Moonrats - Gen2 Racer WIP

[planetX]

Hi there,

I started this project long time ago, back in 2008, while I was learning game development... it was an enormous project since the very beginning, but still wanted to accept the challenge. Had several tries before it started to get consistent, and I almost reach the end... but due to a messy life and the fact that the engine I was using was discontinued in 2011, I never could finish it.

But one year ago I discovered Skyline and decided to start it again... Even in its early state, Skyline seemed to be the perfect candidate for this job and my poor programming knowledge. So I had a try and definitely can confirm that there's no better choice out there. This shit is really good.

These are the posts of the progress so far:

GUI: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1937
RACE: viewtopic.php?f=51&t=1782

And here the latest videos:





I will continue in this thread with further questions, bug reports and the common stupidities, as well the latest updates.

Now I have the feeling that there's no way back.

Cheers

[SolarPortal]

Nice one @PlanetX, nice to see it all in one place which just makes it look that more better

Now I have the feeling that there's no way back.

you bet... This game is going to be awesome

[StarFire]

Yes looks great on it own thread, excited to see the full game

Now I have the feeling that there's no way back.

Its real now lol

[SolarPortal]

I'm not sure if you mentioned this with your project that when in an end game with vehicles. they contained the wrong orientation when starting the game. This has been fixed for the next version

[planetX]

Hi SP, glad to see you back...

For some reason I'm totally unable to export an endgame with Gen2. Never had those rotation problems with the Gen1 though.

You said you got this race exported, can I have it too? I'm always getting errors and the endgame crashes, but maybe I'm doing something wrong. Not sure if you had to change the code to make it run... did you?

I've also tried to export very simple scenes but it always crashes. Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers

[StarFire]

Yes there has been some code changes to fix the end game issues. These are in the next update, just trying to get a few other fixes in prior to release.

[SolarPortal]

We have fixed a few issues with the exporter.

Warnings on export can generally be ignored, unless a mesh thats loaded in the scene is the wrong one.. but most of the time, this is ok.

As for Errors, these generally need sorted, but still, sometimes that game will work fine... they are more of a guideline to help debug what issues there might be..

I haven't exported your game in a while, so will have to give that a go today and make sure it does what it should, we were testing the vehicles on the new racetrack game template...

[planetX]

Hi, I'm trying to build a scripted vehicle but I'm having problems with the wheels. I can't adjust the radius, seems like the vehicle.setWheelRadius() function doesn't work. Any clue?

[SolarPortal]

hmm, should work lol

Vehicle parameters when scripted should always go before the generate of the vehicle physics mesh as they wont do anything after the create.

If it doesnt work before that, then there may be an issue that needs fixed. Havent done a scripted vehicle since gen1 lol

[planetX]

Tried with the "Bkc_NeoCharger.lua" script, it doesn't work.

[SolarPortal]

ok, thanks for reporting
Could you add a ticket for your issues to the support site please

[SolarPortal]

Vehicle is fixed, it was a validity check but the wheels were not created yet so it failed.
Now the script is working again

[planetX]

Again, thanks for having a look at this.

BTW I have a question: What's the best way to create a scripted car? What I did so far is to add a mesh to the editor, add the script to it and make a preset, so I can spawn the preset wherever I want. But from the script I'm spawning another preset for the cam, so it would be a preset inside another preset. Is that a valid approach? I think I'm doing something wrong because it crashes quite often. I'm also having problems trying to get the position of the original mesh(not the vehicle) from that script, as sometimes the console says the ID of the object I'm getting the position doesn't exist.

Not sure if I'm explaining the issue properly. The idea is to have a reference mesh for the preset (that is a static car mesh), add an external script to the mesh to create the scripted vehicle, spawning the vehicle where the reference mesh is, together with the cam and all the stuff the vehicle needs, so the preset is just the reference mesh with the external script linked to it.

I think the example script is made to be added to the Scene script, correct me if I'm wrong.

[SolarPortal]

From what i understand, i don't see why this wouldn't work for you..
If you find a guaranteed crash, then create a simple demo with the assets and sling it over We can then find the fault of the crash, but presets are just entities like everything else once spawned apart from they are dynamic if done at runtime.
So spawning a different preset would be the same as the first etc..
I hope this makes sense but it should not crash..

I think the example script is made to be added to the Scene script, correct me if I'm wrong.

nah, mine is working from a microscript.. havent tested external scripts though.

[planetX]

If you say it should work, then I'm doing something wrong.

[SolarPortal]

yeah, it should work, but not closed to there being a potential bug or error. Let us know how you get on with it and we will help any way we can

[planetX]

Hi there,

I've been working in a scripted car solution in the last weeks, it turned out pretty cool but the cameras were lagging so I went back to the Action based vehicle, which runs way smoother. So I have a couple of Qs...

Q) Is there any way to setup a different radius in front and back wheels? The .car file only allows one radius. I'm trying to do it by script but it doesn't work.

Q) Can I manage the built-in cameras from the .car file by a script? Let's say I have a camera in the scene, then I want to switch to the built-in camera and so on.

[planetX]

Also found that sounds and particles are not working in the end-game.

[SolarPortal]

cameras attached to the vehicle will always be smoother than cameras following.

i thought the lua command let you change the wheel radius lol..

The cameras built into the car file are just cameras that are attached to the vehicles body instead of a tracking cam. Try attaching one in the scene or by script.

Thanks for the headsup with the end game, will look into when possible

[planetX]

i thought the lua command let you change the wheel radius lol..

It works with the scripted car, but not with the action vehicle.

Try attaching one in the scene or by script.

I've tried to implement my own cameras, but they are shaking... If I add a camera to the scene, I can set it active... but how can I deactivate it to get back to the built in camera?

Thanks!

[SolarPortal]

Code: Select all

camera.setActiveCamera(-1);

Is the camera updating before the vehicle or after, as it should update after its moved to work with the correct positions.
the vehicle library has some of the camera controls, have you looked in there and use that and the camera class to say which one is which?

As for the radius, this should not be a complex task, once i have some free time; shall look into it
Currently reinstalling windows and my software due to new hardware so cant do much atm lol

[planetX]

Code: Select all

camera.setActiveCamera(-1);

If I use that function to deactivate the scene cam, the buil-in cameras get crazy.

the vehicle library has some of the camera controls

Couldn't find anything...

[planetX]

Ok, I think I found a workaround... to switch from scene cameras to buil-in cameras I just use:

Code: Select all

vehicle.setAsPlayer(VehID, 1 or 0)

[planetX]

Finally could manage the camera sequence from the intro to the race start. I've uploaded two videos showing both the editor and the endgame. The endgame makes weird things with the invisible mesh following the path, as you can see in the second video.

[SolarPortal]

Great to see the intro camera's.
I see what you mean with the car camera jumping a bit

and as for the end game, certainly a strange one lol.. there is still lots to do in that... we will have to set a higher priority on the end game tasks. Will make it priority as with the scene management once the eco system tool is done

If I use that function to deactivate the scene cam, the buil-in cameras get crazy.

ahh, well that shouldnt happen... thanks for bringing all these issues to the front for us.