Games Thrash Racer - A Banger Racing / Life Sim in 80´s UK

Hello, I´ve been working on this project for some time now, this is my first public showing of it.
Here´s a video with the AI driving and racing "cleanly" (their aggressivity against other cars is turned down, they are not crashing on purpose here so far

I´m working on a site with more details of the features of the game, but here´s something;

Test Drive Eve Of Destruction/Driven To Destruction meets My Summer Car in this banger racing/destruction derby/life simulator/car building and thrashing game set up in 80´s UK.

THRASH RACER

This is my racing game project that I´m working on. You can buy used cars from a scrapyard and repair them to work enough for banger racing.
Then travel to the race track and hope it makes it through the race weekend, and either scrap what´s left or use it as parts donor for your next race car.
You can also do side jobs to earn extra money, like work a car crusher at the scrapyard.
Compete in championship for different types of vehicles, and extra side events during the race weekends.
Everything on the cars is destructible, frames bend, every part can fall off down to just a driver seat (which can also fall off), liquids leak and soak the road, mechanical parts wear and give up.
You are always in control of your character, can walk around, work on your car and under it, and climb aboard behind the steering wheel, operate buttons and seatbelts in 1st person (+ some extra outside camera modes when driving). If you happen to break or roll your car during a race, you can crawl out and run behind the safety fence.
Also, try to avoid getting hit doing that because you are also destructible, and can end up hospitalized or dead.

Driving model is aimed at realism, with support for FFB racing wheels and H-shifters, but it´s also fully playable with a keyboard with some driving helpers.
This is an early prototype, I´ve been mostly working on the AI system and the racing itself so far, it´s missing things like any graphics at all and proper sounds.

You can follow the progress of this game on Twitter too now;
https://twitter.com/ThrashRacerGame

 

Update, made the AI more aggressive. If it "sees" anyone trying to overtake, it will attemp to ram them to the wall
It´s hard to get a proper balance between mayhem and still being able to race, but it is getting there!

 

Many new updates!
I´ll list some here;
-Improved perfomance
-Physics overhaul to fix bugs with wheels and tire pressures
-Damper, spring and tire damage
-Accumulating metal fatigue to frame from smaller impacts
-Fixed steering, no more wobbling front wheels
-Solid axle and crude progressive leaf spring simulation
-Many updates for the AI
-Slightly new name

Most of these cannot be really seen here, but also a new video! Pls ignore the current "movie" tires that screech on dirt!

Oh and if you have one of these thingies, you can follow me on Twitter too now;
https://twitter.com/ThrashRacerGame

 

Hooo I love games in which one can destroy the cars. It reminds me of the first FlatOut (then they lost their way and turned to the dark side of the Force, like many) and some races in DirT.
I'm impressed with what you've done so far! When I see that big studios can't do what many gamers were expecting, I bet that it must be extremely hard to achieve for just one person.
I hope it won't only be arenas, tracks through forests etc. are very fun.

When did you start that project?
I look forward to more, that's an exciting prototype!

 

Thanks!
I started working on the base of this many years ago, originally this was a damage system for another project, but I decided to make a full game out of it. I´d say the hardest part is done already, but don´t want to jinx it.

The most difficult part was making this damage and car physics system that I haven´t seen anybody doing, and while building it I realised why no sane person would try this, but it works now. :>
The cars´ frames are made of several parts that are connected with joints, kind of a semi-softbody system,
this allows some give and flex in impacts, to have more realistic collisions, with both the enviroment and other cars, than most games (outside games utilizing real softbody physics, like BeamNG and Insane), but also allows to have bending frames from hard crashes.
In many games, collisions between cars just feel like two square boxes hitting each other.

I have a friend who´s using the same car physics package as a base (UnityCar), we both help each other figuring things, so it´s not as bad.

I´m planning several types of events, it´s not all ovals or figure 8s don´t worry


Also check out Wreckfest, it´s from the authors of the original FlatOut games.
They don´t have this good crashes tho of course

 

can u please add a 1974 Datsun 100A E10 left AND right side hand drive thx this looks amazing btw and how do you get the realistic damage?

 

I love the satsuma too : D
You probably knew that I use the same car physics base in my game as My Summer Car?

We´ll see, eventually I want to have asian cars in the game too, first ones will be UK made tho.
Mostly the bigger luxury cars as those are more durable and thus popular in banger racing, but I´d like some smaller cars in the mix too.

I explained some of my damage system a couple posts back
If you´re looking for a vertex damage script to use with your project, search around, there are many free ones too

 

i got one it lags sometimes when you crash like if something hits the bottom of car and also how do u set the car doors too open when you crash and stuff i have searched everywhere and by lag i mean it locks the game at 1 fps untill crash again but it is nice to have something and why not add a free drive mode to drive around in the city and also make a option to do left side hand drive or right lol i would love to beta test this masterpeice lol

 

This sounds like your collider might be too detailed for the damage script, try with a simpler mesh collider and see if it works maybe? Or there might be something wrong with the script?
I´m using a vertex damage script that came with the UnityCar physics package, but it seems similar to the generic ones I tested before that, and they worked. Got them somewhere from these forums a long time ago.

I´ve made the doors as separate rigidbody objects and connected them with joints to the car.

I´m planning to have free driving in the game similar to msc, it would be a fun way to get parts and cars and haul them around

 

yea um can i beta test thrash racer? could be fun

 

was wondering if this was UnityCar damage being wonk or mesh it does it with RCC too it used to be skyline till i crashed it so whats goin on here just seeing if you know @Artoodiitoo

 

Are there any adjustable values for the vertex damage script? That looks like it has the damage set too high.
I don´t remember if RCC had damage in the demo I tested.
Maybe ask it´s dev for help, or there is probbly some documentation how to set it up.

 

i got a queston how do i make doors fly open with a hinge joint thingy

 

i figured it out on the doors but most of my models have weird rotation they don't rotate like its a part the are weird but one of the default UnityCar models can i just don't know how to make doors latch and make my model rotate correctly

 

I thought my AI wasn´t racing very well, so I took a look into it.
Fixed some bugs and made new improvements, now it doensn´t panic as much anymore when being close to another car, that caused them to spread around the track before, now there can be some nice close racing in packs.
The AI also attemps to follow the optimal racing line in a corner, when it´s not blocked.

AI is driving in this video, about halfway through you can also see them trying to cope with more and more suspension damage from the hits.

The ground is a bit glitchy at times, need to fix those colliders.

I recorded this on a laptop, sorry for the rather poor fps and lag.

 

Maybe it´s rotating on the wrong axis? I´m not sure what you mean.
I use fixed joints to keep the doors shut, with some force limit that breaks it

 

no like it does not rotate like a dor it rotates inside the car wtf

 

i said that weird any way it does rotate in the correct axis but when i do rotate it goes in the circle of the rotation i did put it at pivot maybe i create pivot parents? and about car damage my mesh deforms like something squished it from above when raming a wall and some of my mesh when i tbone another car it deforms like it got hit from the inside and just looks weird thats one car thoe the others deform like something squished the front when raming it like i said before help lol what did u do to make the realistic deformation with the car damage script? and is my mesh to high poly for the car damage script becuse it does it on only one car if theres a line i have too change do help and how do u make repair not asking mutch i did try the public bool repair and setting it to true exept sometimes it will repair when i crash with no button lol u seem to not have any issue with the car damage and i want to make my doors latch shut how do i do that i want them to open when i crash and nice job on the new AI i would love to be a beta tester for this game and i do have RCC but its not as good as UnityCar lol i found UnityCar on some website called Unity asset freaks

 

Sounds like the directions in your model are incorrect in export (front/back, up/down etc.), can´t figure a better explanation. Maybe look at more tutorials, I really can´t help much. :L

I will probably have some kind of closed testing of the game when I´ll get to that stage, not sure how that will be

 

this is my mesh when deformed

 

also how did u get unitycar to work with 2019

 

Check the UnityCar thread somewhere around here, there were some instructions I think.

I did some more fixing to the AI driving logics, now they do proper close contact bumper-to-bumper racing.
I had some bug in my system that caused them to freak out and change lane when another car was nearby

 

Building a 1st person character movement system, now my person is about the size of a cat when proning, maybe need to make it a bit bigger.
Can fit under a car without even jacking it up tho.
Need to make a new video when the character controller is done

 

i tryed but i found nothing about how to fix the car damage on my mesh it only does that on some models

 

Been reworking my script system to load on command, instead of everything loading in the game start as it was for my test version.

New 1st person character system is also being implemented.

Here´s also some driving around with a really weak frame.

 

I´ve been doing some experimentation on body on frame designs,
I´m attempting to make them behave differently from the unibody structures.
Lots of chassis flex and twisting for a softer ride, also behaves bit differently in crashes.

There are no springs or shocks installed on this car here, only flexing is from the frame

 

Experimenting some more on the body on frame chassis types, I attempted to simulate body mount bushings and what happens when they wear out to the point they break.
The body has some not-supposed-to-be-there movement and rotation on the frame for the play in the bushings, and starts slamming onto it on jumps.
The limits are set pretty extreme here so I could see what was happening.
Also, forgot that I set the tire pressures to 4 bars, made for a quite bouncy ride

Also, this

 

I built a ramp to test frame rigidity.
The chassis might be a bit loose.

 

man i would love to know how to get this damage system from this like how do you rig a hood?

 

I´m still working on that, currently there are no rigged parts in this car, besides from the roof.
In this test I made some time ago I had a rigged hood, if this is what you mean?

I just rigged the bonnet model in Blender with a couple bones, and made a script that detected collisions and moved and rotated the bonnet bones based on the force of impact.

I also tried a physical rigged model, but that was way too glitchy.
If you´re asking how to get rigged models into Unity, there are tutorials for that :>

 

Sorry, I don´t have it anymore, it was made with Playmaker. Didn´t work properly either. : (


Some driving around with updated body on frame test chassis and new experimental collider system, now with some suspension too : D

https://twitter.com/ThrashRacerGame

 

I did some experimenting how stretch limos with extra physical parts in the middle cope with the physics system, so far everything seems to be going smoothly! :>

Well except it getting beached often


I tried to drive it out tho but it´s like

 

Been doing some modelling again after a while, so the character can drive properly :>

 

Body of the car getting closer to done, only needs a few more things modelled :>

 

No, sorry, I keep it private.


Here´s a feature that I´m not sure will be modelled or made with textures,
depends on the perfomance cost.
Modelled tire tread that dynamically wears out, allows visual simulation of flat spots too, by altering y and z scale

 

That's really nice keep up the good work

 

New FPS character control system in game!
So far you can walk around and jump and crawl (and fall over), next will be interaction with the cars and environments.
There is also automatic leaning forward when looking down to help with working over the engine, and on hard to reach parts.
Camera is a bit choppy since there is no smoothing on the movement yet.

 

Nice work!

 

I moved to Unity´s "new" input system, and figured out remapping controls, now supports racing wheel and pedals :>
The main controls are here, it will have separate gears to assign with all the rest as well.
Next, I´ll put a remap system for the keyboard controls too.
https://twitter.com/ThrashRacerGame/status/1509853314241994757

 

I made a little experiment during weekend to test a hex-based terrain destruction,
and HDRP lighting in Unity as a small side project :>







https://twitter.com/ThrashRacerGame/status/1533414860519874561

 

O this game gonna be a absolute banger amazing work

 

I´ve been experimenting with uneven track surfaces, height differences are exaggerated in the picture :>

 

nice i see this game is becoming better and better thats progress my man

 

Thanks :>
It is coming along, I need to invest in some new machinery tho, my poor old computer can´t handle recording videos with proper fps from the project anymore :>

 

yeah i hope you will be able to continue this lovely project looks like a fun game to play

here is something im currently working on yeah the damage system needs work im trying to make it as realistic as possible but i havent found a solution i will soon figure it out

anyway enjoy some pics of my little things and happy making car games (yes im using UnityCar and 2018.4)

 

Well, progress was slow but now it´s picking up speed again!

I made a new clean project as a base and I´m rebuilding the systems.
The old project I had been building on was really old, I had used it for all of my prototype games.
It was getting a bit confusing to work on since I had all kinds of unused crap there.

Now it´s so much easier to develop since I add only what I need to the project. No more prototyping, now it´s going for an actual game :>

Here´s a new player character system, with a wheel collider for feet!
It doesn´t look like much, but it works much better than my old one which had trouble moving around and dealing with slopes

 

Great so far, love the look. My dad used to go banger racing and I used to watch him. Great times.

 

Cool Was it with the modern cars they´re using nowadays or before?
I´m basing my game somewhere in the 1980s or 1990s perioid.
I haven´t seen banger racing live, I´ve been thinking of travelling to see it sometime.

 

1980s My dad had his own garage so no shortage of bangers. He got stuck on a tyre, flipped, all sorts!

 

Love the work your doing!, only one thing bothers me from watching the videos... Your roads have a reflective quality, roads/tar do not have a reflective quality. Just something that jumps out at me.