (usually it's bumping values up just a bit).

Rigidbody Mass settings on the vehicle to give it some weight to itself (keep in the realm of realism).

Adjusting Mass values on the WheelColliders. I have found adjusting their sideways and forward slip values help to keep it from flipping when sliding or at high speeds.

Adjusting values on the Suspension Distance of WheelColliders to be a bit higher than 0.1...I usually use about .25 or so. Combine this with a spring value of around 5500 and a damper of around 45 or so. You'll spend a lot of time tweaking these values, because they all impact each other to work as a whole. Basically you want the suspension to allow some body roll and give a little, so it exerts less pressure elsewhere and allows the car to roll a bit without flipping over completely.

Adjusting the Center of Mass in Y axis for the Rigidbody (usually a value of -.75 or -1.0) to put COM down in Y closer to the ground. Also adjust the Center of Mass in Z axis to be more forward (closer to the engine).

Using a freely available script called "AntiRollBar.js". This appears to help a bit by adding side forces to the vehicle under certain circumstances.

Adjusting the Physics settings for time step...I believe it defaults to a value of 6 or so. I usually adjust this to be a value of around 12 or so. Gives smoother physics processing without getting tremendous overhead. I have set up to values of 32 or so and built to an iPhone 3GS with good performance...so this is will be on a per project basis. Adjusting the Time Step in the physics settings smooths out physics processing, so in essence it allows the car to slide smoother rather than get caught up during physics processing.

I use a simple box collider for almost all of my vehicle collision, not sure if this helps in the vehicle's stability, but I would think it would simplify things vs. using a mesh collider, or a series of parented colliders.

I hope these tips help

 

Updates: No work on visual art this week (with the exception of sliding marks). Implemented a sound controlling system. Integrated sounds when smacking walls, other AI karts. Will play from (3) random sounds in an array. I've also included an engine sound that changes pitch based on engine RPM. Lastly I've implemented the skidding sound when sliding in turns, I've also put the trail renderer in there to leave visual marks on the track behind you. The audio is definitely placeholder (and it's not high quality stuff). It's only there at this juncture, as proof of concept that the scripts are working to produce sounds.

Follow the link to the updated web player (1-28-13)

http://fatboxsoftware.com/super-kart-racing/4573006708

 

During development of my kart project I implemented this little gem and now I want to share it.

This is a very simple tutorial on setting up skidmarks for any racing vehicle in your Unity projects. This method is independent of the type of vehicle or environment. It is also mobile friendly for your iOS or Android applications. The method I describe makes use of Unity's built-in WheelColliders and their "WheelHit" property. It also makes use of small Trailrenderers to render our tire tread marks behind the vehicle. As usual here is the link to the video, and don't forget the full source Unity project download link is in the video description! Enjoy.

 

Hi everyone. I know you've all seen me posting up stuff with my GoKart project. Well I'm finally getting a coherent funding and marketing campaign together to get this game in production full time. Here is the new URL and web site I have up for the game. I'm also finishing up an IndieGoGo funding campaign to finance the game, but it's not live yet (so no links to it anywhere yet). Check out the web site and if you feel so inclined give the Facebook page an official like! Thank you for following me and all of the support.

http://www.superkartracing.com/

 

Im very impressed by the progress on this game. Will there be a PC version too perhaps?

 

Yes there sure will. PC/Mac Standalone game.

 

Nice tutorials, thanks for sharing them. The website and the game looks very nice.

 

Just a few quick notes on the latest demo...

IMO, checkpoint that flashes on the screen is a little too big and centered. Perhaps a bit smaller and up, so it doesn't distract me from driving or block my view.

I parked the kart and never finished lap 2, four minutes and counting.. lol. You might want to consider ending the race if the AI has finished and the user hasn't finishing the lap after a certain amount of time - or just stops moving.

Good work like always James. Really enjoy seeing your progress.

Cheers

 

Everyone I know on here, you've all been amazing supporters of my site and Unity work. I've launched my funding campaign for Super Kart Racing. If you can contribute, please do. If you cannot, please share the link with your networks and pass the word. Thank you all so much for the support!

Super Kart Racing Funding Campaign



@lockbox - I have a page on the official web site with a "to-do" list of QA items...I'll make sure to add your feedback on there and get these fixes implemented. I absolutely agree with your feedback on the checkpoint graphics and the current state of the demo. Thank you for the feedback.

 

I've got an exciting incentive for contributors! I have a group of assets for sale on the Unity asset store at full price. I'm offering your choice of any asset from the group, for the low contribution of $8. Normally these mobile optimized assets are $15.00. That's a savings of nearly 50% off the original price!

You can follow this link to see the listing of available assets: http://u3d.as/publisher/fat-box-software/1K2

Once you've contributed the $8.oo to Super Kart Racing, I'll send your purchased asset directly to you.

Here is the link to the funding campaign (where you would put in the contribution):

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/328140/x/2305754

Please make sure you plug in your email address at checkout. That's where I will be sending your asset. Thank you again for all of your support.

 

Anyone interested in the 50% off mobile assets?

 

Same incentive for contributors with this new character (420 polygon US Marine)! He's so new, he's not even live on the Asset Store yet! I'm offering your choice of any asset from the group, for the low contribution of $8. Normally these mobile optimized assets are $15.00. That's a savings of nearly 50% off the original price!

You can follow this link to see the listing of available assets:

http://u3d.as/publisher/fat-box-software/1K2

Once you've contributed the $8.oo to Super Kart Racing, I'll send your purchased asset directly to you.

Here is the link to the funding campaign (where you would put in the contribution):

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/328140/x/2305754

Please make sure you plug in your email address at checkout. That's where I will be sending your asset. Thank you again for all of your support. This supports my go kart development project 100%.

 

Offer still stands! $20, $15 assets for only $8.00! See if you like something and then head on over and contribute $8.00. You'll get your asset via email immediately.

Here is the link to the funding campaign (where you would put in the contribution):

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/328140/x/2305754

 

See Below:

 

UPDATED:

Finished the concepts/layouts for outdoor Track 2 (A-F configs) for Super Kart Racing. These are concepts for the first outdoor track featured in the game. Want to learn more about the game? Visit www.superkartracing.com

 

Visit www.superkartracing.com you'll see this did end up turning out to be a mobile game for iOS and Android! It's still in development though.

 

I'm in the Number #2 slot this morning under US Gaming campaigns! They base it on the amount of hits your page gets and the pace at which you receive contributions. If you haven't checked it out yet or supported me in it, please consider it this morning!

Super Kart Racing Development Campaign on Indiegogo

 

Still two days away from halfway in the campaign, but really need the help with this one. It's very close to my heart and I need your help seeing it get there. I don't need to meet the entire end goal to be able to make this game (using Flexible Funding Option on Indiegogo) so I'm in a good position! I just need every bit I can muster to pay for the plugins/software needed and audio/artwork services.

If you've contributed, please disregard this or help pass it on elsewhere on the web if you can. Some of you have done more than I could have ever expected and for that I'm very thankful!

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/328140/x/2305754

 

WOW! My campaign now has 26 days! I had 16 days remaining in the campaign up until today. Indiegogo has compensated downtime that occurred the last week with a campaign extension. Now I have 36 emails to send out updating backers though, which is fine, it only adds 10 days to production.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/328140/x/2305754

 

This is the experience I want to do for the feature outdoor track. I think I want to put the concepts for the outdoors aside for right now and reproduce Daytona. Does anyone know if these tracks are licensed and can't be used in a game? Maybe renaming it something and not putting their branding on anything would work?

 

Super Kart Racing is gaining traction! I need kind souls to assist a fellow indie developer fund the development of this game. I'm not asking for something for nothing though, check out some of the perks. I think the coolest one is your ability to brand the levels with your own logo, web URL, image or whatever you can think of that isn't offensive or vulgar.

If you've contributed, please disregard this, but feel free to help spread the word!

Super Kart Racing - iOS and Android Game | Indiegogo



Here's a neat image inside of the 3d software, while I'm optimizing the model, working on the bind and animations.