CRAZY KART coming soon...
There are so many great (kart) tracks out there, but no mod that even remotely replicates the gameplay of a certain game by a certain company with very zealous lawyers. This is, of course, also due to the technical limitations of AC's engine. To make this type of gameplay, specifically the power-ups, possible, I had to resort to a few tricks, because…
1. AC's AI is absolute garbage.
2. AC's AI is absolute garbage.
3. AC's AI is absolute garbage.
4. Parameters can only be applied to players and AI drivers in single-player sessions. So I needed to build a network client that works over VPN.
5. Unfortunately, AC's collision detection is not suitable for aggressive driving maneuvers like nudging and shoving.
6. A targeted reset back onto the track (rather than to the pits) is also only possible in single-player.
Consequently, I had no choice but to create my own AI. Naturally, this comes with some distinct limitations. The vehicles lack true collision physics (at best, they will swerve to avoid you, otherwise, you simply drive right through them), and they would not have any sound effects either. Therefore, I implemented a small audio engine with three presets: Kart, Car, and F1, each using a simple sample based pitch shifting technique. It’s not perfect, but it’s certainly better than having no opponent audio at all. The AI's 3D vehicle model always corresponds to the specific car you have selected for yourself means you can play with any car (not only Karts). They move a bit goofy but for now it works pretty well.
Since I had already developed an external client for "Crazy Corsa" that synchronizes data via VPN, I was able to adapt it for this project with relative "ease". As a result, the entire experience can be played cooperatively. Technically speaking, each player simply starts a singleplayer session and connects to the others via VPN. Other players will then appear just like the CPU-controlled opponents... that is, without collision physics.
The AI is intended to perform fairly on virtually every track and with every car, I naturally have to test, test, test and test some more. The entire gameplay loop is playable at this stage, the power-ups themselves work just fine -it’s the AI and overall balancing that is still going to consume a massive amount of time. Also some performance issues in Multiplayer.
The full single-player mode will be free. I expect to release the beta over the next weekend...