What's The Best Way To Approach Creating A Rollercoaster VR Game?

Development Platform & Builds XR Development
,
1

I’m developing a VR game set in a VR Arcade, one of the mini games is going to be a rollercoaster simulator game.

But I’m not too sure how to approach it.

I was originally thinking about using splines, there’s some tutorial videos on YouTube how to do this.

But I also want it to have realistic physics too.

So should I use a spline and calculate the speed based on the real physics that a real life rollercoaster has, I’ve seen a few formulae on a quick Google search?

Or should I do it some other way? :thinking:

I’m also planning on allowing players to design and save their own tracks but don’t have a clue where to start with that either.

Have the player click on the map where to start using a pointer, then placing the first part of the spline there with a mesh showing the safety barriers etc. Then having a set length of track per segment, and using the other controller to select other pieces, like left and right turns etc, perhaps? :thinking:

I’ve no idea wtf I’m doing, so any help will be very much appreciated. :astonished::joy::joy::joy:

2

Hey there @thesnowdog! Welcome back to the community! Depending on how much physics you need, you can technically still use them with a bit of finesse and splines. The reason most people use splines is that they are the easiest way to define a “Track” with smooth arcs, and it’s easy to have an object follow it. If you were planning to do full physics it’ll be significantly less solid without a ton of extra work fine tuning, and still physics reacts wildly differently with differing framerates, so you wouldn’t be able to guarantee the same experience twice. What were the physic components you were planning for?

3

Was planning on having a roller coaster track, roller coaster cart and having the cart run on top of the track.

I’ve seen on a tutorial that the speed can be changed, but not too sure how to base the speed on real life physics.

The tutorial is here:

The speed here in the tutorial is uniform, it’s been a while since I had a look at roller coaster physics, I’m guessing that the speed would depend on the weight of the cart and the angle of the track. :thinking:

I might just have three coasters to choose from with differing levels of intensity, and then mess around with the speed manually as I go along until the experience in game matches the real thing in terms of feel.