Xpand Rally SP demo

[juls]

Yesterday, an unofficial single player demo of Xpand Rally was available for download. It remained a few hours before being removed (Techland contacted major gaming sites to have it removed).
Managed to get it before :)

I tried it only 15 minutes...graphics are very nice, damage model and interactive environment good. I have read somewhere in a preview that it handles like CMR...it's wrong, car is difficult to handle and can spin, understeer easily. Good point: in simulation mode, grip is low like in reality, and in soft surfaces you can feel when the wheels dig in the ground. You have to use a lot the brakes and be precise on tarmac.

It looks it can be pretty well realistic, but I need to setup the wheel for this demo (now it's turning too fast) before I can write more.

[Rallyfan]

Good to hear about xpand rally,i thought it would be another arcade-styled game,but seems like otherwise....hoping for the best. PS: Markko Märtin is the BEST !!

[RTS013]

Well, I think I read that they tried to make it full sim first but thought they would atract more players by going slightly towards arcade. So basically it's a full sim tuned down a bit to be easier to get into. A bit of tweeking in the physics should then make it back to a complete and full sim! :cool:

[juls]

Yes that's what I think...and it looks like they want to provide good authoring tools, to change physics, maps, cars...
Xpand is intended to be modded...so I suppose variables will be more
documented, and less things hard coded.

:)

[Pero_Grozni]

Well that sound great.

Hopefully we will be able to imp[ort our allready avalibe cars for RT as well.
We could quickly have a full field of classic greatnes avalible :)

[juls]

Yes, because I have to say that I am very tired with the crazy investigation you have to do in order to guess what variables mean in RT.
Did you see P_G that Xpand Rally directly use friction coefficient curves?

They showed an article with screenshots of their curve editing tool. You define a few points on the chart, then the curve is done...
friction coefficient(slip angle)
friction coefficient(slip ratio)
And it concerns everything...torque, differential, suspension, friction on various surfaces...etc..etc.
Just take a friction curve measured for real tires, copy it...and that's it!

End of meaningless Pacejka coefficients, end of hard coded variables. Great!

Since I saw that, I have no more fun editing RT ;)

[Pero_Grozni]

I didnt see that, but it sounds brilliant :up:

Well this would make our work a 1000% more easy and understandable :D

I do fear however that than millions of different physics will exist and that a unified field for comparising will never be avalible.

This is allready a big issue we have in RT and we have fought hard to try and get a single base where everything can be compared. That is really the hard part of editing-getting everyone on the same logical base and comparable level.

[Roger]

Sounds good, I like the idea of the tyre curves.

I would not think the potential for many different physics will be any worse than RT now. We don't know if everyone is honest about what they use - we just have to trust.

Based on trust, there is no reason why it should not work the same.

Of course, if the basic tyre in Xpand Rally is good enough to use as is, then there is probably only a need for suitable tyres for any new cars.

As a concept Xpand Rally has always sounded interesting - if the physics are at least good enough to be slightly better than RT, then it really could be just what people want (or at least the tuners/modders/sim lovers that populate this forum ;) ).

I presume that replays etc. will be uploadable for competitions :up:

[juls]

I do fear however that than millions of different physics will exist and that a unified field for comparising will never be avalible.


The good point is that coders need data coming from car industry...and in car industry they have standardized measured data and use only a few physics models :)
That's why I suppose all non-arcade games I have seen are calculating tire forces (slip ratio, slip angle, load, camber)

[Dan]

Yesterday, an unofficial single player demo of Xpand Rally was available for download. It remained a few hours before being removed (Techland contacted major gaming sites to have it removed).
Managed to get it before :)

and the reason they wanted it removed is that it was out of date file and apparently does not reflect the game as it is now - at least thats what I read, and also the official demo is going to be available this week ;)

[Roger]

Looks like they plan two driving modes - Simulation & Arcade. The only really worrying thing is that all the standard cars they have listed have silly names - like "Tiny Hooper" for something that looks like a Mini (new shape). Also, each car seems to be moddable in some kind of career mode. Almost like NFS :OMG: I guess this is to overcome licensing issues and to catch a broader base that Sim enthusiasts.

Stll looks interesting 'though. Maybe, RBR with knobs on?

[juls]

Yes there are 2 driving modes, and arcade mode is less arcade than CMR, you have less understeering but you can still easily spin and have to be careful.

This demo is 3 weeks old...concerning physics model, the real demo coming in 2 days should'nt be very different. They say that graphics were improved and controller support too. But I was very impatient.

EDIT by DAN: can't let you post that here ;)

[juls]

ah? sorry :P

[gram]

My friend sent me the this leaked version of XPR SP Demo, but like Dan mentioned before, this demo is outdated, so I wasnt expecting really much from it, but to be honest it seemed pretty good. Only engine sound was too low, I could barely hear it (I tried to change the options, but that didnt help at all). Looking forward for OFFICIAL Demo :) :up:

[Dan]

well.. it seems the official demo that was meant to be out yesterday is now delayed until 26.08.2004

[Imagine]

i think that the reason why they delayed that temo is :arrow:

i bet that that was the official demo so they saw all negative feedback and decided to buy themself some time for making things better :D by saying that it is some old version... :eek:

[SierraBAR]

I am really exited of track editor, because the tracks are terrain based it should be pretty easy to make your own tracks. Just hoping this track editing means that you can build your own terrains not just add checkpoints to existing terrains. Would be really cool to have tons of long specialstages. Anyone has ever rallyed in operation flashpoint with some addon car? :P

[juls]

Their track editing tool is a new version of the tool which was already provided with their game Chrome.
It allows to edit landscape, objects, and has several plugins to add quickly thousands of trees and plants, generate shadows...

It could be nice if car handling is far better than in the leaked demo.

[SierraBAR]

or someone could make it better, like in RT