iRDS - Intelligent Race Driver System Available on Asset Store

Hi huxley!,

For capture the flag mode to work, you just need to create a prefab of the object that is going to be the flag.
Then tag it as flag (you need to create this tag on the tag and layer manager) and then just go to the levelload and assign this prefab in the flag object field when you select capture the flag mode, the system does the rest.

This mode, makes the AI cars try to get the flag, and would pursuit the car that haves it, this mode is still based on a circuit race, so the car would also try to follow the track path. The one that haves the flag and completes the laps wins.

Rhod,

 

OK, that sounds great. I do have a few questions. After a car triggers the flag (either player or AI) and holds the flag, is there be any way that the flag can be dropped and the flag can then be picked up again by another car?

If so, what are the circumstances that must be met for a dropped flag, such as, does simple contact with the car that holds the flag result in dropping the flag?

Is there any way to add multiple flags? I.E. flag #1 has been returned (to start), but I would like to end the game after a score of 3 has been reached by one team/player. It would be nice if I could add 3 different prefabs and place them at different locations along the circuit for this.

Is there any indication which car holds the flag, so I can target that car?

Does capture the flag work for point to point racing?

Sorry if these are too simple questions, I'm just trying to understand all the possible elements for a capture the flag type game design.

 

Hello. Just aquired the system. I've been following the developement since it was released but never had the time to jump in. Now I do. I'm sure I'm gonna enjoy.

 

Hi Pulov!

Thanks and welcome to iRDS!

 

Hi huxley,

here are the answers to your questions:

As the feature is right now, the flag once its taken by a car, it can't be dropped, it just can be taken by another car from the car that actually have it.

By hitting the car with the flag, the car that hits gets the flag.

Currently there could be just one flag, we could add a feature like this in a future update, but this sounds more like a kind f check point based race, maybe?

Yes, the car that holds the flag, have the F in front of its name on the standings, also in the class IRDSCarControllerAI is a bool named haveTheFlag which turns true when a car have the flag.

If point to point means sprint races, yes, you can setup your track as sprint and use the capture the flag mode, with 1 lap only.

Is totally ok, you can ask whatever you need to, no problem at all.

Rhod,

 

Great Rhod,

Sounds like a full new game system to play around with, thanks for the complete info.

 

Hi Guys!
We have placed on the asset store (still pending review) a new version that fully supports placing waypoints in upside-down surfaces like loops and twist (We used TrackBuildR demo scene for testing).

Check out this little quick demo we made from the TrackBuildR demo scene.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/96912966/TrackBuildRWebPlayer/WebPlayer.html

Rhod,

 

Does this mean that no longer is needed to enter the hill radius?

 

Hi Pulov,

The hill radius would still be needed to be put manually for the loops, (you may want to set that to a pretty high value like 1000, so the AI can make the loop) but you can select multiple raceline points and set that at once, since in the case of the loops and the twists, you want to go as fast as possible to be able to make it.

All the other corners and straights of the track are calculated automatically by the system, and you can always adjust manually using the hill radius.

Rhod,

 

Hi Guys,

The new version which support loops and twists is not yet live on the asset store, if you bought the package and want that version, please send me a PM or an email with your invoice number and we would send it directly to you.

Rhod,

 

Does the new version use TrackBuildR data to place waypoints?

 

Hi Derkoi,

Not yet, we are going to contact TrackBuildR developer to see the way to do that.

Rhod,

 

Hi Guys!

Here is the link to the WIP thread for the traffic system, so you can follow up the development and we can hear your feedback too!

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/its-intelligent-traffic-system-wip.259357/#post-1714094

Rhod,

 

Hello.

Firt time I tested on unity th IRDS package I found that the sample scenes where running at a very low FPS except for the mobile scene that did run super smoothly.

I did not pay much attention because I was only messing around. Now I've done an small test to get familiar with the system and the issue is still here.

I made this test scenario:

The video was avout 20 FPs

With Edy physycs and no AI I get about 300FPS.

With a single AI car I get about 150fps
With two AI cars 50 FPS etc..

So the impact is very high. This is strange because I did try the demos several months ago and with a lot of cars the system goes SUPER smoothly in my pc. Also it is strange that the mobile versions works so smooth. I've a powerfull pc also so dont think it is a hardware issue.

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Another issue is that I tried to use edy physycs with no luck.

I riged a car with edy physycs witch worked perfectly on its system.

I added the IRDS scripts using the menu tool. And checked the tickmark that tells irds that this is an external package physycs. When the AI or I use this car for player it does not work, it stais in position.

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Other smaller issue I found is that with preload cars option it takes a photo of the car assets at the moment you first set this option and does not refresh because I deleted the celica GT4 and it is still present even if I reboot unity, so, some times when AI assings this car this slots are empty.


I might be missing something even if I did read the full documentation but that was some weeks ago in a train.
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Unity 4.5.0f6
Win 7 64 bits.

 

Hi Pulov!

Thanks for your comments!, here are the answers to your concerns:

In this case, we detected a few weeks ago a drop on performance due to some modifications we did to the IRDSSoundController class, we have fixed this issue (which indeed caused a really high drop in FPS like you have noticed in your test) this new version is up on the asset for about a week, please download the latest version and try it out, you would notice that this drop you have experienced is now fixed.

In this case maybe you probably missed the other scripts needed for Edy's physics to work, they are on a rar file in the Other Physics AI folder the name of the file is ExternalPhysicsScripts.rar, extract from there the Edy's folder only, since you want to use Edy's physics, if you are going to use UnityCar then extract only the UnityCar folder, then you need to use the "GameObject/iRDS/Vehicle/Edy's Vehicle Physics/Add AI Controller Scripts to Selected Car" option which would add all the needed scripts to the Edy's rigged car.

The preload cars option, is intended to be refreshed manually on the levelload object at editor mode, it was made to overcome an unity issue when loading a lot of resources, the idea is that when you have all your cars in the resources folder, you go to the levelload and do the preload cars, this creates an array made of 1 string list and 3 bools, the string holds the cars names and path and the bools is for turning them on and off per folder, so you can, at runtime, disable or enable the folders the system can use for the AI and player, which is useful for games using car Tiers, i.e.. This option we can't make it auto refresh because it uses (in editor mode) the system class IO which is not compatible with certain platforms, so we avoid using it at runtime to avoid incompatibilities. Also you have the option to not use the preload cars option, and in this case you can change your cars folders anytime and the system would always load them as they are without needing any manual intervention.

Let us know if this have helped on solving those issues.

Thanks again for your comments, and we are always glad to answer any questions,

Rhod,

 

Hello again.

What a difference!. now it runs smoothly with a number of cars.

8 cars eat about 100-150 FPS drop and it runs super good.

I've been tweaking the AI parameters to observe different behaviors and I'm having lots of fun. The behavior now is much much beter.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Things:

Please add a checkbox to disable the raceline to be rendered.

Auto process all data tracks when presing play would be also welcome.

---------------------------
Regarding preload paths. I did not realice that that thing was a button!!. no issue at all, just press it .

If a car loses its track because the AI params are too agresive. It usually get too mad, I think that if it gets further than n meters it should be respawn or disclasified because it goes runing randomly .

When cars get obstructed they pull back in a very crazy maner. They back up like 70meters at full reverse speed, it is a bit too odd, a couple of meters, just enough to avoid the obstructiion would be enough.


In editor, sometimes I feel that the raceline needs like some handles to reduce the tension of the curve, specially in tight corners. It would be a good feature to have som bezier handler like icons visible on demand to tweak the curve.

I saw that the idea for calling the scene is very track oriented, in my case I'm building a BIG scenario where the races will take place I think that for proect like mine it would be interesting to be able to save to a file the track data and call it depending on the race, loading level parameters params such as specific props.

For the future, I would love to see a Replay feature.

It is impresive how in a day I've a so good looking tech demo. Now I'm very tired and I'm leaving but tomorrow will try to focus on smoothing steering behavior because still I can see very strong quick turnings to correct the path. May not just be AI tuning but also centerline and track limits related, dunno atm.

Regarding the physycs I've to say that they look very good when driven by the AI and always I tried to control myself they feel not good as it is almost impossible to play with them, this is because i'm also interested in edy physycs, because they drive very good, also, with the next update the edy physycs will become a super powerfull car physycs solution. I'll try the wheel and the xbox and see how they feel anyway.

This is the best asset I've bought to date.!

 

Hi Pulov!

Thanks for your comments!, we put all in on this, and we are going to get it even better! and even more with all your really appreciated feedback.

Yep, this was the sound class that was giving some trouble.

This for sure we are going to add it, is really simple feature to add, you can for now disable it manually, just by selecting the RaceLineRender object and disabling it.

This was how it was in really old versions, this caused a lot of delay on the start of the play mode, since that we decided to better keep this away from running it before starting the play mode, or at runtime.

No problem at all, maybe we should make that button not to be of the size of the width of the inspector window. lol

Yep, that is a good idea, and you can even easily add this, maybe using colliders that when the cars enters them you call the FlipCar() method on the IRDSCarControllerAI class of that car, that would make that specific car to respawn, but yep, definitively we can add an option for that (writing it down ).

Yep, we have though about it, maybe we could add a parameter for some distance to set this up better.

Yep, agree, at some point maybe it would be a good idea to make them work as bezier curves, right now they are splines. We would look into it.

We need to take a deeper look into it, since how it was conceived is for having the waypoints in there, but this one sounds like something we need to go for it.

This is coming up, for sure.

Yep, you can tweak that out.

We have been working on the physics, we know we still have a lot of things to do there, but for sure you can have better handling by adjusting some parameters, primarily on the Tire settings.

Thanks! and we really appreciate all the feedback!

Rhod,

 

Hello Again.

Yeah, the collider thing is a great idea.

Hey , I've came a cross with a very easy way to have tracks for same scenario! without coding!!

It is as easy as creating a folder , lets say "tracks" and inside "track 01" or whatever and simply prefab the IRDSMANAGER into there!! (takes a while prefabing, thought unity had freezed). Delete from project, drag it back and it works!!. So, from the game menu would be enough to call the scene, the IRDS Manager, Level Load + Specific prop prefab such as track fencing of each track.


I would sugest just a modification regarding this.
It is that you dont really want to tweak the Car gauges GUI and the stats GUI for all the tracks specifically despite the track layout map, so I would leave it like now just it case it is necesary for an specific track or simply fo users that like it that way and would add a checkbox at top that allows to override the config if a GUI config objet is present, so it would be necesary a new object that has the same GUI options and it would be called among with the IRDS Manager Level load and props... I think it makes more sense because the IRDS Manager now packs Track creation/mod tools and GUI settings and Level Load is like Track and AI settings. By doing so it would be like

IRDS Manager : Track generation/modifications tools. (plus optional specific GUI?)
Level Load: Track and AI settings
IRDS GUI: all teh GUI stuff.

This way you could have prefabed the GUI stuff whitch is very likely to prevaill for all the stages of the game. Further, you could have a GUI prefab for different race modes and would be more manageable as would be just a prefab for each mode instead of having the GUI inserted in the Manager for each race (not race type but race).

 

Small detail:

If you clear all track data the waitpoint numbering does not reset and continues using the last higher waipoint from previous data. Still works.


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Forgot to coment, I had tried to kill the raceline disabling the mesh renderer but does not work! its crazy but this is how it is. I simply removed the texture and whell, improves. Also by doing so I can see better the line shadding whitch I really dont like at all. It really feels as it was not working properly with these random like red highlights. The race line in the editor with these smooth gradings from green to red looks much better, it should look like this but with animated grading acording to speed. Whatever, I hate race lines I will enable them only in training mode .
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I'me really liking te prefabing of the manager and level load etc. It works great, just drag and drop and the new track layout is loaded, modify it and just apply changes and its saved. I think its a very nice solution!

 

@Pulov Loving your AI aggressiveness on those videos, care to share the settings you used or a few pointers please?

@rhodnius - Could we have a car tuning tutorial please? I can't seem to tune my car to get the feel I'd like, or an F1 car.

 

Hi Pulov!

Great suggestions!

Ill take a look since the GUI stuff is already on other class so it is something easily doable.

Rhod,

 

Yep we need to add that to the clearing process, thanks for the feedback!

For the racing line you need to disable the game object called RaceLineRenderer, disable that entire objet and the race line wont show anymore in runtime.

Great you love the prefabs as an optional way to use it, also you can use one single levelload on the entire project check the demo1 to see how it works.

Rhod,

 

Yeah we can do that, in your case is it for an specific car part? Engine?

Rhod,

 

Thanks, it's pretty much for everything really. I try to make the car faster and it makes it handle terrible etc,

 

Thanks for the information.

Is there a source code option for this product?

 

Derkoi.
find attached the AI used for the vids, not sure whitch one it is.

http://postimg.org/image/q22blm5ex/
http://postimg.org/image/hu0e0mdih/


RHODNIUS! Important feature missing, regarding AI:

At first I thought that min-max values where a range where each car did move along the course, but later on, after testing several times with many cars on track I realized that this min-max values are the range withing the cars AI is set for each car randomly. So if there ar 4 params with min-max a number of combinations are possible and one of these combinations is applied to each car.

So, in a couple of times I've seen something close to the AI of my dreams, I could see it but it was going to go forever as it was a combination of values withing a range of different params. It is a very neccesary script the one that will allow you to attach to a camera to enable viewing the AI values of the selected car. Ideally allow to save them to a TXT but hey, I can note them by hand

May be the idea of the txt could be implemented in the future and would help AI sharing or creating a database of differents AI types. It could also ease assigning a certain type of AI to a certain car.... but displaying params in screen during AI tuning would be super duper.

I go on vacation!! I do know now that when coming back I've a great Ai system waiting !!

Bye!

 

Hi derkoi,

We'll do those tutorials or at least for the beginning a short explanation of them in a spot in our Forum at www.dagagames.com so you could read it from there, then we would create the tutorials.

Rhod,

 

Hi longroadhwy, currently there is not source code option, but we can tell you that the API is very flexible and code to customize it can be write outside of it, or if you need something special you can always contact us to josegarrido@dagagames.com so we can find a way to help you out or make a deal.

Rhod,

 

Hi Pulov!

Yeah that is something we could also implement pretty easily, just take into account that for the current car, there is no max and min values, just the current value as you mentioned, those min and max are for randomly assigning them at start, also saving those to txt is something fair easy we can implement, but only to be used at editor mode, since there are some classes to access files that are not the same for all platforms, or we could also implement a platform dependent code, in plain text scripts and not inside the dlls.

good idea!

Rhod,

 

Hi Guys,

We are currently working on some performance improvements on the IRDSWheel class and all the physics side of iRDS, so the physics of the tire are more inexpensive to the CPU, this for sure should make games run smoother, also you could tweak more easily the tire behavior.

Rhod,

 

Sounds Good

 

hey , IM getting some errors when playing the Mobile Scene . I have made a game using IRDS will launch soon hopefull in a few days.

UnityException: Input Axis Vertical2 is not setup.
To change the input settings use: Edit -> Project Settings -> Input
IRDSPlayerControls.carControllerAnalogueInput ()
IRDSPlayerControls.Update ()

Initially it was vertical1 and some other erros I added Vertical1 to test if it works. The other errors are gone now it shows Vertical2 Error.
What can it be how to fix it ?

 

Hi Sam K,

Thanks for your purchase,

The message you are getting on the console is a warning from unity that is saying that the input Vertical2 does not exist on your unity input manager, just add it to the input manager and set it there.

Also please kindly send your invoice number on a PM or by email to josegarrido@dagagames.com to register your purchase and for support.

Rhod,

 

Hi Guys!

We have just uploaded the API Doc for iRDS, here is the link:

API Doc

It would be on our web page www.dagagames.com on the iRDS Section and on the Main Menu.

Rhod,

 

Hi Guys!

You can also access the API documentation with this short link: irdsapi.dagagames.com

Rhod,

 

Hi Guys, we want your opinion about this, we are thinking on going full support on the new GUI system from unity, this would mean that we wont be able to support prior Unity versions to the version that supports the GUI Unity system which is V4.6. What you think about it?

you can vote for it on this link:

Poll votes link

Rhod,

 

Oh and I'm all for the new GuI especially if that means the steering wheel could be locked in a location

 

I have been meaning to ask you about support for the new GUI
Sounds good to me Rhod!

 

what would the benefits be?

 

Well, would have the benefits that comes with the new GUI system from Unity, and we are thinking on making it more easily to customize, something more like you can create your GUI from scratch (design) and assign on some inspector field the GUI elements you want to show stuff, like lets say the current gear of the car, that way you could make it look like you want, and have iRDS just pass the values to the necessary elements to show the corresponding info.

Any ideas are welcome!. The idea is to make that part of our system really easy to use and highly customizable.

Rhod,

 

Yep, we think that too, that this should to be the way to go, just want your feedback guys too, so we can build something handy for you!

Rhod,

 

Also guys, we have been thinking on a way that we could make the cars settings values shareable between all of us or our own projects, one way we were thinking about was using scriptableObject and saving them as assets (this would include tire settings too) and read those from script to apply them (something similar to the already copy function, which currently what it does is load from the resources folder the actual entire car object, to read up the settings from it and this feature as you know it's available only from the editor).

This way, should be possible to read up those settings even from play mode we think, we need to test it out, but is highly probable that it should work, just by putting those assets with the settings on the resources folder and access them from there could be a way to go, or having them assigned on the inspector into an array could also make them available at runtime.

Any thoughts, ideas are welcome for this new feature we want to add.

Rhod,

 

OK, for me no issue on the gui stuff.

Great on the car spec sharing.

 

Hello,

I`m creating racing game using UnityCar physics and of course iRDS. The problem is that I can get my car spawned and I can drive it very well, but when I try to spawn AI opponents using the same car prefab that player uses, they wont spawn. Instead I get at the runtime continous errors:
NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
IRDSCarControllerAI.GeneralCalculations ()
IRDSCarControllerAI.FixedUpdate ()

Do you need more specific information that I should sent to your email or you know on the fly what might be the problem ?

Thanks!

 

Hi ArtisV,

Thanks for your purchase and for registering your product early this week!

We are going to check on it right away, and would give you feedback about it immediately, one think you should check is that the Using 3rd party car Physics? is enabled on the IRDSCarControllerAI script on that car prefabs, check it is as on the following picture:



Rhod,

 

Hi,

While in the editor I constantly get this exception.

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
IRDSInitialCounter.activateGUI()


Also, under Random Ai Setting -> AI Driver Setting I can't see any of the values.



We're trying to get the AI to do more drifting, We kinda get a bit of drifting when we manipulate the values in the AI driver settings ( with help from the manual ) but was wondering if you had some good values we could use?

Regards
Michael Swan

 

Hi Michael!

Thanks for your purchase, please kindly send us your invoice number to josegarrido@dagagames.com and we would get back to you ASAP with support.

Thanks again!

Rhod,

 

Hi,

I created a new scene and the IRDSInitialCounter.activateGUI() error disappears. Not sure what i did differently. Random Ai Setting -> AI Driver Setting
- I still can't see the values. I can copy paste values in though.

Can the races be Fixed at the start of the race if there are no human players? iee you know at the start of the race who will win.

Can the Race be saved ? - I'm writing some code that will allow the race be be saved and have successfully replayed a race exactly but was wondering if replays exist already ?

( We bought 2 copies of the AI. I'll send mine.)

 

Hi Michael!

Glad you got working out with the error, maybe something was missing on the other scene.

You can see the values, if you make the inspector window less wide, so just shrink the width of the inspector window and the values would be shown, this is more like a bug or something of Unity, since we are using for those variables the serializedProperty drawer which is built in from unity.

The races we doubt can be exactly reproduced, since the AI gives inputs to the cars physics scripts, and this could be different from one scene play to another, but most of the time, if the start positions are exactly the same and the AI parameters are also the same, you should get most of the time the same result.

Right now we have not yet implemented replays in our system, it is on the roadmap though, we would start developing that feature among others in a near future.

Is good idea to register your product with us, that way you protect your purchase too.

Thanks again,

Rhod,

 

Hi,
Thanks I can see the values now.

We can save and replay races exactly - I tried using EZReplayManager ( free version ) but it works by saving position and rotation of every object and child object. To replay, it strips the objects of components and then replays it. It can't strip some the IRDS components though, I think maybe your using required components or something, so the replays won't work using this tool.

Also tried itweening the positions , but the result weren't realistic.

So I made my own system where I recorded every position and rotation every frame on the base car model. For play back, I set the car control to external, and manually updated the position every frame. For controlling who wins from a replay, we know at the start who will win, so we replace the winning car with the car we want to win and gives us the control we need. I also save the races to disks using easy save 2, so today I'll create a set of races we can replay to give more variances to the races. For 10 cars, 1 lap is a 400K file.