Anti Gravity Racing Kit 2.2

[HadLan]

Hi, does this work in "open" worlds or only on tracks built using the spline editor ? Also from the video and demo, the width of the tracks built with the spline editor look uniform - is there a way to make some parts larger and some part narrower ?
Thanks, this looks awesome.

[Alwin]

Hi!

The vehicle does work on open terrains as well, you have to adjust the handling propertys (steering torque, thrust, stability etc.) to fit the way the environment is built.

Until now, the track editor is uniform and very basic. I will possibly make an update with a more advanced version of it. You can make parts larger and narrower by using the set start -and end scale node for each spline mesh component.

To make updates as useful as possible, as always, feedback and suggestions are very welcome. Yet great job on that!

All the best,

Alwin K

[TNTantoine]

Hey Alvin !


We bought the pack yesterday and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by its content and the ease of use of the template.

Now I have a question regarding the pawn setup, that we had a few problems with :

We want to make a 1:1 scale pancake/VR AG game where the ships have a roughly 10meters length : you mention in the docs that we should stick to the scale of the template model, which is waaay too small for our needs, but is there a way to change this without borking the physics ? We tried changing the collision sphere size and adjusting the physics values to match, but the pawn behaviour isn't as good as the base template configuration...

What kind of solution could we use ? Scaling might look weird with how small the ships are right now !


Cheers,
Antoine

[Alwin]

Hey,

It's great to hear that you like the package!

Scaling was one of the biggest challenges with the vehicle. Until now I used a ship scale of about 2 meters, simply because I wanted to stick to a default gravity of -980 to be compatible with any project. If you use a 10 meter ship, the falling speed appears 5 times slower than the template (it's very slow).

However, I recently found a solution to the scaling/gravity problem by using artificial gravity (see post #10). This is the most flexible solution yet and I will include it in the next update. Additionally, I try to implement a simple solution to scale all component parts properly.

To scale the ship correctly, you have to adjust the size of following components proportionally:

- The Sphere radius of the SphereCollision component (in the Shape dropdown)
- Vehicle and airbrake meshes
- Exhaust particle effect
- The SpringArm target arm length
- Levitation Height variable in Ship Behavior
- And of course the Track mesh

As always, make sure to make a backup of your project before applying changes to this extent.

[Dekrayzis2015]

Hi This looks awesome, I'm just curious about the flexible driving behaviour. Does the pawn attach to the spline path at high speeds and at lower speeds it somewhat gives a greater freedom of movement to hover away from the spline path ?

[Alwin]

The vehicle will not attach to the spline, you have complete freedom of movement even at higher speeds.

[Alwin]

New Update Incoming!

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AG Racing Kit (AG Physics 2.0)

After a longer inactivity I'm happy to announce a new update, which is a complete rework of the whole system. Improved vehicle dynamics, improved track system with support for procedural environments, racing manager, spline based AI and much more. Big thanks to all customers who bought this package, this would not be possible without you! The transition from a basic physics package to a complete racing kit will cause the base price raise to $79.99 - so make sure to get a copy before the update is ready. For previous customers this update is of course completely free!

The updated package will be compatible with Engine Version 4.20



Vehicle Blueprint

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New Ship Design

The probably most obvious innovation of this update is the new ship design. Thanks to Dwight Mann, who created a custom version of his 'Ilaria FK1' vehicle exclusively for this package. Make sure to follow him on Artstation for his upcoming projects:

https://www.artstation.com/dwightmann


Improved vehicle setup

Completely refined vehicle setup, targeting more realism and a better driving experience.


Improved camera and vehicle movement

Linear and angular velocity based vehicle and camera movement for the smoothest driving experience.


Racing AI

Simple, spline based AI and autopilot system included in the vehicle Blueprint.


Speed Management

You can set the top speed directly to a variable instead of finding the right drag value for your ship. Velocity and acceleration are now based on thrust force and top-speed.


Velocity Based Sideways Stabilization

The sideways counterforce is now based on the vehicle speed. It provides better cornering at higher speeds and more sliding at lower speeds, which adds to an overall more realistic driving experience.


Improved Ship Alignment

Stronger vehicle alignment the closer it is to the levitation surface. Helps to avoid the ship from running into slopes or aligning too directly when it has ground contact after a free fall.


Artificial Gravity and Speed Loss (Optional)

Gradual speed loss and additional gravity pulling towards the ground when the levitation trace is losing contact. This prevents the ship from taking off too far from the track.


Pitch Controls

For small take-offs and smooth landings, the craft has now the ability to manage it's relative pitch to the ground.


Reverse Thrust

A simple reverse gear to make the ship able to move backwards.


Smooth Airbrakes

Airbrakes can now engage gradually over time for smoother cornering.


Stasis

Airbrakes can hold the vehicle on a certain point when the vehicle is not moving. Very useful for sloped race starts to prevent the ship from sliding away.


Particle Effects

Optimized particle effects with an illuminated exhaust area. A new side airflow particle effect is visible at higher speeds for a better sense of aerodynamics.



Improved Spline Track and Procedural Environment

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Multi Spline Tracks

The new Spline Track Blueprint has the ability to use multiple Spline Meshes along one single Spline. This means you can use different track types (standard, magnetic, tunnels, special parts, etc.) with individual ranges and resolutions, different start- and end meshes


Boostpads, Checkpoints and Child Actors

Instead of placing Blueprints on the track manually, you can add them simply by specifying Spline distance and offset. They will stick to the track when you modify the spline to ensure 100% flexibility (this is a big time saver)


Procedural Environment

The Spline Track Blueprint has now the ability to spawn entire environments along the track. For each procedural object type you can specify object count, track distance, spline range, scale and rotation. On one hand this is practical for prototyping, to create appealing environments with just a few objects. On the other hand, this is especially useful for objects near the track, as they will move dynamically with the spline as you modify it – making sure no object will be placed on the track directly.



Racing Manager

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With the new Racing Manager you can set up different race types with just a few settings. It takes care of starting positions and provides real time racing data to all contenders (lap time, position, etc.) It also receives checkpoint events, start - and finish events.


Sample UI

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A simple. very basic user interface for displaying important racing information





If you still have suggestions and ideas for this package, feel free to share them right here!

[TNTantoine]

This is really awesome news, cannot wait to dive in your 2.0 package and integrate it in our project !

[Crazy Draisey]

This might be asking a bit much, but is it possible to have a Player Save Progress function and some way to create a Race Campaign out of multiple race tracks?

All the listed updates look incredible, especially Racer AI and Racing Manager. $79.99 is a steal.

[Alwin]

There will be a simple level loading function with the 2.0 update for demo purposes, however I didn't plan to add a full saving/loading player progress functionality for now. Maybe I will add this in a future update if enough people request it.

[Alwin]

Hi guys,

Yesterday I've been asked if the update is still in progress, and yes sure it is. I didn't have much time to work on it it recently since I had to move into another city and had a tight timeline. I Initially scheduled the release even before September, but that turned out to be unrealistic afterwards.

I do my best however to get it done this month. Please keep in mind that it's still a very ambitious update with lots of improvements, which also means that there is a lot of work behind it (and for me as a single developer this is a monster project). I'm really happy if there is still a bit of patience left. The majority of the new features is already tested and fully working (about 90% is finished).

The next and last step is organizing / commenting and creating a new documentation. I also planned to make a new demonstration demo, but that has to wait until the update is finished and you have access to it.

If you have any ideas or questions, feel free post them here.

Cheers,
Alwin

[Crazy Draisey]

Hey Alwin,

It's great to hear back from you! I might get some flack from the other guys and gals, but I say aim for a late November release. Get the quality of the features as high as possible and make the documentation clean. I can see AG Blueprint quickly becoming the go-to solution for a lot of budding developers once 2.0 is released, so you might as well make it perfect. =]

[Alwin]

Thanks for your understanding Crazy Draisey . There were definitely some unexpected brick walls in the past weeks and I'm happy no one already threw stones at me for those delays. For future Marketplace Assets, I will make smaller iterations in order to get more feedback on improvements.

Expect the update to be published in the coming two weeks (which includes review time from the Marketplace Staff for new content). I'm convinced that the delay will pay off when it is finished.

[Crazy Draisey]

Ooo, perfect timing. Can't wait to put it through its paces. =]

[Alwin]

The submission process will probably begin tomorrow. I worked on a little extension of the track system - this is not listed in the feature list above, but it will be included in the update.


Procedural Track Generator

A random seed based spline track generator using a concave hull algorithm. I created this to test the ship in many different circumstances without creating every new spline track by hand. This could possibly be useful for other developers too, so I thought why not including it?




Here are some quick screenshots of the new demo environment: