Really? Oh dear, then it might be another regional problem. I'll look into it as soon as I can. Changing the option setting in game might do the trick, because then it stores the value with a point instead of a comma.
To answer your question: it's not really an effect. I just made the ground 1 kilometer wide to each side.
Interesting, I have heard of issues with some geometry as far as rounding errors and whatnot when it gets to be a great size. Really only a problem in very large open world games though I think. I've thought about trying to recreate that SNES mode 7 look and make a racing game like that, but getting the driving feel down just right is the make or break of a great racing game and I think you've got that for sure.
True, when development was still in its early stages, I was stress testing the game, by just letting a bot drive for about 3600 km. After a while the road and the other cars started to shake and the bot was constantly stopping, instead of slowing down for the corner. That's why I reset the z-position after each stage. I haven't got it 100% seamless though, as you'll see the trackside objects disappear for 1 frame.
The regional problem was an issue before. I called it the lightspeed bug. I've made a file that represented a tire slip curve. Those were values between 0 and 1. The decimal sign was a comma, because I'm from Belgium. But for people from the USA for instance, who use a point instead of a comma, this was a big problem, because the game just skipped the decimal sign, multiplying the values by 100 in the process. The cars went like the speed of light. I solved it back then, but maybe this new issue is something similar.
That mode 7 game shouldn't be too hard to make! But yes, getting an engaging driving model isn't easy. Most of my driving model comes from the drivetrain and straight-line tire simulation, but also the way the car starts to understeer when you go too fast through a corner AND very importantly and the finishing touch: how the car gets slightly more grip when you release the throttle or brake very gently while steering. I got my inspiration from Super Hang-On where the same effect was pretty obvious when you rapidly toggle the turbo on and off. Without this, the driving was rather dull.
Well that's great you figured it out, that's an unusual bug, definitely something that's hard to test and catch yourself, I never would have even thought of it.
That's awesome that you have so thoroughly detailed the driving model for the game and have so many different factors playing into it. There's many racing games out there now and in the past that just don't achieve the fun factor and sheer joy of driving that Outrun captures, and what you've got going here. Sega sure made a lot of great racing games. One thing you have to be sure to add is a great game over screen, in the proud tradition of great Sega ones in Daytona, Sega Rally, etc. 😄
Yeah, haha, I couldn't wrap my head around it when that regional problem manifested for the first time. I just couldn't replicate the problem that so many people had.
I got my epiphany when I made and uploaded a log version of my game so I could compare my log file with the log file of someone else. I knew something was up when I saw that the decimal sign in my own log file was a comma and in the other one a point. I then set my system to USA settings and voila, I was able to replicate the problem on my system. The rest is history.
Yeah, I'm so glad that my game seems to hit the spot! About the game over screen: yeah, maybe I can add some dramatic voice-over to the game over message!
As a matter of fact: I'd really like to add some spoken lines to the game, especially in the car select menu. I'd like to replicate the excitement of Daytona USA2.
That sounds exactly like my experience with debugging anything, feeling around the edges and weird output of a problem until you suddenly piece together what's going wrong with it in your mind.
Yeah some radio chatter might add a little bit of flavor to the game for sure. Daytona USA is great and I haven't played Daytona USA 2 that much but it seems fun as well. Have only toyed with it in emulation, where it's kind of a broken mess. I really wish Sega would rerelease that. Or make a racing compilation with Outrun, Turbo Outrun, Outrunners and Outrun 2 on it. But I think they lost the Ferrari license which complicates things.
Daytona and Virtua Racing kinda make me want to make a low res polygon racer too haha. But there are a couple of those out there already.
