| |
| Welcome |
|
There are many computer games and simulations that let you enjoy the delights of solo motorcycling, but not many fully explore the
unique properties of driving an outfit or sidecar rig, I always end up wishing there was an option to fix a chair on my bike!
I expect your wondering what this project is all about, so I will begin by saying this is my best attempt at creating an easily
controllable virtual motorcycle and sidecar on a realistic VR terrain where you can have some challenging fun thrashing around on
two or three wheels...
|
|
|
With the increased computing power that's becoming available it is now possible a VR simulation can be mostly data driven,
rather than pre-scripted or animated, a situation where the virtual reality environment dictates the on screen events. i.e.
the passenger could get knocked off the sidecar by a low tree branch, etc. The game engine is
3impact which is very powerful and great to work with, it is currently using
ODE to simulate the rigid body dynamics.
This does not require the use of Ageia's PPU (physics processing unit) although PhysX cards and hardware processed physics in
general will eventually be supported.
|
|
The project is now fully underway again, I had to take a lot of time off to put some things in order but
its paying off a bit as I have got some better development tools now. The next big effort
will be putting a user friendly front end on what I've got together so far, I have made some good progress on this so far
and I have been creating more tracks, trials sections and terrains in Lightwave.
I also want to make a demo available for download within the next few months.
|
|
|
As anyone who has ridden any sort of a green lane / long distance trials outfit will tell you, teamwork is
essential, on the dirt as well as on the road, successfully mastering the fine balance between
tipping over and finding enough traction is a fine art so I thought it would be really be interesting
to start the project with this type of sporty motorcycle combination.
|
|
On the right is a screen grab of the front end of the motorcycle, conventional telescopic forks with a single
disc, pretty much complete now, although I could possibly do an optional set of leading links and
maybe wire spoked wheels in the future. The 3D sidecar and motorcycle models are not based on any make
or model in particular, they are just my interpretation of what a useful combo should look like, hope
you all approve...
|
|
Initially the Thirdwheel was intended to be purely a hobby as I work on commercial web sites for a living,
but over the last 18 months or so of development it has become apparent to me that I will have to charge
something (yet to be decided) for the finished game/s purely to keep the wheels of industry turning and allow
me to spend more time on the project. Also in the future I hopefully plan to sell additional maps,
tracks terrains using PayPal or some similar system, although things might easily change at present. If you want
to support or help this project I would be most grateful if you could
give us a link from your site
or maybe buy some cool badges or something from the gift shop, will also accept small donations,
PayPal again, after the demo is available. All is chaos at the moment but
hopefully things should get a bit more organised over the next few months, hope you enjoy your visit...
|
|
|
|
(08 May 2009)
Well still keeping on keeping on, I have had some bad patches with my main development pc throwing a total wobbly and no longer finding the hard drives.
Also it came to my attention that the Contact Us form had stopped working, thanks for trying it out Edds!
I've fixed that now so many apologies to anybody that had been trying to get hold of me recently.
There are three types of play available, the time bonus flag game where you collect flags against the clock, the forced order fag game where you have to collect numbered
flags in numerical order to complete the sections and an exploration mode where you can just have a good look around. Terrain is pretty much finished and I am still sorting
out the loose ends and any small bugs, it's surprisingly time consuming doing the testing etc. but when I release the demo, bought the encryption software from
MoleBox now, I want it to be really sorted.
Also just downloaded Fraps so will have a go at putting a video
on Utube shortly.
