3DRC Racing Game Update: Loosing Perspective (HUD/GUI/Gameplay suggestions)

oXYnary

We are working on a major update to this game and should have out by December. I thought I would pass this by the community to see if anyone can think of things to do to help improve the players experience. I realize its a very limited target audience. But maybe there a few simple things we can do that someone is willing to point out that will make it slightly more accessible.

Engine wise, an older version of Garage Games TGEA is being used, so cool shaders and such are not accessible, or cant be optimized enough. Also, cant really do full 3d menus easily or intuitively. The editor is almost stuck in a webpage workflow/assest. My kingdom for flash at least.. alas..

HUD, Menu, Pit, Icons, graphics, gameplay whatever. Just be realistic with what we have to work with engine/manpower/time wise.

I will point out that the biggest change will be a more filled environmental background with objects. And optimized/improved/new cars. Feel free to chew us out over the lack or low bar of both right now. Though I want to point out, I was only picked up slightly before the current release, so only got a few items in before shipment, and only was told afterwords, that there was no object space normal maps... (all fixed and improved since then).

MP may not work as I'm not sure the master server is setup to see this older demo right now.

Anyhoo, you can get the old/released demo here: You might have to install M$ C++ 2005 redist, and if using 2k7 get the August 09 DX redist for older dx dlls not included. (Yes this will be addressed as well).


Now. the linky...

http://www.long-studios.com/fclick/fclick.php?fid=3DRCR

FLAME AWAY! PLEASE! (Surprisingly even though RC Racers are vocal about what they like for racing the real thing, they mum up with virtual).

rooster

needs pix man, too much text not enough pix

oXYnary

How can I show pix of gameplay? Sound? Feel? *Mumble* *grumble* Make me work for it. *Grumble*.

(Again to reiterate top, this is current release demo below. Not what we are working on, but I still want feedback on it)

Menu


Pit (Body Choice Locked in Demo)



MP (Locked in Demo)


Race Options



HUD


(Follow Camera)


Please try demo for better feel/feedback.
http://www.long-studios.com/fclick/fclick.php?fid=3DRCR

Skizot

mmmm torque game engine. the bane of my existence.

i have a couple small suggestions (not done downloading so just going by the pics.)

1. less orange on the menus. it's eye killing.
2. better HUD organization. it's all over the place.

i'll post a few more after i try it out.

skylebones

Awesome!

I'm a huge RC racer, I own an RC custom paint business and try to travel to all the large races across the country. As far as on-road I currently only race 1/8 GT Nitro. So I'm not too sure about electric stuff like in this demo.

A couple of things.
Skizot is right on both points. The bright orange is killing me and the HUD is pretty messy.

The front shocks are unchangeable. Every time I change it from soft it goes right back to soft.

I really like the camera. It's feels pretty smooth. Though I wish it was a bit higher. It doesn't really feel like your on a drivers stand and it can be hard to see the back straights.

Most of the big races I've been to are ROAR races. But I've never been to a race that was done by laps. It's always done by time. That's because batteries/nitro fuel only last so long. I'd like to see the races chosen by time length instead of lap number. (This would probably be wrong to most real car race fans, but it will help the game aim at it's target RC racers.)

Some of the tracks start right into a corner. They almost always start on the straight away, that way the driver has full control of the car and you don't have a huge pileup. At least give some more room on those that start right into a corner. (The screenshots above are an example of the track starting in a corner.)

Which brings me to the next point. On the ones that do start on the straight away, there is a plane blocking the view. That makes it a huge pain to see the car. It's important to get the holeshot, and it's pretty tough to avoid the out of control cars when you can't see them at the start.

I do like the fact when you pass people they seem to crash into you. If only it wasn't so in real life. People seem to have a big problem with target fixation in RC racing.

I'm still trying to figure out the setup stuff. I'm curious why you guys chose wheel degree to make the biggest impact on setup? Changing the camber and toe of a tire is usually pretty small. I know there are a lot of variables, especially with on-road. I find the biggest factor is tire choice, Then diff oil, then probably shock oil and springs, then lots of smaller stuff. They all affect each other. Did you choose wheel degree for a numerical value? I see what you doing with it. When I set the front to 8 degrees and the rear to 27 degrees the car is all over the place, when I switch those numbers it feels pretty good. I'm just curious about the setup. Obviously it would be a lot of work to add tire choices, diff setup, shock oil, etc.

I don't know if that's the kind of stuff your looking for, but I'm sure I can find some other suggestions. Once I got the car setup pretty well I could zoom around the track no problem, and it was pretty fun. I don't know how successful you'll be with the rc market, but i enjoyed it. and I'm sure some other rc racers will too. Sounds like a great project!

oXYnary

Skye, I race as well. Also, this game has already out for almost 2 years. The 1.1 update above was from last year. Im trying to see what you all hate about it to see if we are hitting/missing with the update scheduled for next month.


To the points. Skizot and Skyle

Orange: Will see what time I have left or can get boss to revamp since he did originally.
Hud: Organization: Any direct suggestions/diagrams? Right now you can place items where you want which is what I tried to show. But I still think it could be more apparent. Like auto docking (probably cant with torque).

As far as setup with toe in/options. Wasn't my decision. I was hired on afterwords. I can say, the physics engine sucks in torque which really limited what could be done.* Also, I don't know if you are able to adjust your suspension in demo. I can say, after this. We are dropping Torque. .

You can choose time. Not sure if its enabled in demo.



*Quick example: These are scaled 1:1 in Torque as the engine cant handle to smaller decimal points of scale. Which in turn effects the ability of speed, since we are dealing with scale speed. Promod can go 400+mph. Which is at the edge of what the engine can handle.

Thanks for the feedback thus far and keep it coming.

Junkie_XL

I'm digging the rendered cars in the menus.