MTM2 Beta Patch 0.52 - Tons of new stuff but no AI

[Ford-chan]

Can you give me 3 examples of drags where it's most obvious so I can test? There's two distinct changes that I've made and I don't know whether it's just one of them affecting or both.

So if I see what's the pattern between the drags I can see how best to dial back (for drags only at least).

https://mtm2.com/%7Etracks/dl.php?dl=5926

This would be the best one, basically, prior to this patch, ground boxes give the jumps more air time upon contact, plus instigating wheelies once the rear wheels hit the ground while on the brakes, since the truck is nose up in the air after the jump, now not so much, courtesy of how the rewritten vehicle collision physics with this patch has just about nerfed the jumps a little too much. Ultimately, I'd film a visual comparison demonstrating the physics between vanilla and Beta 0.52, but that would be too much work for me in the sense of having to roll everything back just to demonstrate.

Would visual demonstration of how IRL monster trucks behave jumping off ramps and cars help for reference? Not saying out right full sim the physics, but rather at least have a sense of realism of when trucks jump off ramps and cars whilst maintaining MTM2's simcade integrity physics in mind, if that's even a possibility?

[Fila]

Not yet. That's a much bigger work that needs to be done, on the same scale as the AI trucks work. Because in order to get the game to work and why it is wonky in the first place (for example driving over stuff) is that TRI never used proper physics math. It makes sense because in 1998 games were limited and very few games had full blown physics implementations (that is why games like the Papyrus racing games and Crammond's Grand Prix 3 and Grand Prix 4 stand out so much even in today's time). So adding more correct physics now it's basically fighting with the original code. So two things needs to happen. A full rewrite of the physics which at the same time also somehow keeps the original feel. It's possible but this is probably another 2 months worth of work.

[Fila]

Not sure if there was supposed to be smooth terrain in the test track, but mine wasn't smoothed, and I didn't see an option in the menus to turn on terrain smoothing, so I assume it's engine automatic depending on files included in the pod?

I forgot but that one is pretty easy to test with Traxx. Also, traxx will show real time how the terrain changes/deforms.

[Ford-chan]

Not yet. That's a much bigger work that needs to be done, on the same scale as the AI trucks work. Because in order to get the game to work and why it is wonky in the first place (for example driving over stuff) is that TRI never used proper physics math. It makes sense because in 1998 games were limited and very few games had full blown physics implementations (that is why games like the Papyrus racing games and Crammond's Grand Prix 3 and Grand Prix 4 stand out so much even in today's time). So adding more correct physics now it's basically fighting with the original code. So two things needs to happen. A full rewrite of the physics which at the same time also somehow keeps the original feel. It's possible but this is probably another 2 months worth of work.

Makes perfect sense. Papyrus and Crammond racing games back then were all 2D physics based, NASCAR and INDYCAR Racing in which cars never fly in the air in an extreme crash, and Grand Prix, if I'm correct, cars don't jump over kerbs? So any complex 3D physics simulation is all very limited right up well into the 2000s onwards.

[Legend_Of_Wii]

Hey Fila, in my previous message in this thread I mentioned the weird thing objects do visually by going up the surface while I am underwater.
I see that's a Vulkan thing I noticed from more testing... seems like it does not do that with Direct3D 11, rather I am at the MINI PC or my LAPTOP with either renderer settings, it's the same for both PC devices.
But yeah, most things I did at the laptop seems the same at the moment.
The stuff I listed are going to need fixing.

3D cockpits look amazing, by the way.

[Fila]

Oh that is definitely helpful. Vulkan renders differently than DX11 (even though the outcome looks the same) so this is a Vulkan specific issue and will be easier to trace.