[RELEASED] Simple Bicycle Physics

Hi, I want to control the rider's right hand position and head rotation from an independent script, it's part of my game mechanic. What is the best way to achieve that without messing up the bicycle mechanics etc?

 

This should be really easy to implement.

The right hand can be controlled in real time by moving the transform of the RightHandIKTarget.



For the HeadIKTarget, please comment out the lines below "//Head Target Position" and the line containing "headRange.weight" (line 91) in the ProceduralIKHandler script and the line containing "headIK.GetComponent..." (line 27) in CyclistAnimController script.

You can now move the HeadIKTarget Gameobject and the head should move along with it.



If you have any trouble getting the IKs to work, or have trouble locating the code line numbers, please send us an email at info@aikodex.com and we'll send the modified script to you.

 

We've released a new update which involves Entering / Exiting the bicycle.
This feature is still in beta mode and requires the TPS controller by Unity Technologies to work. It does not interfere with the normal functionality of the asset.
We'll be providing more documentation and tutorials on how to set it up in the coming days.

 

great

will be awesome if you do add also too for your other asset (Simple Motorcycle Physics Pro)

 

Sure, we'll get to it after releasing the long awaited ragdoll physics for Simple Bicycle Physics

 

[UPDATED]

1.8

- Enter / Exit Mechanism introduced
- Bicycle Status - New accessible method added
- New bike on/off animation added
- 1 Brand new textured MTB rider added with detachable helmet and bag.
- Mobile Controls updated

 

Hi there, can I ask if your asset handles or integrates with final ik / puppermaster at all? or other Ik based assets? Would you expect any problems?

 

Is there an FPS prespective suport ? I saw it in video and in overview but I couldnt find it in documentation or examples.

 

Maybe ability to turn off the jump flipping, and ability to make grinding?

 

Hello, as of now, if you want to integrate puppet master or final IK, you may have to disable the cyclist / rider and instantiate a puppet master driven rig in place of it. You may also need to copy all the limb positions of the rider in order to make it look seamless.

Guessing by the assets you'd like to integrate, by any chance are you thinking of making ragdoll physics? If so, you could wait for a few days for an official release or we could send you the required files via email.

We're still polishing and fine tuning the crashes. Here is the progress we've made so far:

 

There is FPS Perspective support. Please look for the ViewFPS Bicycle scene in your project.
Alternatively, to get an FPS perspective on any bike, you can place the camera inside the Neck/Head of the biker's rig as a child and align the camera a bit. This should give you a somewhat realistic FPS cam / body cam.

 

Turning the jump flipping off is possible. Please look for the Air Time Settings in the inspector and uncheck the Freestyle boolean variable. This should prevent the rider from flipping the bike around in mid air.
We're working on adding the ability to grind on rails.

 

This asset is getting better and better. Really, good job.
I look forward to ragdoll animations like:
"a guy falls off his bike" maybe "different accidents (falls)".

 

Ok, that is really cool, with puppetmaster the player can interact with objects like a box hits the head it will move from the impact, I wonder if your IK can handle that. Maybe I cn try have finalik/puppetmaster AND your script active together, to get best of both?

 

Sure, yes you can definitely go for both the effects together. Perhaps it may prove to be a better ragdoll mechanics than either of the systems individually.

To answer your question, yes, our ragdoll physics will allow objects (rigidbodies) to interact with the player. The player will move in accordance with the physics constraints and the animation in a ratio that changes dynamically.

 

Cool, many thanks!
Another question if ok, will the asset wrk in version 2019? Just wondering, or is the animations.rigging the cause for only 2020 and up support?

 

The earliest version of Unity we've checked this asset on was 2020.1.x and no errors were thrown, but the left leg glitched while reversing / animation change. We couldn't pin point the problem but it could have been due to the animation rigging package version being below 1.0.3. Again, we have made quite a few changes to the asset from version 1.3 when we originally tested the asset on 2020.1. At the 1.8 (current) version we may already have solved this issue if it were a technical error than a package version mismatch.

We know of a few developers who want to use this asset with VR but their VR packages are not supported on Unity versions 2020 and up. We'll try to get our asset to work with the old Unity versions and find out the earliest compatible version.

 

Thanks

 

We're glad to announce that we'll be releasing the ragdoll physics update within this week. Along with this update, we're now officially on the Simple Bicycle Physics version 2.0 which brings with it a new ragdoll prototype character and physical animations. Stay tuned in for a lot of additional content - new characters, cycle liveries, bikes and new features coming with SBP 2.0+ updates.

Here is the pre-release poster:



2.0
- Active Ragdoll mechanics introduced
- Various attributes added to the ragdoll - Stiffness, Body Part Mass, Velocity at Launch, Joint Damping
- Ragdoll works with any skinned prop that the ragdoll has by adjusting colliders
- Custom Active Ragdoll Animation support
- Camera scripts adjusted to snap to the ragdoll

---
Thank you all for your constant support!
A special thanks to @Rowlan for maintaining a Github repository for automatic rig mapping - SBP Extensions.

 

Me like the sound of this! Good work!

 

This is great news! Good direction, it's clear you're listening to your users.

 

Could still use some rider weight / lean forward and back, imo makes it feel so much better, feels odd having the bike glued to the ground, something like this

 

Hi @Xpert3D - I bought your asset a couple of days ago and have to say I'm really enjoying testing it out and it is some great work so thank you! I'm aiming to make a relaxed, small open world MTB game and this is perfect foundation

I'm brand new to unity (downloaded a few days ago) I was wondering if you could help me out with a few initial questions:

• I might be doing something simple wrong but the Enter/Exist scene is not working for me. I can get the third-person controller working by itself and I can ride the bike within that scene but when I get exit I get the error message "NULLReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object (and the character remains static until I re-enter the bike - seems transition to third person controller isn't working for me)
• Do you have any plans on making a scene with ragdoll, enter/exit mechanic and stunt in all at once (or a video tutorial on how to edit to get to this point)
• One other thing is ideally I want to control with gamepad as it feels more natural for me on bike game - what is the simplest way of mapping a gamepad (currently I can use left stick on xbox gamepad to move bike but rest is keyboard/mouse only). Are you planning to add new input system for controls?
• What assets do you use in this video (Freestyle MTB Air-Time Tricks : Unity3D (reddit.com)) - for example the massive skatepark with red bull ramps etc. or the northshore style wooden ramps for the 2.5D version
• I was wondering has the bicycle controller script changed from latest/current documentation? (acceleration curve added etc.)

I've also got a few comments/feedback/suggestions after a bit of playtesting for the asset to add realism/fun (interested to know if you are working on any of them!):

• The new ragdoll physics addition is a lot of fun on par with the stunt mechanic - for me I think I can get that to want with just a bit of tweaking in the parameters you have so it's a great addition
• My main issue on gameplay feel right now is the turning circle - for me the turning circle needs to be much smaller and it would add a lot of fun+realism to be able to do much tighter/quick turns (related is bike handle turn range of motion seems restricted so feels more like road bike)
• I think a bunny hop where the front wheel lifts first and then levels out in air would feel more natural to get that higher air as currently feels a bit floaty https://i.makeagif.com/media/6-23-2015/bKP8GO.gifhttps://www.llbmtb.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/leehopellipse.gifhttps://makeagif.com/gif/how-to-bunny-hop-mtb-skills8-mPFE49
  
• I agree with @J2T above - a wheelie and manual/lean mechanic would be great and add realism feel
• Rider mass transfer would be great (front wheel, back wheel + left/right lean)
• Then a skid/back break mechanic would be great - RR does this well and is great for make quick turns at speed
• Generally a more weighty feel to the bike/gravity and momentum would be great
  
• More speed/momentum from rolling down a hill - think this would feel more realistic
• Also in terms of flow is would be good if landing a jump perfectly preserves your momentum much better than a poor landing
• A berm mechanic would be great i.e. can lean into tight berm corners at speed and maintain momentum
• A pump mechanic would be great for pump track - i.e. press body weight into pump to gain momentum like here R.177d076e2d79b6465080ec72641ee8d3 (1131×361) (bing.com)
• For 360s is would be great to be able to to be able to throw body into a spin, get ready to spin before jumping https://giphy.com/gifs/bmx-360-l1KVtmVw2z0RuYtI4

Then a few things that I think I can already tweak fairly easily with settings available

• Pedalling sprint should be a bit faster
  
• Stunt bunny hop needs to be less than half strength (i.e. only possible to just about do 360 on flat, more off a jump). Trial bike stunt ready seems to bunny hop in quick satisfying way
• Reversing speed at ~1.5 seems to work well for me

In terms of controls more generally my ideal (on gamepad) would be:

• Left stick - standard steering (handlebars)
• Right stick - body weight/lean (potentially use for prepping for spin instead of leaning if r1 is held)
• R1 - hold to power up bunny hop
• R2 - peddle (peddle speed relative to how much pressed, light press slow peddle for technical sections)
• L1 - pump mechanic
• L2 - back break/skid
• Cross - tap to peddle harder (power/struggle up a hill or burst of speed before ramp)
• Square - front break
• Triangle - change third person to first person view
• Circle - enter/exit bike
• Down - reset on bike

Other option would be L1 being left break and R1 right break which would feel pretty intuitive to an actual bike. Not sure how possible any of that with this bike asset - for now I'm going to figure out the basics of how to get this into a scene with a forest asset to playtest in natural setting

Sorry for the long post but keep up the good work - I've been playing a lot of riders republic and this is holding up really well considering how large that team of devs would be for that - amazing job! I think focusing the mechanics more towards realistic//weight/momentum and natural flow based feel would set this apart/make it feel unique/distinct from RR (something more like skate for MTBs). Appreciate all the work that has gone into this

 

so i used similar controls, i used right stick to lean forward, backwards and when not grounded left and right spin, its best to use the new input but you can use this to figure out the buttons ect and setup for old input Xbox one controller mapping [SOLVED] - Unity Answers.

 

Hello,

We are glad that you found the asset useful and we appreciate the time you put out in neatly arranging your post for us to read and tend to your queries regarding the Simple Bicycle Physics Resource.

• Recently, the Third Person Character Controller by Unity was updated which may have affected the Enter/Exit scene. We'll immediately start working on the re-integration if things have changed from their end.
  
  
• Yes, at the moment, the freestyle tricks can be added on to the ragdoll setup [Ragdoll + Freestyle]. We are still working on getting the enter/exit mechanism to work with Unity's TPS controller. Although this task is especially challenging due to the ragdoll's end "pose" being variable.
  
  Ragdoll + Freestyle tricks is however possible. Please enable the Freestyle variable for the RagdollBiker in the inspector and enter the values used for the freestyle MTB scenes. Also, please replace the freestyle bicycle scene's camera with the ragdoll camera so the bicycle does not look off-centered while rotating mid-air.
  
  
• We do have plans to upgrade to the new input system. Will be migrating to the new input system completely in the next update.
  
  
• We made the massive skatepark with red bull ramps that you see in the video by repeating a few layered ramps, raised slopes, platforms and rails. We also used volumetric clouds to make the platform look like it was high up in air. We'd be glad to share the project files with you. Please send us an email at info@aikodex.com with your invoice number for SBP and we'll send the required files over.
  For the 2.5D version, we used the Meadow Environment by Nature Manufacture and tweaked the HDRP settings to make it look dusty.
  
  
• Apologies for the non-updated version still distributed in the package. Quite a few settings changed in a small period of time. We'll update the documentation as soon as possible, even in the description of the asset on the store front.

We do have a few solutions you could try out / implement related to your queries:

• There are a few settings you could tweak for the ragdoll which pertain to the stiffness, impact velocity launch, and mass of the ragdoll. These variables can be altered in the ragdoll prefab [Editor -> CrashDummy.prefab].
  The falling animation for the ragdoll (humanoid animation) is not a read-only animation and can be changed. The ragdoll follows those moments while falling. Exaggerating the movements of the animation would lead to the ragdoll shaking its arms and legs more vigorously.
  
  
• Tighter turns can be easily implemented by increasing the wheel friction for the front tyre.
  Please try the following settings in the WheelFrictionSettings drop down in the inspector
  FFriction X 0.55 Y 0.55
  RFriction X 0.65 Y 0.65
  
  and increase the steering angle to a flat graph of f(x) = 20.

While upgrading the asset to the new input system, we'll keep in mind to use the gamepad controls suggested by you.
Thank you very much for your suggestions and support, we'll be working on the rest of the features and hopefully include them in the coming updates.

 

Looks fantastic! We'll add this in the next update.

 

How did you get this? Would you mind sharing?

 

Amazing - thank you will look into this this old input mapping initially to get started

Just out of curiosity - how did you manage to add into those leans? Seems like a pretty fun mechanic, seems like good idea to use the right stick to also rotate whilst in the air

I've been playing around with the ragdoll MTB scene and it seems friction has the biggest impact on turning. Currently I'm using front tire friction 0.75 and back tire 1.5 plus angular drag up to 5 which to me feel a lot more fun/responsive to control but that is just from playing around. I also upped the axis angle to 15 which adds that additional range of motion on turning handlebars feel although it does mean front fork doesn't line up nicely on turn (used on MTBRider3 ragdol).

 

Ok no problem on third person controller - it might be something I'm doing wrong as I'm completely new to unity so I will have play round. I've got ragdoll + stunt working but haven't changed camera so will do that

Great to hear you're migrating to new input system

Amazing I will send you an email. Also I have purchased the Forest Environment by Nature Manufacture + some Northshore wooden feature assets so I'll look to test those but having fun just play testing in the demo scenes for now

No problem on documentation at all - I was just making sure I wasn't missing something, can wait for next update

Thanks for the tips on tighter turns - I've been playing around with friction so I will try these. Haven't tried changing steering angle yet so will try that out.

Keep up the great work - looking forward to the next update!

 

nothing special just a rigidbody and a joint, idea came from the first google result i found, an old unity forum post with the wizard edy from vehicle physics, im sure there is a better way of doing it, i didn't spend much time on it, using final ik and vr atm trying to get something that feels good

 

Hi I've tried setting up a character using synty polygon, it doesn't seem to work when accelerating, the character is rotating weird..

 

Has anyone found any good bike sounds? been struggling to find some, i would record my own but it would be go pro or phone audio quality which isn't ideal

 

I recorded my own a for a bike game I made a while ago.

 

One of our users recommended this royalty-free sound pack. Can be trimmed in sections and drawn into looped samples. If you are building a 2/2.5D cycling game then Happy Wheels - like samples can be a good guide.

 

How do I get the same go pro style first person camera view that you used in your simple bicycle physics v1.8 video? (also saw you updated the enter/exit mechanic - thanks will check that out!)

 

You can put the camera as a child in the head object of your character and adjust it a bit. The head is controlled by the IK script so the camera will automatically inherit all transforms.

And yes, we patched up the link between Unity TPS controller and SBP and updated the asset to 2.0.1. Please tell us if the enter/exit mechanism is working for you now.

 

I've had a chance to test the out now - the TPS controller exit/enter mechanic and is now working I can transition from on/off the bike. Great to have it working Few things I noticed:

• When I exit the bike, walk around and then re-enter the bike and cycle off the camera remain static/stuck (stops following the player
• When try to re-enter the bike the animation only plays from the left side. Also the player appears to float/swim hovering in the air when walking near the bike
• You can only exit when fully stopped - is there anyway to be able to exit when moving very slowly? (as sometimes difficult to be fully stopped

For first person camera can you share the settings/steps you used to achieve the look in the video? I sort of have it working but doesn't look like on the video - is it possible to get a first person demo scene?

 

• We've fixed the camera issues for the enter/exit scenes. (Available in the next patch 2.0.2)
  
  
• We've also added functionality for the biker to enter the bike from either the left or the right depending upon the TPS character's world coordinates relative to the bicycle.
  
  
• For fixing floating issues near the bicycle, we found that that decreasing the Step Offset in the Character Controller script of the externalCharacter (PlayerArmature) to 0.1 helped.
  
  
• To exit at a faster speed, please refer to line 47 of the CyclistAnimController :
  ...bicycleController.transform.InverseTransformDirection(bicycleController.rb.velocity).z <= 0.1f && waitTime == 0...
  
  Please change the text in red to a higher value in your script.

Sure, here are the settings from the v1.8 video:

 

Amazing - thank you very much!

 

I would like to know if it is possible to split the Body / Misc / etc. Skinned mesh render of the MtbBiker in different parts for assign a different Layer. With this change we can use it in VR hidden the head for the main camera.

 

Would it be possible to ask if you can confirm if your asset works with 2019 Unity? I have a large project and get errors when moving to 2020.... I'd like to use your awesome looking asset for his project. What other components might I need to install?

 

For the characters that come out of the box, only the Helmet is removable. Other miscellaneous parts like backpack and socks are separated as well so you can hide them. But this is not the case with the body parts like the head, neck, hands and legs. You could use your own character with a separated head with the bicycle physics package and hide it to make it work with your VR system. Alternatively, we could re-rig and send you the character of your choice from the package with a removable head via email if you want.

 

Sure. Which version of 2019.x does your project work with so we can download and test out the package for that version?

 

Many thanks, I am on version 2019.4.24f1 . Hope it would be possible.

 

The Simple Bicycle Physics package works with 2019.4.24f1! [Animation rigging version 0.2.7 - preview]

Although, there may be a few settings you may have to change:

1) Comment out line number 195 from the Cyclist Setup.
2) Select the Rider inside the hierarchy > Rig Builder > Rig Layers > Assign the only rig layer available in the window.
3) Click on the check mark beside it to enable the rig layer

Adjust the rider a bit if it is jutting out / leaning out forward. Please tell us if the solution above worked for you.

 

I have tested your fbx with separate head and helmet and it is perfect for VR applications.

 

Wow, cool! After some fiddling it works, I'll need to check how make the rider position work, it's a bit forward etc. but looks like a good start, now I'm going to get to work and add to my game, cool stuff!

 

@Xpert3D ,
I made a runway of connected cubes with the scale values of x = 5, y = 0.1, z = 5
As the tires move over the seams between the cubes, the bike will pop up and can become uncontrollable. This can be exaggerated with the speed up. Because this is effectively a smooth surface, the expected result is that the bike would stay flat and not bounce around. In our game much of the level is built with flat tiles for the ground which results in this behavior. Any ideas on how to resolve this?

 

The tires have a sphere collider on them and get thrown up after detecting a box collider ledge. The problem could be due to the physics settings of the project particularly the contact offset.
You could try solutions mentioned on this page:
Sphere collider catching edges of aligned cubes

If these solutions do not work, we can try adding a very minute amount of suspension to the BMX as an alternate method. Please try out the solutions and tell us if they worked for you. In the meantime we'll see if we can arrange suspension on the BMX to get rid of this problem.

 

Thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately, the solution you linked to was written in 2013 and the "Min Penetration For Penalty" no longer exists in modern Unity, at least it doesn't in 2021.2
I tried searching the forums for similar issues and although I found quite a few, I did not find a solution that didn't feel hacky. I also tried the MTB with suspension and although the problem is reduced, it is still present and gives the feeling of a bumpy ride while on a smooth surface.