Just Rally 3: A rally simulator with procedural generated roads
Drive your own rally car!
Just Rally 3 offers an alternative solution to the common problem of rally simulators: Not having enaugh roads to make an event feel like a real rally event, in terms of event length and road length. Additionally, the spline and biom based generator offers a way to have over 50 rally events from all over the world, from regional to international, with an almost infinite amount of roads. Also optimizing the road-model-size to game-size ratio, Just Rally 3 sets a new standard for the amount and feel of events in a mobile rally game.
Procedural generated roads!
Just Rally 3 contains a procedural road generator: Instead of having premade roads, you can generate and drive on randomly generated roads. Depending on the over 50 events, you can generates roads with different characteristics. Even within the same road, you will have tarmac, mud, snow and different type of roads and landescapes! From the tight and twisted stages in Corsica to the rough gravel roads of Kenya, Just Rally 3 is the first rally game able to generate rally stages from almost every rally in the world in any condition and season!​
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But realism doesn't end here: Enabling "Real event length" you can partecipate in championships and events with over 30 unique stages, with variable road lengths, like a real life rally event. Even when driving on the same stage twice in an event, you will notice muddy corners and abrased gravel sections that weren't there in the first run: Also in real life, stages are more abrased after driving on them for a second time. This allows also for proper shakedown roads in each event (What is a shakedown?).
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Same stage, different sections!
The spline and biom based generation system solves the problem of a repetitive experience, that would emerge within a premade sector based system. Beside having always a unique stage layout, the road landescape can vary multiple times within the same road: For example a german stage can contain different bioms, from the tight and twisted wineyards of Mosel, to the large and fast military roads of Baumholder, to the more typical country roads and gravel roads. A great and frequent fusion of technical and fast sectors make a great rally stage.
This system allows therefore distinct regional events: Depending on the biom frequency in each event, you can make different events from the same country feel unique and realistic.
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Honest problems...
A minor problem of the generator is the duration of the generation when increasing the stage length: It can take up to multiple seconds when generating a preview of a stage thats longer then 3 Km in the stage menu.
Another problem is the overall terrain distance: The generator allows for a terrain thats not longer then 15 m from the road, wich doesn't allow for much variety in the topology of the background terrain. This makes the road model visually look "gamish" and unnatural, but doesn't affect the physical experience of the road.
A last problem is the junction variety: The system relies on premodelled junctions: Being a solo developer and not having enaugh time to create a number of junctions where the driver wouldn't notice that they are finite, junctions can feel repetitive. The driving experience still remains unpredictable, since the the attached roads to the junctions are procedurally generated and the driver can't predict the speed you need for exiting the junction.
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Tyre choice and setup
Tyre choice plays an important role in rally. Therefore it is one of the central aspects in Just Rally 3, offering the same risk and reward system real rally drivers struggle with. Choose from supersoft, soft to medium, hard, studded and rubber studded tyres. Each tyre type has different parameters in the physics system. The tyre grip behaviour depends on tyre temperature, pressure, rubber type, road surface type and longevity.
Also different tyre properties affect each other: The tyre temperature affects the pressure and tyre degradation, the surface type affects the stud durability. Also surface characteristics like water, snow, ice amount and road degradation affect the tyre grip in a realistic way.
Choosing the right tyre adds strategic depth and a realistic feeling for the game.
To adjust the cars behaviour, you can change the cars setting in a deep setup menu. Not only common settings like suspension and transmission andjustments, but also aspects like the engine radiator opening or cooling threshold. Opening the radiator will give more air to the cooling system to cool down the engine, but will increase drag, letting the player decide how much the radiator should be open, depending on the event temperatures.
Maps were also an essential for the Just Rally 3 setup system. Adjust the engine throttle and brake map, aswell as the throttle and brake maps for each differential.
Also a customizable launch control RPM system and a turbo map was implemented in the game.
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