Slot car physics

Hey everyone, I have spent a lot of time working on the physics for a slot car game. It's kinda hard with unity and the inner workings aren't pretty. Anyway, I would like feedback on how the physics seem and feel to other people (since I've probably spent hours doing loops). I am actually near giving up with the project because I can't seem to get the physics responding any better and I'm not really satisfied with them myself.
Please only comment only on the physics, everything else is just for testing.

It won't take long to try it out
Controls: Press the RIGHT arrow key to go. Thats the only control
Webplayer: http://bytesoftwaretech.com/SlotCarsWebplayer.html (excuse the slow website )

Big thanks to anyone who gives me feedback

 

Had a quick go.... I actually found it really fun! What were you not satisfied with regarding the physics? I think it performed pretty damn well to be honest!

 

Ha!
Neat!

 

I'm maby a bit of a perfectionist Anyway I'm wondering what everybody thinks of the 'break' forces etc. Like at which point the car will flip off the track.
Thanks a lot for your feedback

 

It is easy to flip it but I think it is about right.... If you go flat out around the whole track it makes sense that it will flip.
It sticks to the track pretty well if you floor it up to just shy of the corner then hit it again on the way out (can slide from corner to corner and maintain speed that way)

I really like it eh! Do you have any other tracks to test it on?

 

Yea I've done a lot more work than I have released in that cheap test scene. I've actually finished multiplayer completely, but I'm considering going back and rewriting it myself with UDP sockets because of how inefficient the Unity network system seems. (I've got 1 server running many client games... Which is not the unity server model at all). Thanks for the great feedback!

 

If you are concerned about the physics side of it, it may be worth doing up a bit bigger test track including some longer straights, S bends etc (I am assuming you have set the track editing up fairly easy for yourself?)

Otherwise from the provided demo.... I would be pretty happy with it!
One thing I think would assist (if not already included) is support for partial acceleration (eg. joystick throttle etc)

 

I'm trying to make it realistic (ish) like real slot car racing (eg, it will flip easily at corners with full throttle). Im actually only a student but I loved slot car racing till my set got destroyed so I simply wanted to recreate the thrill of simple control racing with pleasing looking physics (eg the car spins out nicely).
Also I wouldn't mind your comment on one of my planned monetization strategy: Players can pay to enter a race (eg $1) and then the winner actually takes home money (say $3 for a 4 player track). Of coarse this is only one possible monetization strategies and I realize it has never been attempted before.

 

Yes, track editing is fairly simple... (Ish :/). I haven't got variable throttle, but my target platform is mobile and so I was aiming for simplicity. Also, it would have to be a screen slider on a touch screen and that's always hard to play with in my opinion.

 

Fair enough re: mobile - works very nicely as is (in my opinion)
If there is scope to include track editor (maybe for PC version) then that can create a lot more re playability (and fun to share between friends).

re: Monetization.... I actually know someone that is working on an esports gambling idea similar to what you mentioned but it comes with significant issues... eg. In your case, what happens when someone loses wifi for a moment and crashes? What if someone manages to hack your game etc.

My personal preference for mobile games is free with IAP for full uninterrupted; eg. Free with ads (not too many though!) or free for a few tracks, SP only.

 

Thanks for your feedback its extremely helpful! Yes... That monetization method might be little to ambitious for a single student dev because of hacking possibilies. Also I may get pissed off players because of lag. In my case I can only use interpolation because the car changes velocity so quickly causing extrapolation to be spastic. I will probably start off with IAP for tracks as you suggested.

I think I'll continue development now lol

 

This is very cool, I think the car could stick to the track a bit more, or lower the throttle a bit as I tended to fly out too easily (or give option to adjust throttle/power in game?), but this is a really cool idea, well done.

 

I'll create another larger test track and see how it is after that. The figure 8 is quite tight really but you may be right.

 

Feels like you are adding constant force instead of constant power.

 

I can't really understand the difference. Are you saying that it will accelerate faster and faster because I'm using constant force? (Which its actually not. The force applied changes in relation to the velocity)... Or am I not following any of this.

 

OK, it felt that way, but if your force goes as P / v - C * v^2, then I was wrong.

 

I don't even understand that math :/ I'm using an animation curve to change the force based on velocity... which is probably an amateur way to achieve that.

 

the link isn't available anymore.
may you republish the demo?

 

Well 5 years later... and I'm curious how you achieved the slot car effect. I'm trying to use real physics and my colliders (between the rails and guide peg) are breaking even though I turned up all the detection settings

 

I wouldn't use colliders to keep the car on path I would use a script and constrain the point to the path with forces, thats what I did for my Rigidbody path following script in the video below.