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Third
wheel
- Future Plans
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| N.B. Most of the ideas below are only partially completed or exist only on the drawing board! |
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| General ideas |
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Next Project? Eventually I hope to expand / develop a new version of the Thirdwheel to encompass other genres of motorcycle, combo sport such as road and track racing. I'm really interested in developing the hill climb version, this will be set up as a winding tarmac road time trial surrounded by trees. I've made a start and have loosely based it on Wiscombe park hill climb in Devon, so far I have created the basic track and it looks like it will be great fun! |
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Custom Tracks & Maps: After building the game I now realise the full complexity of the problems involved with adding custom tracks, or adding a track editor, importing your own meshes etc. so this is not really feasible. A "paging", endless landscape, which is automatically generated to produce a large map for practice, exploration or recreation is a real option though. Although currently not used in the game, "real" geographical data could be used to recreate parts of Dartmoor for example, or actual sections in a trial. This is definitely possible as I have already created several large maps from height maps etc. and I think it would be cool to use this in the game. |
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Terrain Detail: Due to early issues with collision detection and c.p.u. overheads the terrain is currently based on a 2 meter square grid and this is really quite ok for the present. If the game is reasonably well supported and version 2 of thirdwheel is on the cards and I intend to base the new maps on a 1 meter square grid. Doesn't sound that much of an increase but it is actually four times the level of detail, and of course four times the collisions to check! |
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Damage: Currently the front forks, rear and sidecar swingarms, silencer and sidecar fixing joints are breakable. Would also like to be able to break an axle and knock a wheel off, break bits off the sidecar or maybe even have the tyres able to come off the rims! The only rider and passenger joints that break now are the temporary hand and foot holding joints, anything else would be a bit to messy...  .However would be a nice touch if the helmets were separate (makes a full / open face option easy) and could be knocked off the heads in a bad crash for extra realism. Another idea would be to create deforming or replacement meshes that show damage after large impacts into rocks etc? |
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Rider and Passenger Models: Although currently very happy with the models I would eventually like to remake the rag doll bodies as one complete skinmesh which will deform over the skeleton or "bones". Also would like to add female versions of the rider and passenger for additional realism. |
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| Workshop |
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Suspension: Spring rates and from weak to strong, 20% to 80%. Damping from soft to hard, 20% to 80%. |
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Engine Characteristics: Choose a camshaft type, ranges through from a torquey bottom end, strong mid range or max B.H.P |
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Transmission: Choose overall gearing, manual or automatic, wide or close ratios. |
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Tyres: Choose from Motocross, Trail or Road for each wheel, for example a scrambles tyre doesn't grip on tarmac very well but is great on grass. Also maybe adjust tyre pressures individually, get a flat tyre if you push it to hard? |
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Wheels: I would like to add wire wheels and more cast alloy wheel choices, also maybe different diameters. |
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Brakes: Ability to adjust the brakes individually and add twin or single disc options, default would be 60% Front, 40% Rear, 0% Sidecar. |
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Exhaust System: You can currently change the exhaust note but it would be great to have different types of silencer models as an option as well. Maybe twin megaphones, one each side or both on one side? |
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Lights: Working headlights would be cool and really atmospheric, not had time to get this together for the first release but this is a definite for version 2. |
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| Game Setup |
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Multiplayer/ Networking: It would be fantastic to test your skills against other players, there's nothing else like playing online or over a LAN. This may take me some time for me to implement, although networking is already built into the 3Impact engine, I've just not had a look at it yet. |
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Weather Conditions: I tried a section with a wintry texture mapped onto the landscape, made the ground slippy, and reduced the collision body diameter of the wheel a bit to sink the wheels into the snow and it looked great. If I had time I would have definitely included this in the first release but will save it for the next version now. Other environmental conditions will hopefully include Sun, Fog, Rain, Thunder and Lightning. |
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Road Conditions: Additional Road or terrain types will include Ice, Snow, Grass, Rock, Mud, Earth, Sand, Gravel Tarmac. Extra random hazards could included Puddles, Oil, Fuel spills, Cow Pats etc. and all must have realistic coefficients of friction... .
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Time of day: Each track has a default value for Dawn, Morning, Midday, Afternoon, Dusk and Night or maybe the time of day defaults to the actual time on the PC? |
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Save and load personal preferences: Name and save favourite settings, outfit setup, riders weights etc. |
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Sound Effects: More ambient sounds like birds, rain, wind, clock tower in the distance etc. Add different collision / crash sounds, based on the hardness of the objects collided with. |
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The Third Wheel motorcycle and sidecar simulation is
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