Wreckfest (Next Car Game) by Bugbear Entertainment

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Update #2 2014-02-15

While we experienced some unfortunate bumps on the way last night, we’re proud to let you know the latest update for Next Car Game is finally online! You should receive the update automatically, but in case your game is not being updated, please log out of Steam and back in to start the update process.
The highlights of the update are the brand new Figure 8 derby race event and the new classic American Sedan car, but in addition to those the update also contains other major new features like new weathers and added upgrade parts. There’s also a hefty amount of other improvements and fixes. Please find the complete changelog with release notes below:
Tracks:
* New Figure 8 derby race event.
* All race tracks now have a reverse layout as well.
* Lap and AI counts are now fully customizable for each event.
* Tarmac track: start area rehauled, tarmac textures reworked, last sector redecorated.
* Gravel track: textures reworked, track surface visuals updated.
* New birches for both tarmac and gravel track.
* General polishing and bug fixing.
Weathers:
* Three new weathers: bright day, cold morning and warm sunset.
* A random weather is selected to an event at startup.
Dynamic environment objects:
* Tire stacks now have more weight to them for added realism.
* Reduced concrete barrier friction to prevent the car from spinning.
Vehicles & Upgrading:
* New car: American Sedan (no high detail dashboard yet).
* Steering wheels now rotate in cockpit camera.
* Texture/model improvements and bug fixes.
* Increased European hatchback engine power.
* Reworked European hatchback handling.
* New engine backfire effect.
* Improved differential simulation.
* New gearbox, drivetrain, suspension and brake upgrade parts.
* New paint jobs for cars to choose from.
* Driving model improvements.
Driving assists:
* Assists now have three levels of strength: ‘Off’, ‘Half’ and ‘Full’, with ‘Off’ and ‘Half’ being the same as earlier ‘Off’ and ‘On’ and ‘Full’ offering an even more assisted driving experience.
Cameras:
* New screenshot camera mode with zoom factor and yaw, pitch and roll parameters, designed for taking screenshots with free camera and hidden HUD. In the screenshot mode, it’s possible to rotate the camera as well as adjust the field-of-view, and by accessing Effect Mode, you can adjust the Depth-of-Field (DOF) parameters to your liking. There’s no dedicated button for taking a screenshot yet, so you need to use an external application or PrintScreen button.
* Brought back spherical camera from the technology demo, it’s available only in camera mode at least for now.
* Implemented another chase camera further back according to the feedback.
* Tweaked European hatchback chase camera.
Damage:
* Fixed engine component damage calculation in HUD so that the engine icon will better represent the actual damage.
* Removed red damage direction indicators from HUD based on a general request.
* Fixed an issue with gameplay damage not being calculated correctly when near death.
* Further balancing of gameplay damage and visual damage – a completely reworked system will be introduced in the future.
Garage:
* Reworked many textures.
* Added some nice decorative elements.
* Tweaked interior and yard decoration.
* Tweaked lighting.
Gameplay:
* Derby AI: tactical reverse mode now considers engine location more efficiently.
* Removed speed sensitive steering when using a steering wheel.
* Implemented further balancing tweaks to AI profiles and handling.
* Implemented start position randomization (for player as well).
User interface:
* Binding the Logitech G27 button 7 etc. will no longer result in exiting the settings menu.
* Loading screen will now show a background based on the event you’re playing instead of a generic one.
* Game is now paused and input suspended while Steam overlay is active.
Input:
* DirectInput gamepads should now work and are also remappable.
* Improved controller settings to reduce steering lag.
Render:
* Fixed a bug where VSync was not able to recover back to 60 fps when temporarily dipping to 30 fps.
Audio:
* Engine damage sound effect is now linked to actual engine damage instead of car health.
 

Weekly Report (07)


 
Once again it was a busy week at the studio. For most of the week we were busy preparing for the update, and we were extremely proud when we eventually got it out of the door and into your hands just in time for the weekend. We’re also really happy about the way the game is progressing, and it was really great to read all the feedback during the weekend and see you all using the new screenshot mode to get the best out of our game. Speaking of screenshots, you can see the fruits of everyone’s amazing work adorning this post – to be honest, they’re much better than ours!
The changes in handling are something that have been a popular topic for the whole weekend. It’s not so much that there have been many changes in the underlying physics, but the steering ratio has been lowered. This was done to make it easier to control the car without any assists because now it’s not possible to overreact to oversteer by turning the wheels too much, too quickly, resulting in spinning. However, as a side effect the handling now feels somewhat slower and perhaps more sluggish than it used to. We’re currently assessing the situation and figuring out the next step – one possible solution might be to make the steering ratio configurable by the user – but your feedback is invaluable to us so that we know in which direction to take the handling. When we said that we want to develop the game with you, our community, we really meant that.

 

It was also great to hear how much you’ve loved the new Figure 8 derby track. Other than that the update didn’t bring too many changes in tracks apart some improvements and added polish, but there’s a good reason for that – our level team has been very busy for the last few weeks. The reason for that is that we’re currently assessing our long-term plan for the tracks, and we’ve decided to use the current tarmac track as a test case. We can hopefully soon show you some of the ideas that we have, but basically the track will have a much more efficient flow, with a nicely balanced amount of sweeping corners and straighter legs, with possibly a very tight section thrown in for good measure to act as a choke point. More about that in the coming weeks as soon as we have something remotely presentable.
While there’s a constant programming work going under the hood next week will see us not only focusing on the tracks, but we will also be looking at what new cars to add next. The new American Sedan has very popular with you, but we’re thinking the next one needs to be something different again to keep things fresh. Maybe a sport coupé? Or another small hatch? Nothing’s written in stone yet, so be sure to visit our community forum and let us know what you think!
I think it’s more than fitting to end this post with some more amazing screenshots posted on our community forum. In future we will be also posting some community screenshots in a dedicated feature – if you want to have yours featured, be sure to post your work on the community forum thread here.

 

 

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Weekly Report

 

It’s been business as usual here at Bugbear. While engine work has progressed under the hood, our level and car teams have been busy doing what they do the best, creating new content for (y)our game. We also arranged a small photo shoot last week to start building assets for the new spectator models. It’s a good thing that we’re still 20+ or so here so we don’t have to hire extras but can simply use our own faces instead! We’ll be sure to show you some work-in-progress screenshots as soon as we can.
One feature that many of you have requested is replay, i.e. an ability to playback the event and enjoy the most spectacular moments again. If you’re now nodding your head approvingly, it’s your lucky day! Since replay is something that we also think would be cool, not to mention that seriously speaking every racing game just needs to have one, we’ve been already working on it. Given that our game features not an insignificant number of cars and quite a lot of dynamic content we still have some wrinkles to iron out, but other than that the feature is coming along nicely and when completed, will open up a whole lot of new possibilities for finding those perfect angles for screenshot and video production. Expect more news soon!
Meanwhile back in the jungle Juha, one of our brilliant artists, has been working on a new driver model to replace the current one. You know, (yes, we’re first to admit it) the deranged, somewhat crow-looking figure piloting our cars. The one we currently use was intended as a temporary placeholder, but we’ve been dragging it along surprisingly long. Well, we have some great news now: soon it’s time for the old Jerry to bid a farewell and pass the wheel to a new, much sportier Jerry!
Juha was nice enough to take a break and capture some work-in-progress screenshots for us, and here you can see a high-poly render of the new model that he sculpted in ZBrush:

And here’s a teaser shot of the new model, all baked and textured, to give you some idea how it will look in-game:

As you can see Juha’s still got some detail work left, but hopefully it won’t be long before you can enjoy the new model in-game. I know I personally cannot wait!
That’s all for now, folks.

[VELOCIPEDE]

Update #3 2014-04-17

 

Tracks:
* New sandpit race track featuring both normal and reverse layouts, work-in-progress.
* New mudpit derby stadium, work-in-progress.
* New small derby stadium, work-in-progress.

Environment Art:
* Smoothed out track-sides and improved gravel race track readability.
* New work-in-progress spectator models – some previous ones remain.
* New concrete barriers, used in various derby stadiums.

Weathers:
* Two new weathers: stormy evening and misty evening.
* Weather can be now specified in the event setup.

Vehicles and Handling:
* New driver model, as of now simply static.
* Improved suspension and tire physics.
* More responsive handling with a game pad.
* Improved player vs. AI collision physics.

Damage:
* Improved deformation physics so that visual car damage is more accurate.
* Improved gameplay damage to prevent cars from getting too torn up and still going.
* Fixed a case where cars would get damaged and eventually destroyed from rubbing against a static barrier.

Replay:
* New replay mode with slow motion and fast forward time controls (-16.0x … 4.0x), a number of different cameras, target locking & switching, depth-of-field and field-of-view settings.

User Interface:
* Race timer now correctly displays hundredths as well instead of random numbers.
* Game is no longer unpaused when exiting Steam overlay if the game was paused.

Input:
* Implemented multicontroller support (e.g. wheel and pedals in separate USB ports).
* Sensitivity & deadzone adjustments now take effect without a restart.
* Added saturation, sensitivity and dead zone settings for XInput controllers.
* Game now defaults to DirectInput for wheels, hopefully making some wheels behave better.
* The game now detects more than one XInput controllers that are connected simultaneously.
* Force feedback is disabled for Microsoft Sidewinder FF wheel in an attempt to work around buggy driver causing lag.

Audio:
* Increased AI engine volume.
* General improvements.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSpoiXhcwiY