Evil Robot Drone Cars! :)



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New car and closeup of suspension movement




Sharing Setups and Some Network Stuff



In-game Browser Video



Skin changing video

New Vid - Car Model Import Test

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBz-9c_ymCo&fmt=22

News

I have added a few videos to youtube to show what i've been up to recently ( http://www.youtube.com/AshMcConnell )

Some progress: -

• Redone the 3d sound using OpenAL
• Network Sounds
• Much improved force feedback
• Sky
  
• Slipstreaming in network play
  
• Results are uploaded to a central server to allow stats / ranks etc.
• Achievements are available - e.g. within 1 sec of benchmark time or 100 laps at Track X
• Records are available - fastest lap / sector / with car / of all time etc etc.
  
• Drivers are notified after a race of any achievements or records they have gained / achieved
• Drivers stats page is available online - lots more to do there!
  
• Starting Lights
  
• Detect jump start and penalise
  
• Split times
• Better in-game UI
  
• An ingame advertising system is up and running, allows advertising on billboards on the track.
• A way to buy components to upgrade your car is working
• New name and logo ( http://onlineracingchampionship.com )
  

Still have a mountain of things to do, but its progressing nicely. The graphics in the videos are just for testing really (programmer art at its worst!). Hopefully when my artist gets time (he has lots of other commitments at the minute) we can start to make things look a bit nicer.

All the best,
Ash


Update

A small video to show some of the stuff I have been working on. Click through to see it in HD.

Update

Just thought i'd do a little update on my progress recently.

Networking
I have made good progress on networking, I have managed to get a master server working correctly and it is possible to host a race and the server is automatically added to the master server. The list of servers can be viewed on the client machine and they can join the race that they want.

The network smoothing has come along nicely as well, I have had 4 drivers online at a time, 3 in europe and one in South Africa with a 400 ping (thanks Anton!). It was pretty smooth for everyone and hopefully it will continue to be smooth when more players join. There are still lots of optimisation to do, but i'm pretty pleased with the results so far.

Sound
I have added initial functional sound. I haven't spent an awful lot of time on it, so its a bit rough. Its currently based on samples, but I'm hopeful that at some point the engine sounds can be fully generated according to physical parameters.

Physics
I have become more familiar with Gregor's Physics engine and built my own car up from scratch (I was previously using a car that Gregor built). I'm also using some of his Physics devices for network smoothing.

GamePlay
I now need to start and take something which is an engine and turn it into more of a simulator. There currently is no structure to the racing, network races need to be structured and synchronised, so, for example, everyone goes onto the grid at the same time and everyone gets the green light at the same time.

Lots to do :)

Lilac Lily Photography

My wife has started to take her photography a little more seriously recently and would like to develop her talents into a business. I think the shots are fantastic, but then, I am biased! Take a look at her site: - Lilac Lily Photography

Big News

I have decided to leave my job and do this thing a little more seriously. Hopefully this will mean much quicker progress, and hopefully more updates and videos on the site. I'm not sure what format the final sim will be in, but I have lots of work to do to build the engine before that is decided.

Small Video

I have been working quite hard trying to bring together several libraries to form the beginnings of a drivable sim. I am using Bullet for collision detection, Ogre for the graphics and DirectX for the input (I plan to make implement the input with a number of different libraries in order to make Sirocco cross-platform). The most important library of them all is a constraints based physics library created by my good friend Dr. Gregor Veble. It forms the bases of an accurate and stable physics engine, core to a good racing sim!

You can view the video on the preview page.

Sim Stuff

This is the Sirocco wiki, it will hopefully as much information as I can manage to get out of my stupid head.

Sirocco is my attempt to create a racing simulator which will concentrate on physics and network play. I will try and keep the site as up to date as I can, but the coding has to come first