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World Racing Series beta14 available! :)


Questions about daily development

Started by Alby46, June 21, 2016, 09:07:24 AM

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poumpouny

Dirt rally/dirt 4 is i think the best example of the recontiliation of thoses userbase. You can choose between a hardcore sim or a simcadey with one click. you get the best of both word and the graphic lift doest the rest of the  (even if the physics isnt as accurate as RBR for example)

PiBoSo

July 27, 2017, 07:51:04 PM #271 Last Edit: July 27, 2017, 07:55:45 PM by PiBoSo
Quote from: Phathry25 on July 27, 2017, 04:17:40 PM
They do a really good job of marketing that game, before and after steam. I haven't seen much noise being made about KRP being released on steam. The one review I have come across mentioned lack of content and lack of activity as the only negatives. Both fixable things, but you need to allow the community to help you out. Sell the community. Put the forums in the preview video, add on karts and tracks, skins, helmets etc.... Get some servers going. Host community races or skin competitions. Hot lap competitions. Anything! Give people a reason to play your game other than it being a great kart simulator. I get that you don't want to compromise the simulation quality in your games, that's a great selling point to a lot of people. But you still need to work to attract the non hardcore kart racing customers.

Iit only takes one spark to start a fire.

Tha'st my opinion at least. I sell forklift parts for a living though, so it's probably not extremely valid. I wish you nothing but the best and hope you find a path to success.

The lack of promotion around KRP has nothing to do with compromising the simulation quality. It's hard to see how they could be linked anyway.
While there is a common misconception that PiBoSo is a one-man show, reality isn't so distant: there are only a full-time and two part-time developers on the five projects ( GPB, WRS, KRP, MXB and editing tools ). It is also worth noting that we are running on a shoe string, so no money to hire help.
You opinion is valid indeed, and the idea prior to KRP release was to create an official championship with prizes at some point, but who has the free time? Where are the funds?
I am using every spare minute to try to update the other projects as soon as possible. I'm also trying to give support to the customers ( hundreds of emails in a few days...  :'( ). Snappe is working on MXB, Kevin is busy with his real job, ...
"La perfezione non è il nostro obiettivo, è la nostra tendenza".

HornetMaX

Put the forums forward on steam.
There's plenty of help that could be given by the community instead of you.
Also, as said, it will make it clear there are players, modders, supporters etc. It counts. A lot.

Side note: how many mails have you received by users that do not understand that they have to calibrate *all* their input devices at the same time ?
It probably indicated the current calibrate "UI" is bad / not clear enough.

Stout Johnson

July 27, 2017, 08:26:39 PM #273 Last Edit: July 27, 2017, 08:28:29 PM by Stout Johnson
Quote from: PiBoSo on July 27, 2017, 07:51:04 PM
I am using every spare minute to try to update the other projects as soon as possible. I'm also trying to give support to the customers ( hundreds of emails in a few days...  :'( ). Snappe is working on MXB, Kevin is busy with his real job, ...
In my opinion ALL your time atm should go to KRP. It is a great sim as it is and I think you would get a solid community in a short period of time, if only the online play would work. While you seem to have made significant progress concerning the smoothness of other driver's and the lack of core.exe errors, there are still 2 major issues:
1) major lags when other player's connect to a server, which makes it impossible to drive at times
2) the server just goes nuts over time, especially if many people are connecting and disconnecting; I had some major fun today in wet conditions with some other drivers, but like after 10mins the server just went out; other drivers disappeared, next session would not load; I had that happen 3-times in 4 servers... that is where new players just say "f..k it".

Get the online play stable and you will get a solid and active community of die-hard sim fans. All other sims can wait, but they will profit from that in the long run too. If you cannot get the online play stable, then KRP will be a flop and it will damage the brand "PiBoSo" and probably all other sims.

Quote from: Phathry25 on July 27, 2017, 04:17:40 PM
it only takes one spark to start a fire.
Exactly... if Piboso could only overcome the netcode issues, then he is over the hump in my opinion.

Edit: I can provide you with a replay file of one KRP session in the wet, where the server just broke down, if that is any help. Also you could host netcode debug sessions again. We sure would love to help you.
    -----------   WarStout Kawasaki Team   -----------

Phathry25

Quote from: PiBoSo on July 27, 2017, 07:51:04 PMThe lack of promotion around KRP has nothing to do with compromising the simulation quality. It's hard to see how they could be linked anyway.
While there is a common misconception that PiBoSo is a one-man show, reality isn't so distant: there are only a full-time and two part-time developers on the five projects ( GPB, WRS, KRP, MXB and editing tools ). It is also worth noting that we are running on a shoe string, so no money to hire help.
You opinion is valid indeed, and the idea prior to KRP release was to create an official championship with prizes at some point, but who has the free time? Where are the funds?
I am using every spare minute to try to update the other projects as soon as possible. I'm also trying to give support to the customers ( hundreds of emails in a few days...  :'( ). Snappe is working on MXB, Kevin is busy with his real job, ...

I didn't mean to say that promotion and simulation are mutually exclusive.  I meant that simulation isn't enough for you to survive on, you need to attract the casual users to your simulation.  Sure the game offers a great driving experience, and it will pull people in and keep them active.  Problem being that is all that it offers right now.  Sure the other features are there, but they are not being utilized fully.  Something needs to be done to get people playing consistently, make them want to tell their friend about this awesome game they came across.

Firstly I think something needs to be done about the lack of content.  To a person not already invested in the community this is the biggest drawback to buying a new game.  You see it all the time, reviewers saying everything about a game is great, but lack of content, so don't buy it.  Yes there are add on tracks and skins available, but as a base package the game is lacking.  Tracks aren't cost effective, so you have to look to skins.  Why not have a skin contest to generate interest in the game?  No copyright infringement, you take ownership of the skins when they are submitted etc, etc... rFactor2 just held such a contest, I'm sure PiBoSo can handle one too.  Promote the crap out of it, post it anywhere that will allow you.  Reddit, racedepartment, sim racing paddock, heck have pretend race cars get involved. (if you dare) Give best kart, best driver and best helmet a free copy of the game this way you can include people that aren't yet active, label a set of bodywork templates so someone who doesn't have the game can make it work, or include an example layer for each template.  Anyone who has a skin that you decide to include in the game gets a 20% off coupon, redeemable only through your website.  You still come out ahead of the steam price and generate a lot of sales and excitement.  These people will have a stake in the game and tell their friends about it... Maybe I'm making it too simple in my head.

When it comes to racing you absolutely need to bite the bullet and rent your own servers.  Weekly events, hotlap competitions, heck even utilize the mysterious "challenge" section of the game.  There needs to be an official server.  It shows that you are actively supporting the game.  Every developer in the market does it, it doesn't look good to a new user to not even have a single officially supported race server. Pick a track for each week. Monday KF3, Tuesday KZ1, Wednesday FS250, etc...  Give people a reason to play, something to look forward to.  Use your stats page to track results, average their points for however many races they run per class or something.  It doesn't need to be a rival to iRacing, something just needs to exist to get people involved.  Something to strive for.

As far as a premier race series goes you can start small, no need to throw cash at the competitors.  Talk to the karting companies you already have relationships, see if they will donate soft goods, you'd be surprised what people will do for a chance at a free shirt.  MX simulator was a community of about 500 total, maybe 100 active back in 2010 before the first series that the developer hosted.  Through a sponsorship he was able to offer simple prizes (shirts, discount codes, etc) word got out, players joined, prizes got better.  The community is over 20,000 people now, that's impressive IMO considering how niche motocross simulators are.  This was all done and very minimal costs to the developer. (server hosting) He also had to pump out 17 replica tracks each year, but with no licensing fees it was just his time.  Obviously the landscape and expectations of new tracks yearly are different here, I don't feel that bookoo tracks would be expected.

Ultimately if you want to grow your audience you will need to sacrifice development time. Look, I HATE that you can't devote the time to make WRS better for dirt track racing.  It's spilling over with potential to be absolutely epic.  It kills me that it will probably never realize it's full potential.  I've been around here for much longer than my forum accounts and activity would lead you to believe, and I've gotten to see how passionate you are.  I like how well you interact with your users, and how candid you are about the struggles you face.  You seem like a really nice person. (whoever posts as PiBoSo, it seems like one person at least)  I want to see your team enjoy all the success they deserve.  But developing four titles at once will never allow that.  You need to focus on having one great game.  And then another great game.  All of your titles have the potential to be great, but not if you are only focused on software development. In today's sim racing market you need more. I've been sim racing for over 20 years now and what your team has developed here is nothing short of amazing.  You had dynamic tracks before anyone else, and your system is still more accurate than anything else on the market.

IMHO, of course.

Phathry25

Quote from: PiBoSo* GPB: started experimenting with a new riding style

?

HornetMaX

Quote from: Phathry25 on August 09, 2017, 02:01:55 AM
Quote from: PiBoSo* GPB: started experimenting with a new riding style

?

Marquez-sque ?

Manu

Quote from: PiBoSo* GPB: started experimenting with a new riding style

Leg dangle animation?
It's Easier to Fool People Than It Is to Convince Them That They Have Been Fooled.

PiBoSo

Quote from: Manu on August 09, 2017, 09:13:47 AM
Quote from: PiBoSo* GPB: started experimenting with a new riding style

Leg dangle animation?

"La perfezione non è il nostro obiettivo, è la nostra tendenza".

Manu

It's Easier to Fool People Than It Is to Convince Them That They Have Been Fooled.

PiBoSo

Please don't get too excited.
Unfortunately the first tests proved that a lot of code is needed to make it work properly.
Creating a new animation is not enough.
"La perfezione non è il nostro obiettivo, è la nostra tendenza".

Manu

Quote from: PiBoSo on August 09, 2017, 02:58:46 PM
Please don't get too excited.
Unfortunately the first tests proved that a lot of code is needed to make it work properly.
Creating a new animation is not enough.

It's Easier to Fool People Than It Is to Convince Them That They Have Been Fooled.

Hawk

Quote* GPB / WRS / KRP / MXB: completed support for the animated flags ( it's not just a visual feature. They give a clue about the wind strength and direction )

Sounds very good!  8)

I presume we will still be able to animate the flag movement as we wish the flags to animate via a sequence of animation-frames, but I presume there is now code in there for wind direction to trail the flag animation direct into the wind itself?

Can we export animations now instead of having to script them? This would be a great help.....  It would also be great to be able to export the shaders and maps instead of having to script them too. Just makes more sense to be able to export everything in one job-lot with the exporter rather than sticking with the current shader scripts process(it's a pain in the ass), then we can apply everything in the 3D app, get it all how we like it and then just export. Easy(especially for the FBX exporter). :)

Hawk.

poumpouny


Manu

Hi Piboso. Will you provide information on how to upgrade the models to the new shape animation system?
It's Easier to Fool People Than It Is to Convince Them That They Have Been Fooled.