How to go about creating a motorcycle simulator?

Hi,

I’m new to Unreal Engine Development and just have little game development and C++ experience. However I created some games (mostly 2D) and are quite sufficient in terms of object oriented programming with Java.

I’m planning on creating a motorcycle game inside Unreal Engine 4, but I have some problems how to go about it. Specifically I’m concerned about how to approach physics (and whether I should rely on Blueprints or if I shouldn’t use it at all). way I see it, there are two extreme approaches:

  1. I rely on UE physics as much as possible. This would be actually the “comfortable” solution for me, but I really want physics to be realistic (think simulator). Even though I’m new to UE, I understand, that engine offers you angular actuators, joints, gravity and a crazy amount of other physics calculations.
  2. I don’t use UE physics at all and create my own. This would require me to do a lot more work, but I would be able to totally control simulation.

A) So I ask myself, can I soley rely on UE physics? Is it accurate enough? I speak gyroscopic forces, centirpetal forces, drag, etc.

B) I tried to create a “Shape_Torus” object and see how it would behave as a tire and it didn’t really behave very nicely. It seems like physics don’t really take torus shape as a circle, but as n-gon which it’s model is. How would I go about creating a tire which would be computed as if it would be round?

C) I also realize, that there are “Vehicle” and “Wheel” classes, but how would I go best about harnessing those? Can I do it via editor or is it necessary to code? problem with vehicle and wheel classes (way i see it) is, that they are for cars. Car and motorcycle physics are fundamently different. I actually searched google and didn’t find anyone having made a good motorcycle game/simulator in UE (there are some, but only with totally unreal physics (pun intended ;))).

I would be really greatful for any input, since I’m totally new to that stuff and I feel entry barrier in terms of learning curve is quite steep, even though I’m not new to programming.

Best regards,
Frank

Hey fmueller,

Thanks for your questions. We have a major push for vehicle implementation and documentation/tutorials coming soon and they are a high priority for us. That should give you a great place to start, and with your knowledge of vehicle physics you should be able to make adjustments as you see fit.

I have alerted our vehicle specialist to your post to see if he can give you some more specific answers to your questions. It might not be until sometime next week, though.

Hope that helps!

Dear ,

thank you for your response, however I still have no answer to my question :frowning:
I read announcment for UE 4.1, but couldn’t find anything about vehicles in there.

  • Can you tell me an estimated date when to expect further tutorials? (doesn’t have to be specific… will it take 1 day/1 week/1 month/1 quarter?)
  • Can you get me in touch with your vehicle specialist?
  • Should I ask in forum?

I am still trying to wrap my head around UE development environment and processes. I don’t need an elaborated reply, but some pointers would help me already a big deal. A 1-2 Sentence answer per A)/B)/C) question and possibly some links/pointers to documentation/code would be a big help!

Best regars,
Frank

I’d like to know as well, I’m currently developing a dirtbike game and knowing whether or not unreal will support two wheeled vehicles in near future is rather important, if their focus is on four wheeled vehicles for next push I will need to extend engine on my own to allow for two wheeled.

Hello Fank,

I am also developing a motorcycle racing game, called Cafe Races. I am interested in hearing more about your project. I’m glad to hear there are more developers who are also motorcycle enthusiasts!

You can visit my site here: Cafe Races

Shoot me an email; you can find it on contact page. I would love to share progress, as well as tips and tricks. Also, I hear that template for vehicles will be released with 4.2. So not too far away!

-Vince

I looked at your Cafe Racers Video; there’s lots of good work there. One suggestion; move camera forward in FP so as not to see empty handlebars; I assume you’ll be putting hands in eventually, but consider doing it for demo video. -

I just wanted to jump in and see if there is any more news on 2 Wheeled vehicles?