itch.io

With this tutorial, only one "bristle" is being simulated. Casting a sphere provides the rounded shape, but there is only one tire calculation per collision, trading accuracy for efficiency.

Thanks for your comment!

Hello Kola4z,

Thank you for the message! The past couple years have been a journey for me, in terms of learning new skills and practicing programming. Despite challenges & setbacks, I am committed to developing a sim game, whatever it takes.

I've been having a very rough month in my personal life, actually! Your message arrived at a good time. It helps my determination.

I am grateful for your support.

Wolfe

I'm trying to make games, so my bookmark ended up being my own page. From there, I can click on "Dashboard" (so long as my login is valid), and from there, "Browse" appears. Which takes me to the /games URL.

I tried to avoid what was most-promoted by avoiding what would be "featured" on the naked page. Not to sound like a hipster. Algorithms tend to feed me the opposite of what I want, because reasons.

Thank you. That is the best evidence that the recommendation section is well hidden and people do not even know it.

You're welcome that I figured as much. 😁

If itch.io/games is no better than a blank logged-out homepage for YouTube.com 🤮, I will certainly take your suggestions to heart. Thank you

...Suffice to say, one way or another, Itch.io has serious service problems for its non-horror-game-fan users, and it's an open secret.

I pray it hasn't tainted Itch's image forever, because I really like the platform and wish it gave Steam more of a run for its money.

In other words, are you flooded by ugly horror titles in your recommended section on Itch?

...what even is that? I'm looking at the whole itch.io/games page and I see nothing that says "recommendations". *

I don't even have much of a download history on Itch.io per se, because it's so hard to find anything of interest; and I'm not young anymore, so I don't need to browse for free games amidst such an overwhelming pile of horror. I end up looking for games on Steam, although I have no particular affinity for Valve or the platform. (I like Itch better, except for the platter of games served.)

Except it would be nice to be able to find more nice free games that aren't just YouTuber bait.

* - I don't want a hyper-aggressive algorithm trying to feed me anyway. I want open-ended exploration, without just one thing filling every page. Algorithms are way too target-fixated.

There are only so many times I can scroll past that damned ultra-wide-eyed baby or some pale-faced grimace before deciding it's not worth the repeated mild aggravations to browse anymore. I am neurodivergent, so I know it's a drag for some other users out there.

I've suggested an actionable solution that doesn't really inconvenience anyone, unless you think a profile setting is a huge barrier to anyone seeking content, and the NSFW profile setting is unfair to NSFW devs...? People have been begging for solutions to this horror game problem for years.

All the horror is objectionable. Not because the mere sight of it frightens, but because the tiles are ugly. It's not much different than not wanting to scroll over NSFW games. It's hardly unfair, considering it won't slow any fans down. NSFW games do fine.

I've never had such a problem with horror games on Steam, no matter how or where I browse it.

I tried searching for an active thread about this ages-old topic and found it locked. I am grateful for the service Itch.io provides to developers, but the game results algorithm's monotonous promotion of horror games, even for otherwise-unrelated tags (like "simulation"), is really bad.

I just want to browse a variety of games without needing to exclude anything. Why must a default page be a wall of horror games? Why can't you get away from them without excluding them? Why can't horror fans search for games with a tag, instead? Then everyone would win; it's less work for them than for the rest of us. You have the tech to hide NSFW games; why not hide horror games unless a user wants them? Horror games are not all-ages- or all-audiences-appropriate either. Then, users who are looking for something non-specific besides a NSFW game, horror game, or visual novel could simply exclude VNs.

Obviously, I'm hardly alone in being frustrated with this poor outcome of Itch.io's algorithm and relationship with other social media. The saturation is truly extraordinary. Is there really no interest in doing anything about it? So many tiles of wacky/creepy faces in the results pages are like turbocharged YouTube thumbnails. Horror games are an irritant; I don't think there would be quite the same complaints if Itch.io's results were dominated by regular 2D pixel art platformers, instead.

The subgenre of "horror game pretending to be something innocent" makes the game results that much worse.

(NOTE: Please keep it civil so that this dialogue can remain open.)

Sorry it's late, but I wrote about the solution now:

https://lupine-vidya.itch.io/gdsim/devlog/677607/tires-at-rest-a-deceptive-solut...

Sorry it's late, but I wrote about stopping the sliding on slopes, as promised.

https://lupine-vidya.itch.io/gdsim/devlog/677607/tires-at-rest-a-deceptive-solut...

Sure, go for it! I'm flattered.

Ystävällisin terveisin,
Wolfe

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention; for Godot 4, you should try the Godot Jolt physics addon. That might help your problem by itself.

It sounds like everything might be working as expected -- this type of equation for tire forces is undefined when a wheel is at rest, because it is defined by slip/deformation. Under this model, a relaxed tire never really rests; it oscillates between gripping one way and another.

I recommend a minimum physics tick rate of 120Hz to mitigate the inherent error. Shorter intervals are better, at the expense of CPU. Then...hiding/clamping the fidgeting by brute force. The latter is a programmer's art. I owe a devlog to explain how I've addressed that problem, by request.

The cars and tracks in this prototype will be left as they are. I have adapted the simulation fresh to Godot 4 for improvements.

The way the checkpoint system works, the car is intended to point at the first checkpoint at the start (brightest gray/white). That didn't work as expected either, because the start/finish position was the wrong size/color. I cleaned that spot up and added one checkpoint to orient the car. 👍

Hello! Yes, you can keep a collection of setups there. There are some instructions in the files. If you modified a file, to get the default values back, simply rename/delete the modified file. When the game does not find the original file, it will create a new one. :)

I'm glad you're enjoying it!

That would be lovely, especially if you include an attribution! Go for it.👍

Thank you for the detailed report. Unfortunately, it appears Godot Engine 3.3.2 will not run on your PC without updates.

By the way, don't let GDSim's graphics fool you; it will not run well on an older PC. I am working hard to improve that aspect for next time. However, you will probably still need software updates to play. 🙂

In the future I will try to suggest suitable minimum requirements. 👍

Right, I am aware of this.

Unfortunately, because I am not an Apple developer, I cannot properly sign the app. I also do not have Mac hardware for testing or proper support. For GDSim, you may use the following instructions.

Because of this, I have decided not to export to MacOS in the future. Sorry!

https://www.howtogeek.com/803598/app-is-damaged-and-cant-be-opened/

You can try just about anything you can imagine; how it looks and feels depends on how you tune it and animate it. Maybe a sliding capsule shape is what will work for you.

An accurate bike sim that is fun to play is going to be a very steep challenge. I recommend abstracting the idea and making something arcade-style in design, but with realistic performance. Otherwise, it will be very difficult to prevent the bike from being erratic and difficult to control.

Which kind of implementation you use depends on how you want the bike to feel. Maybe a rolling sphere 🙂:

https://kidscancode.org/godot_recipes/3.x/3d/3d_sphere_car/

Thanks! I have been investigating how I can make a bigger game by myself. 👍 And networking, so maybe I wouldn't have to. 👀

I wrote a thread for GTPlanet that shares much of what went into making GDSim:

https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/396400/

You can also check out Dechode's advanced vehicle controller, which used my GTP thread as a resource:

https://github.com/Dechode/Godot-Advanced-Vehicle

It's hardcoded and equates to about twice the speed you reached with the BJT.

I could make it anything I want, but whatever it is ought to be beyond reach.

Zero doubt it could. I just haven't released anything yet with a car more powerful than the one I know you're talking about. :)

Technically the wheels are limited to +/- 500.0 radians per second of rotation, just to keep the values from exploding to infinity in case anything goes wrong.

Thanks! 😊

I am driven by the desire to play something that doesn't exist; an unscratched itch I've had for years, inspired by games I grew up with. It's plain determination, and feedback like yours means a lot. 🙏

Thanks!

Sure, I can post a devlog about the new approach. Part of it is kind of finicky, but the solution for sliding on slopes is adaptable and I can gladly share the fix.

Sorry, I won't be making GDSim open source. I recommend checking out Dechode's open source Godot Advanced Vehicle project instead, which was developed with the help of resources I once provided.

Thank you! :)

Thank you for the kind words!

My development time since the last devlog has been consumed learning how to do things better, faster, and bigger. I intend to post an update this week on what I'm doing and the gist of what I'm planning.

Unfortunately, the game engine I am learning does not yet offer proper force feedback wheel support. The device should still be recognized, but there is no FFB and some buttons may not register (making H-shifting unavailable yet).

Be sure to adjust the control settings for wheel input, as they are set up for an analog stick by default. Recommended:

Steer Rate = 1.0

Self Align = 0.0

Speed Assist = 0.0

Steer Curve = 0.0

It's not open source, but I wrote about how it's made here, with links to resources.

Ah, yes. I set the keyboard driving controls to be player 2 by default, so split screen racing could be ready to go out of the box. Glad you figured it out!

Let's get the straightforward question out of the way first. :)  Did you shift into gear?

I will do what I can. You can improve the framerate with options in the "Display" panel -- changing the resolution scaling ("3D Scale") helps a lot. It makes the game low-res without affecting the HUD.

Thanks! :)  The plan is to take what I've learned here and eventually invest it into a fresh project with a larger scope.

Sure! It does not have to be this formal, as I have shared a thread with an outline of the simulation setup and some source code, as well as resources I've used. :)  This is the link I sent to Bram.

https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/396400/

Hi! I have sent an email.

Thank you very much! :)  What I would like to do is develop a template based on GDSim, like Saitodepaula did for TrackMaster. I just haven't been sure of the best way to go about it, given the level of complexity.

I have actually been working up towards messaging Bastiaan Olij about this, since he has a clear interest in this stuff. I'm curious what he would think. However, I can see he's been a busy guy lately, and I wasn't sure it would be appropriate to contact him while I've got a clip submitted for the 2021 showreel.

Sure. :)  I would like to, once I work out a kink I ran into the last time I tried to export one. We do have a Mac handy for me to figure it out.