[RELEASED] Highroad Engine - Arcade Racing solution

Hi everyone,

I'm glad to announce that the Highroad Engine is now available on the Asset Store!

So what's the Highroad Engine? Well after releasing the Corgi Engine and the Infinite Runner Engine, I took a few days off to create a game for a gamejam. It became Shapeshifter Biker, which got quite successful, and ended in Rock Paper Shotgun's Best Free Games of 2016 list.

I then took the basis of that game and made it into a proper racing asset, complete with AI, laps, vehicles, and everything else you need to create your own arcade racing game.

There's a very complete list of features on the Highroad Engine dedicated page, but here's a brief recap:

CREATE YOUR OWN RACING GAME

The asset is inspired by old school, arcade racing games such as Micro Machines, and is built with versatility in mind. Motorbikes, cars, wipeout like vehicles, trucks, karts, you can create anything you want. Vehicles are built via an easy to customize car controller, so you can tweak speed, acceleration, steering without a single line of code. Plus if you want more it’s super easy to extend, and there are examples and documentation to help with that.

PLAY EVERYWHERE

The Highroad Engine allows you to drive using your keyboard, gamepad or any mobile touch device you want. It comes packed with Nice Touch, More Mountain’s battle tested mobile input solution. Oh and it runs great on mobile of course.

PACKED WITH CONTENT

2 games, 4 racetracks, 8 vehicles, aerial and 3rd person cameras, GUI menus, lobbies, ranking, checkpoints, lap counters, and more!

LOCAL MULTIPLAYER

The asset supports 4 local players by default, but you can push that limit to as much as your machine can handle (it’s just a matter of buying more gamepads after all).

AI BOTS

Add and customize bots super easily. Setup their behaviour without a single line of code. Adding waypoints to refine their trajectories is as simple as a few mouse clicks.

EASY TO USE

Creating your own racing game has never been this easy. Import your tracks and vehicle models, add colliders, controllers, and play within minutes! You can create a whole game without a single line of code, thanks to all the custom editors, handles and gizmos. And if you want to build on top of it, the asset has been built for extendability, with virtual classes, minimal coupling, and good practices in mind.

COMPLETE DOCUMENTATION

The Highroad Engine comes complete with a full API documentation, as well as a functional documentation covering all the main aspects of the asset. Furthermore, the code is fully commented, so it’s easy to understand what’s happening and make changes at all times.

ONLINE MULTIPLAYER
The online network part of the asset is based on Unity UNET HLAPI and extends these standard classes, offering you a custom tailored experience while remaining standard and compatible with the future of UNET. Plus code and race scenes stay the same for network or local play!

As for my other assets, this one will be built upon on a regular basis. I've already got a few ideas for the upcoming updates, but please let me know what you'd like to see added, what you like and what you don't, and it'll make the asset even better!

You can buy the Highroad Engine now on the Asset Store!

 

Impressive stuff man! I had some flashbacks of playing supersprint on the amiga 500
Will definitely pick it up in the near future.

Congrats!

 

Picked it up late last night and had a quick look, big fan of super sprint/skidmarks back in the day.

Noticed two thngs, one keyboard controls did not work in the demo scene and also from the local gui screen when you clicked start it did not take you through to a map.

Will have a good look later today, might just be some simple setting I missed.

Keep up the good work, now I have to split my time between all 3 of your assets and didn't I read you had another planned for later in the year.

 

@josker > There seems indeed to be a problem. Apparently the project settings didn't make it to the Asset Store...
So you don't have any of the input setup. I'll submit an update right away. In the meantime, you can unzip the contents of the zip attached to this message in your ProjectSettings folder and it should solve the problem. Really sorry you ran into this!

Edit: I've just submitted an update that will hopefully get accepted soon, and will fix the problem.

 

A third reuno project planned??? What is it?

Question. Will you add some kind of persistent highscore for the racing game?

 

@Devision4 > Well a fourth actually
The first is the Corgi Engine, the second is the Infinite Runner Engine, then Highroad Engine is third, and the fourth will be an adventure/roguelike/still top secret one.

And a persistent highscore sounds like a great idea. Added to the list!

 

ADVENTURE???????? if you beed a alpha/beta tester

 

@Devision4 > I'll definitely need some testers. You're now on my list!

 

@josker > The fix is now live, if you update you shouldn't have the problem anymore. Thanks again for reporting this!

 

Perfect timing just got back from work, works fine. Will have a good look over next few days.

 

Will you be adding damage values for cars, this could then effect car speed, braking etc. maybe at random.

I have seen boost force which you could minus for a speed decrease. Could you add one to give an oil spill effect for skidding.

 

@josker > These are great ideas. All added to the todo list!

 

Hello Reuno,
How can I add bots?

 

@COAForce > It's quite easy to do, and explained in great details in the documentation over there :
http://reunono.github.io/HighroadEngine/new_track.html#artificial-intelligence

Let me know if you still have questions!

 

Out of curiousity: Will this eventually support watercraft racing, Hydro-Thunder style, or aircraft racing? Or are those outside the scope of this asset? I'm not planning on making any games like those, I'm just wondering if they're planned since the asset is being built with versatility in mind.

Also, that adventure/roguelike/top secret one intrigues. If you need a tester who is a rank amateur at Unity, feel free to sign me up

 

@ayk > Well there's already a demo of hovercraft like physics in the engine, so I'd say it already contains pretty much all you need for an aircraft racing game. But I can add an example of that down the line, sure.
And I've just added you to the list of beta testers, I'll let you know when the next round starts.

 

Wow! This asset looks awesome as usual, congratulations again!

Just one quick question that arises me after trying the demo (really great) : there is any support in this first version to make racing games without a lap circuit (ex. OutRun) or it can be possible to combine this with stuff (ex. spawners) from Infinite Runner (chunks of the circuit) ?

Definitly I have to take a look closer to this asset too

 

@ruuben > There are no examples of non-lap based games, but that's something you could do.
And indeed, combining that with the Infinite Runner Engine would probably be a good combo

 

I'm currently learning the ropes with Infinite Runner, but my hopes is to one day combine it with Highroad to make just such a game!

 

Hey reuno,

Just purchased the asset, loving it so far. Just playing around with the demo's, the default cars that come with the package are moving backwards slowly when no input is pressed. Is this intended?

 

@juicyfrog91 > I don't reproduce that problem, is this like right out of the box? I guess one thing that could cause that is the friction between the ground and the vehicle, that could cause it to "glide" when stopped. To prevent that, you could add a Physics material to the the ground with a bigger friction, as both demo tracks have.

 

okay So its a problem on my end, will load it up into a fresh project when I get back later today and see if issue persists.

thanks

 

Just opened up a fresh project with only the highroad engine (Unity 5.5.1f1), it only happens in the "circle" scene from the tutorial folder.

EDIT: just tested other scenes and doing it in all of them. Doesn't do it in the spaceships, so imagine it is related to the car controller or maybe a certain input bug on my end or something.

EDIT2: Changed:

protected const float _minimalGasPedalValue = 0f;

from 20 to 0 and it fixed the issue, but not sure of the negative consequences.

EDIT3: Was just looking at the Base Controller and Car Controller scripts, was wondering if there was a reason that you put the "boost zone" on the base controller instead of the car controller?

EDIT4: Found the negative consequence, can't switch into reverse when offroad sometimes

 

@juicyfrog91 > Alright, I still don't reproduce your problem, but I may have an idea. Are you by any chance using a joystick or gamepad or anything that could cause analog input values?
If that's the case, maybe your input threshold for that device is too low (meaning that for example a "resting" joystick will often not be at 0,0, but rather at 0.0023,0.0014 for example, causing tiny input instructions if you don't up their threshold (you can do that from the Input Settings in Unity, for each axis).

If that's not the case, it'd be interesting to add debug logs for current steering and current gas pedal values just to understand what's going on.

I wouldn't change the _minimalGasPedalValue, it's the minimal gas amount that will be applied when you start pressing the gas pedal.

Yes, the boost zone is on the base controller as that way it can be generic to all types of vehicles.

 

@reuno I don't have any input plugged in other than mouse and keyboard, that was my first thought as well. Might change the input settings and see if it has any effect anyway, ghost driver/input perhaps.

Will report back, thanks

 

Hey Reuno, now that I have found this thread I thought that I might throw some ideas and suggestions out there...

1. Engine Idle Audio Slot (maybe with exposed pitch parameter plus boolean toggle for random pitch between range)
2. Skidding Audio Slot (maybe with exposed pitch parameter plus boolean toggle for random pitch between range)
3. More surface types (like Offroad) for things like water and oil slicks.
4. More track extras like Boost, Slowdown, Reverse Steering etc but with a Time Limit (exposed in Insepctor).
5. A button (function) for repositioning the Player vehicle at last crossed checkpoint if it gets stuck or falls off a cliff.

Actually I have already sorted a lot of this myself but thought it would be nice to see out-of-the-box I suppose .

About the only other query that I had was to do with getting Start Podium lights or getting some voice audio to coincide with the game start countdown (3..2..1...Race!). I think I found where to look at that so will get back to you when I have a chance to give it a go myself.

I assume that weapons are out of the question due to ray casting on Y axis(?).

REALLY like this asset and seem to lose loads of time play-testing!

 

@MudPuppet > These are all great suggestions, added to the list!
And I lose a lot of time play testing this asset, much more than any other one. I guess it's a good sign!

Edit : weapons are on the list already. They'll come at some point.

 

Reporting back,

yeah issue on my end, changed the deadzone of the joystick axis to .5 and it solved the problem. Strange, as I've got no analog inputs connected to my PC, ah well, at least it's not a problem with the engine

 

@juicyfrog91 > That's good news! I'm glad it's working ok now.
Could it be that your keyboard is analog? Do such things even exist?

 

It's mechanical, I imagine it's just an issue with a driver I've installed, had to do a couple of workarounds previously to get certain controllers working.

Quick question, what's stopping the vehicles from driving off the edge of the ground, into the nothingness?

 

@juicyfrog91 > Usually what prevents vehicles from getting off bounds are simply really large border colliders. You can see them in the hierarchy view, they're nested under a Borders object usually. Really they're just 4 big invisible box colliders
You can get rid of them of course, if plunging into the unknown nothingness is your thing.

 

haha oops. Couldn't see any object in the scene view. Thanks for all the prompt responses

 

Hey Reuno, just another suggestion for the GUI to have actual vehicle names for Bots instead of Bot1,2,3 etc. Also with regards to my previous suggestion on vehicle audio stuff it would also be good to have the Audio Mixer Group exposed as it will allow users to better control player/bot audio levels. With my own Class for vehicle audio this made a huge difference when play-testing. Oh yeah, thanks again for helping me define if a vehicle is a bot or not as it also worked a treat for Bots having a different material at runtime

 

@MudPuppet > I'm glad I could help Thanks for these suggestions, I'll add them to the list right away.

 

Hey Reuno, I was thinking about this one yesterday so I thought that I might as well suggest a random vehicle selection button '?' for the lobby. I am no way near touching the lobby yet as I am just finishing off my 4th vehicle or I would have looked into myself before mentioning anything.

 

@MudPuppet > That's a great suggestion, easy enough to implement

 

Hey Reuno, I am just testing on the iPhone. Lots of fun and only one rough track . Whilst playing I started thinking about how it would be good if I could somehow click a boolean button in the inspector to enable the race to go in the reverse direction. Kind of like one on the RaceManger (Checkpoints) and one on the AIWaypoints (Waypoints) I suppose(?). Just thought it would make it a bit quicker for a user to pull multiple tracks together fast (almost like two for one with minimal effort required on reversed one). Not sure of how the Start Positions could factor into a reversal. Anyway, just an idea I had and thought I mights as well mention something. Hehe, now back to play testing.

 

@MudPuppet > That's a great suggestion! I'll add that to the list.

 

Awesome!!! Another one that I wanted to mention or enquire about that's been floating around the back of my head had to do with 'specials' like speed up (or slow down), and reverse controlling etc (as listed in a previous post) but to have it as a boolean toggle on their functionality script the option to be either 'standard' (e.g. sitting on the road and you drive over it or through it) or a 'pickup' that you could use at a chosen time via another button in the running game. Sorry... it's late and a bit vague but it had something to do with the fact that some 'specials' could be used in both standard and pickup categories. I had quite a few other 'special' related ideas too like warp to a few waypoints in front (or to one a few back), freeze (frozen for a specified time), ice (no friction / slippery driving), and wind (random blows or pushes player slightly sideways).

 

@MudPuppet > Added to the list

 

Hello Reuno, with regards to my previous suggestion for a button where the player respawns (from being stuck upside down or rolled over or fallen off cliff or into water etc) maybe add an option for an instantiated prefab (for an effect). Similarly with Bots there really needs to be something in place like a timer for if a bot is stuck (or velocity on RB is at a low value for a specified time) so that they also respawn on track at closest waypoint (also with public slot for instantiated effect prefab). I think that the latter will cut out some development time trying to work out why bots get stuck at a particular point on the track and repositioning AIWaypoints doesn't seem to be giving any clues towards a quick solution (amongst other things).

As an aside... with the instantiated effect prefab thing listed above I am not sure if it would be better to have two 'effect' slots, one for death(?) effect and one for respawn effect. i.e.: You might use an explosion effect for death and you might use a warp in effect for the actual respawning.

 

@MudPuppet > Great suggestions again Just added them to the list!

 

Any eta. on the loopings that was mentioned in the What's next section?

 

@greb > I never give ETAs, I release stuff when it's done. Right now the loopings are working, along with a brand new, more physics based controller, but there's still work to do on it to get it exactly right. All I can say is that loopings will very probably be in the next release.

 

@renuo > yea I understand the hesitation towards ETAs, no problem, great to hear it is soo far up the chain, anyways let us know if you need help testing and stuff, great product, the new controller sounds awesome... keep up the good work

 

Hello, I was just thinking about Bot difficulty levels whilst getting beaten at my own game (LOL) so I will throw this idea out there.... what if the car behaviour class (not in front of computer so I could mean the other class) allowed for a range (array?) of speed, turning, acceleration settings (instead of just the 3 or 4 that you have existing), so the user could set up difficulty levels for each vehicle, and then in the Race Manager class you could specify the Bot difficulty level. So in essence for each vehicle you could have say 10 speed settings, 10 turning settings, 10 acceleration settings giving you 10 difficulty levels for that particular vehicle.

Another idea was with Single Player games and the lobby perhaps not showing or not allowing Bot selection but in fact just filling up the empty slots automatically (and then randomly after the max created vehicle prefabs has been reached). Maybe this could also be expanded so that in the Race Manager you could set it so that the scene will only run with Bots of the same vehicle type as what the player chooses in the Local Lobby.

Anyway, just some thoughts and hopefully they make sense. I only just now solved a few physics problems so my gameplay has improved or changed dramatically. About the only other idea I had was to do with when a vehicle collides with something and perhaps having a prefab effect instantiate at the point of impact (like sparks with a scraping metal sound effect) but I will probably have a go at that one myself and see what other thoughts I have about it.

 

@MudPuppet > Thanks a lot for this great feedback!
I've added all that to the todo list. What physics problems did you solve? Were they caused by the engine?

 

Hello, physics problems were ay my end and were basically just vehicles getting a bit stuck against walls, track-rails, and some track props. Adding some physic materials seems to have solved that problem, especially for Bots which now seem to beat me at my own game most of the time. This makes me happy as I recently adjusted the overall scale of everything (track/props) etc and didn't want to scale upwards again just to alleviate 'sticky' issues .

 

Hello, something else I forgot to list with my last lot of ideas was a 'solo play' button on the Race Manager that would allow for Time Trial (solo) races where the player is trying to get the best time for a track. I haven't thought that through properly but you know what I mean as most racing games have that in them.

 

@MudPuppet > Time Trial is already on my todo list
It just went up a little!