Jump to content

LEGO Racers in Unity


celynwalters
 Share

Recommended Posts

celynwalters

So I've been lurking here for quite a while.
I finally got round to learning a bit of Unity, one thing led to another and I came up with this:

 

I've tried to be as faithful as possible, so even including the errors in the original track.
Now I know what I'm doing, it doesn't take quite so long to do more tracks, but it's still very manual, and I've not worked out how to do some things yet.
Plus I have no idea what my actual aim is, I just think it's pretty cool!

I've attached a screenshot of the next part of the project.

These new forums are great, but I could really do with a post preview option...

 

Desert Unity.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You son of a LEGO gun, I love you. Have a cake (I'm not lying), some energy crystals and a slice of melted greenred brick.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey... This could be interesting. :D

Would this be able to load the original files (after conversion of course) from a folder? Wouldn't want LEGO coming after you for including the files... :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can I say one word:

AMAZING

If I'd say it would be AMAZING twice :D. Ossem. My hands are itchy to use them, don't know why.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So, let me get this straight. You're porting tracks verbatim into unity, doing no remastering, adding nothing, and most likely f****ing up the gameplay and physics because of an engine change; and people are saying this is great?  People are saying this is amazing? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

MaelstromIslander

So, let me get this straight. You're porting tracks verbatim into unity, doing no remastering, adding nothing, and most likely f****ing up the gameplay and physics because of an engine change; and people are saying this is great?  People are saying this is amazing? 

Its the start of a possible remaster or better yet, a sequel. Once this is made, we'll have an LR1 that can easily be modified. The original LR1 is like trying to bend an iron bar while this is like working with playdoh.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was wondering if after modifying the track it could be stuck back in the original engine?  That got me thinking, for LU, in LUNI, there is no npcs or enemies. And I remember I saw on someone's talk page on the LU wiki how to put the LU worlds in unity, would it be possible to put the missing mini figs with their animations and missions and stuffs in unity and stuff it back in the LU engine? I forget on whose page I saw it, but if this might be possible, I could search for it again.

Edited by Darkitect
Link to comment
Share on other sites

MaelstromIslander

Maybe we could create a remake with better physics (looking at the video unity already has that) better model detail, HD textures, and re-added shortcuts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

celynwalters

Wow, thanks for the support!

Hey... This could be interesting. :D

Would this be able to load the original files (after conversion of course) from a folder? Wouldn't want LEGO coming after you for including the files... :P

​I've thought about this, I guess most of what I've done can be done programmatically, but I don't think I'm capable enough. I know Grappigegovert's GDB converter includes the UV texture mapping, but I don't know much about how that works, whether it links to the specific texture files or if it does that anywhere else in the game.

So, let me get this straight. You're porting tracks verbatim into unity, doing no remastering, adding nothing, and most likely f****ing up the gameplay and physics because of an engine change; and people are saying this is great?  People are saying this is amazing? 

​Let me set this straight. I didn't say I was remaking the game, or porting it. This was literally an exercise, and I thought people here might find it interesting, one because I'm using tools developed by members here who might see this, and two because it might be useful for anyone's own projects. I've not added any gameplay elements, and I hadn't really thought about it. Plus the physics was pretty dodgy in the original. I loved it, but it was definitely dodgy.

I was wondering if after modifying the track it could be stuck back in the original engine?  That got me thinking, for LU, in LUNI, there is no npcs or enemies. And I remember I saw on someone's talk page on the LU wiki how to put the LU worlds in unity, would it be possible to put the missing mini figs with their animations and missions and stuffs in unity and stuff it back in the LU engine? I forget on whose page I saw it, but if this might be possible, I could search for it again.

​Well, if I understand correctly Unity isn't really for modelling. You could modify the extracted models, but I don't think there's a way to get the models back in (edit: yet). I'm pretty sure there's talk about it in the Modding section of the forums somewhere.

Edited by celynwalters
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Zeph: I think it's fair to assume that people appreciate the work that went into it, even if it isn't all that much yet. It will make custom tracks and stuff a great deal easier.
 You may not see the point in transferring Lego Racers to Unity, but I certainly don't see the point of popping in, spouting an expletive, and bringing everyone down when it was not your time or work that was, as you seem to think, wasted. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

​Well, if I understand correctly Unity isn't really for modelling. You could modify the extracted models, but I don't think there's a way to get the models back in (edit: yet). I'm pretty sure there's talk about it in the Modding section of the forums somewhere.

Bummer. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

celynwalters

​Well, if I understand correctly Unity isn't really for modelling. You could modify the extracted models, but I don't think there's a way to get the models back in (edit: yet). I'm pretty sure there's talk about it in the Modding section of the forums somewhere.

Bummer. 

Sluicer seems to know the most about this:

http://www.rockraidersunited.com/topic/6476-2015-what-is-keeping-us-away-from-creating-custom-tracks/?page=2#comment-116025

Link to comment
Share on other sites

grappigegovert

This looks really nice!

 

I guess most of what I've done can be done programmatically

I actually have a program that loads a track with its textures from the original files, which I will be releasing soon.

​You could modify the extracted models, but I don't think there's a way to get the models back in (edit: yet).

I know Sluicer has a tool to import 3d meshes, and I think Quisoves made one too.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 6 months later...
16 minutes ago, nodar86 said:

Does anyone still work on this one?

Well, the OP last checked this site on the 28th of November 2015.

If he has been working on it, he hasn't been talking about it here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

34 minutes ago, mumboking said:

Well, the OP last checked this site on the 28th of November 2015.

If he has been working on it, he hasn't been talking about it here.

That is sad :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

celynwalters

Nope, sorry!

First off, I wasn't sure where I was taking this as it was an experiment.

I was kinda frustrated all the tools available made it possible to recreate the levels, but as far as I know it hadn't been done yet.

There was a lot of manual work involved, and when I last checked in I saw that those tools had been developed further (there's a level editor/viewer now??) making it pointless to continue in the same way.

I don't really have anywhere near the kind of experience to take this further! It would be kinda fun to learn but it's hard when I'm working full time.

If anyone wants the files or methods (probably obsolete now there are better tools) then I'll share (if I can remember...)

 

Edit:

I might add that a user messaged me a little after I first posted asking me to send them some of the files to contribute to some kind of project. I did the same treatment on the garage room you build a car in but it took too much time to just do all the tracks (manual texture painting etc.).

Maybe they've done something? I haven't really been checking.

http://www.rockraidersunited.com/profile/10577-kaitodaimon/

Edited by celynwalters
Added info
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did you export and convert the models to show up in Unity? Or did you write a script to directly import a .GDB file into Unity?

Either way, your work could be very useful, even if the code you used would just add to what has been developed now.

I like the Lego Racers in Unity idea. With enough programmers, you might be able to write a small clone to the Lego Racers game. If that would last over time, it would be very promising.

 

Can you tell me what exactly you have done? Did you do the roll a ball over the track thingy with all the tracks from Lego Racers? That would be a great start for an open source Lego Racing game, if you ask me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

celynwalters

Apologies for the wait

If I remember correctly, I used the GDB to PLY converter (Grappigegovert) first, which included texture coordinates and vertex colours.

I think you can use the JAM extractor to get the textures, but they need converting to be proper BMPs, and the converted textures were posted on this site (Xiron, Grapheme etc.).

Then I MANUALLY selected multiple triangles of the track in Blender using the actual game to guide me and assigned a material to them. Then assigned textures to the materials (Fun fact, I noticed there were occasionally odd wall segments with missing textures actually in-game).

Will Kirkby released a Binary Editor, which can tell you things like the colours to use for the sky gradients (did this in Unity).

It also shows locations of extra items, so for the test track, the tyres lying around, the garage door, flags, stands window.

I had to use Grappigegovert's In-game coordinate viewer to work out what the rotation values meant because they were in a different format to Unity's X,Y,Z.

I did something in Unity to scroll the flag texture as it does in-game to simulate it flapping, the colours were from the vertices.

(Fun fact 2, I thought I converted something badly as the flags on the far side of the test track aren't touching the flagpoles, but that's in-game too)

 

As for the rolling ball, I recycled it from a previous project I did as a tutorial, and added the engine noise for fun. The animation on the door was made up, i.e. not from the game files at all. As the process was so manual (and I had exams coming up) I didn't fancy doing any other tracks at the time. OH. Maybe I finished Desert Adventure Dragway? I think there was something frustrating.

 

I had to write a little shader to make sure there were vertex colours but pretty much no other lighting effects to get it to match the original. It could be updated for an HD remake or something I'm sure :thumbsup:

 

The community has moved on quite a way since then, so maybe I'll dig it up and see what the new tools can do now.

I really relied on other people doing the tools, all I've done is clumsily hit the files with a virtual hammer until they did roughly what I wanted.

When I get a chance I'll upload my stuff and maybe fill in any missing parts I forgot to include.

I just had to reinstall my OS so my files are a bit jumbled.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.