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More Realistic Physics
So far, the highest vote in the "next new feature" poll is for "more realistic physics". That's pretty broad, and I'm curious exactly what people are looking for. For example, the tire model in VDrift uses the pacejka formula, which is what F1 teams and tire manufacturers use to characterize their tires, and is actually more realistic than the tire models in gran turismo 4 (just try to do donuts -- you can't), EA's excellent F1 games (which use a spline approximation), and Live for Speed (they use a simplified, forgiving tire model). Which is not to say the physics in those games isn't more realistic in other areas; LFS has more realistic suspension physics than VDrift, and GT4 models things like tire wear. Also, their car settings are better than ours, since we're doing a lot of stabbing in the dark at the moment. In general, though, more realism will mean the cars will be more difficult to drive on the computer (especially without force feedback).My question, I guess, is what you people think we need to improve. If the cars need to be easier to drive (and more similar to most other racing games), the physics would need to get *less* realistic. So, do we need:1) more realistic tire modelling (which will make the cars more difficult to drive)2) less realistic tire modelling (which will make the cars handle more easily)3) driver assist systems (traction control and ABS, will make the cars much easier to drive)4) better suspension modelling (probably will be a subtle handling handling difference, no easier or harder)5) better car settings (won't necessarily make the cars easier or harder to drive, but at least make them more like their real life counterparts)6) something elseAlso, I should mention that I think a big priority for development should be to get some rudimentary system set up to adjust car settings in-game -- to at least to be able to pick your tires, which would allow you to choose 1 or 2 from the above list while you're playing -- we could have three categories of tires, simulation tires derived from tire manufacturer data (the mustang in SVN now has real alpine tire data, and suspension/brake settings from LFS -- go check it out), semi-simulation tires (taking the sim tires and tweaking them to handle a bit more like other racing games -- LFS and GT4), and arcade tires (very forgiving and similar to games like need for speed).I should also note that the simulation tires now on the mustang in SVN seem like they have tons of oversteer -- that's because there's a narrow slip angle at which they exert the most force (i.e., if you're turning the wheel 5 degrees from the direction your car is going, the tires will turn well, but if you turn to 8 or more degrees, the tires won't grip very well and will just skid forward) -- this is a property of real tires (according to alpine's actual test rig data), but it makes it tough to drive with them in a computer simulation, since the 3 degree difference between turning and not turning is difficult to feel when you're not sitting in the car.Anyway, this is enough for now. Are there any Racer gurus out there? I know they went through this same discussion a couple of years ago, and I'd be interested to hear their comments.
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