Hello,
Now I know that probably not 1 of you has worked on a 3D driving game, but I’m not after experience, more advice/opinions.
One of the important things I’m working on at the moment is car handling, simply how the car drives, the behaviour of the car etc.
Ironically I know what I’m doing with the collision detection, which is often the trickest bit.
But I’m not sure how to go about the handling of the cars.
As you can probably imagine, realistic car physics is complex. Applying force to the wheels according to whether it’s FWD, RWD, or 4WD, the resulting forces such as the normal force, centripetal force, the friction of the tire on the road, air drag, the torque, rotational velocity, slip differential etc etc.
The thing is I’m not making a simulation. One of my favourite game genres is arcade racing games. I’m making an arcadey drift game, touge style.
I love Ridge Racer, Daytona, Burnout 3, Outrun 2 etc, so games like that are my inspiration.
I can approach this one of 2 ways. I can either implement some simplified realistic car physics, then tweak it a LOT until it feels more arcadey.
Or I can essentially make up my own car handling physics, and try to make it fun and feel somewhat like a car.
The thing is, the games I listed above, as arcadey and over the top as they are, they all feel like driving a car to an extent. Especially compared to an awful driving game like GTI club, where the handling is so rubbish and simple that it simply doesn’t feel like driving a car at all.
With the first option, the feel of the cars might be a bit too realistic for what I want, and with the second option the feel of the cars might be a bit too unlike a car, that’s why I’m not sure which one to go for.
Being the only programmer on this project, I want to get the car handling nailed asap, and the drifting mechanics.
What do you think is the better route?
Cheers,
RumbleSushi
