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Remake: LEGO Racers 2


bradleybrand
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Who would like a LEGO Racers 2 remake?  

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  1. 1. Who would like a LEGO Racers 2 remake?



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Throughout my childhood and teens, I have always been a big fan of LEGOs. I have came across many different LEGO games during that time, some better than others. One of my most favourite LEGO games of all time is LEGO Racers 2. But with the game being released in 2001, the game has aged since then. The game did not allow 1920x1080 resolution support, but was achievable through some tweaks which I could never get to work. The game had many strengths and many weaknesses which let the game down. One strength was the ability to race a friend with a split screen, with controller support, with the weakness being that there was no LAN racing feature so that players could play on their own machine. Another weakness was during "multiplayer", all the other computer NPC opponents were removed.

 

I have a vision. Just imagine a multiplayer version of LEGO Racers 2. A rebuilt Sandy Bay, copied exactly. Remodeled and re-textured assets. Players having the ability to choose a character, choose a car and race their friends. Players having the ability to manually choose how many NPC opponents they want in their games. Future updates could implement other worlds, such as Mars, into the game at a later date. Maybe even a free mode could be implemented for the player to freely drive around the worlds and later on maybe the single player features could be implemented, such as the "Golden Bricks", but this is all extra work.

 

I have this vision but I hold zero knowledge or experience when it comes to creating a game, all I know is it takes time. I am looking for a team to try and help my dream become a reality. I need to find people with the same passion as me to create something amazing. What would motivate and encourage people to take on such a ambitious project?

 

I would suggest starting off small:

- One world island (Sandy Bay)

- One feature: Multiplayer via LAN

- Pre-built cars to choose from

- Pre-build characters to choose from

- Enter a player name

- To start off with, no computer NPC opponents until foundations met

- Simple tracks around a newly built Sandy Bay world map

- Linking to LR2 sounds??

 

What I expect would be needed:

- Map designer

- Coders

- 3D modellers

- Texture designer

- Anyone with desired skills

 

Extras

- Better LEGO scenery (trees, flowers, bushes, etc)

- Better water

- More LEGO assets (houses, fisherman area, docks, etc)

- If "SinglePlayer", make the LEGO inhabitants seem more "human" by having active tasks. Not standing in one spot, but walking around, doing things.

- Maybe expand the town? Or create another settlement for the island?

- Maybe new racing opponents with new homes for them. Sticking to the year 2001 era.

 

I believe if a remade Sandy Bay was constructed - looking ever so good - it would encourage people to the project. So if someone can rebuild the Sandy Bay map for a start, that would be fantastic. Maybe making the terrain, the rocks, the water, the sky, look even better.

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1 hour ago, Agent2583 said:

If we did have a Lego Racers 2 Remake, what would you change? 

I'm no expert but maybe make the NPC AI (the computer opponents) more challenging. Well saying that... the game got easy if you did all the bonus games on adventure and purchased all the engine upgrades. You could make your car ever so fast.

 

Another thing I mentioned about changing was in multiplayer games, allowing computer player opponents also. Where you play multiplayer split screen, it is only you vs. your friend. No computer NPC opponents what so ever. Which sucks. I would give the player the option to choose how many they would like to race.

 

ALSO: If anyone has any links to things to massively improve the base game, please post them. Always looking forward to improving the graphics, gameplay, etc. ?

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I get disappointed sometimes. The people required with the desirable skills are either live too busy lives, busy with other projects, lack interest or cannot be bothered. The LEGO Racers 2 game was just a fantastic game. (Key words in bold)

 

Five worlds - Sandy Bay, Dino Island, MarsArctic and finally Xalax. It was such a fun game and I highly recommend new players to try it out, or old players to give it another go. All those worlds have different race tracks - the tracks move around on the world for different routes. Just imagine racing your friends in these different tracks multiplayer! Maybe designing your own LEGO cars in the old, classic, retro 2001 era style!

 

A remake does not have to even have a single player, or that could come at a later date. All this really adds is the single player experience, hunting for the "Golden Bricks". This maybe a blast down memory lane for a lot of LEGO fans.

 

So... there is five wonderful worlds which would need to be recreated - Sandy Bay, Dino Island, Mars, Arctic and Xalax. Better water, lava and weather could be implemented in such worlds, while maintaining the cartoon like, LEGO style and feel. Even though the worlds were not made out of LEGOs, I feel with all the LEGO assets everything fitting in well with the LEGO creations. We would need a Multiplayer feature (ability to choose a name, choose/create a character, choose/create a car) which I would recommend as LAN (Local Area Network), unless people have other options. The worlds would need the same layouts for the race tracks of the former game - the ability for the tracks to change on the same worlds (moving around the lights, cones, barriers, checkpoints).

 

Such a project would be grand. One could not charge for any kind of project, but maybe even some donations to the team to try and motivate them to continue and put in more time, would be fantastic in my opinion. The years and years pass by and I just want this dream to come true. I want to race my brother, with different LEGO NPC character opponents, on race tracks of the different LEGO worlds, in a remastered LEGO Racers 2 - looking beautiful and fantastic.

 

If I had the desired skills, I would start the project myself. Release some stuff. Maybe encourage others to join.

 

I will also add that from a video I saw on YouTube, a LEGO Racers 3 was being developed and some other LEGO racing kind of games. I believe the company behind LEGO Racers 3 had a bad team and deadlines were not met and many problems with projects. That company went bust, I think it was bought with it's assets. If you search on YouTube you may find more details.

 

YouTube: The Secret History of LEGO Racers 3: 

 

Also check out this stunning, beautiful video of Sandy Bay ?

YouTube: LEGO Racers 2 is Paradise City

 

 

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I've been toying with the idea of re-creating Lego Racers (1 and 2) in Unreal Engine since I started working with it, I honestly think it'd go pretty quickly as landscapes, models and car mechanics all should be easily recreated with UE's engine. The only thing I haven't figured out completely is how building cars would work in a non-customized engine (it has to basically convert the pieces into a static mesh?). Car AI is also a bit finicky, but I've seen some tutorials of it. 

 

I would have to finish the Rock Raiders remake first though, one thing at a time lol so maybe next year

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4 hours ago, baraklava said:

I've been toying with the idea of re-creating Lego Racers (1 and 2) in Unreal Engine since I started working with it, I honestly think it'd go pretty quickly as landscapes, models and car mechanics all should be easily recreated with UE's engine. The only thing I haven't figured out completely is how building cars would work in a non-customized engine (it has to basically convert the pieces into a static mesh?). Car AI is also a bit finicky, but I've seen some tutorials of it. 

 

I would have to finish the Rock Raiders remake first though, one thing at a time lol so maybe next year

That's understandable. I think I have seen some of your LEGO Racers work and you're doing a fantastic job. Once a stable version of that is released, I will be trying out that. I also look forward to some day a LEGO Racers 2 remake (either just Multiplayer or Single Player and Multiplayer). You'll learn a lot from the LEGO Racers remake which will help you if you ever undertake a LEGO Racers 2. Please go ahead with LEGO Racers 2 in the end though. Even if you have to link the game's sound files to the former LEGO Racers 2 game.

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51 minutes ago, bradleybrand said:

That's understandable. I think I have seen some of your LEGO Racers work and you're doing a fantastic job. Once a stable version of that is released, I will be trying out that. I also look forward to some day a LEGO Racers 2 remake (either just Multiplayer or Single Player and Multiplayer). You'll learn a lot from the LEGO Racers remake which will help you if you ever undertake a LEGO Racers 2. Please go ahead with LEGO Racers 2 in the end though. Even if you have to link the game's sound files to the former LEGO Racers 2 game.

I think you misunderstood me, I haven't started re-creating LEGO Racers, but I started on Rock Raiders. However the engine I've using, Unreal Engine, is so easy to use that I think recreating Lego Racers in it, either 1 or 2, would be incredibly easy. I think it might be nicer to make a completely new game though, akin to Project Island, and make LR 1 and 2 "available" in that game instead.

 

As for multiplayer, that's definitely natively supported, but I haven't explored it in UE yet

 

Do you have any programming/other relevant experience?

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Fluffy Cupcake
12 hours ago, baraklava said:

I think it might be nicer to make a completely new game though, akin to Project Island, and make LR 1 and 2 "available" in that game instead.

I fully support an original game over a remake, while having the options of remaking the classics within it a possibility for those willing to go there. It opens up the door to a lot more creativity this way which is much funner than making an updated clone.

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13 hours ago, baraklava said:

I think you misunderstood me, I haven't started re-creating LEGO Racers, but I started on Rock Raiders. However the engine I've using, Unreal Engine, is so easy to use that I think recreating Lego Racers in it, either 1 or 2, would be incredibly easy. I think it might be nicer to make a completely new game though, akin to Project Island, and make LR 1 and 2 "available" in that game instead.

 

As for multiplayer, that's definitely natively supported, but I haven't explored it in UE yet

 

Do you have any programming/other relevant experience?

Oh I see sorry, another user had made some LEGO racing game I think called Ogel Land - but not entirely sure about the name. A LEGO Rock Raiders remake - fantastic! The old game has aged so much and obviously operating systems like Windows XP are needed for the best compatibility.

 

What I would suggest is this. The LEGO Racers 1 and the LEGO Racers 2 are entirely different games. Have LEGO Racers 2 as the base game, but have a menu option to play LEGO Racers, with it's tracks and cars. Or maybe the graphics and game play will be the same on both, to the point where LEGO Racers and LEGO Racers 2 cars and characters can race each other, who knows. In LEGO Racers 2 you can break up and damage your car - you may get hit by a rocket causing some of your bricks to fall off, or you may crash into something.

 

Please complete a LEGO Rock Raiders and think about starting a LEGO Racers game some day. I can guarantee you have huge amount of support - active forum users, non-active forum users, even people who are not signed up to Rock Raiders United!

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  • 8 months later...

Am i the only one that wanted a LEGO Racers 2 Track editor? I always imagined that you could just do a Checkpoint "(re)placer" for the maps and voilanew tracks to race.
Not thinking about AI racers or track boundries objects. I just remember me and my brother racing our "own" tracks by just agreeing on where we have to drive haha.
Would love an editor mod for LegoRacers 2, but not an overall remake. I would prefer a LR3 over that, too.

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  • 2 months later...

i mean when im done with the lego racers remake if someone wants to remake lego racers 2 they could get the files with custamaztion and ai if needed.

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bradleybrand
11 minutes ago, Zeroject said:

i mean when im done with the lego racers remake if someone wants to remake lego racers 2 they could get the files with custamaztion and ai if needed.

That would be fantastic! Trying to bring back attention to this post. Would dream of LEGO Racers 2 with proper multiplayer. Maybe 2 to 4 players.

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  • 3 months later...

Hi,
 

When I saw the title of this discussion, I got really excited, and I was sad to discover it didn't get anywhere.
If there is still interest in a remake, I'd love to help. Haven't done much game development, or modding, but I'm somewhat familiar with Unreal, and Unity, and I do quite a bit of programming.
 

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9 hours ago, EggKiddo said:

Hi,
 

When I saw the title of this discussion, I got really excited, and I was sad to discover it didn't get anywhere.
If there is still interest in a remake, I'd love to help. Haven't done much game development, or modding, but I'm somewhat familiar with Unreal, and Unity, and I do quite a bit of programming.
 

 

Can I PM you? I may be can help. :)

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13 hours ago, EggKiddo said:

Hi,
 

When I saw the title of this discussion, I got really excited, and I was sad to discover it didn't get anywhere.
If there is still interest in a remake, I'd love to help. Haven't done much game development, or modding, but I'm somewhat familiar with Unreal, and Unity, and I do quite a bit of programming.
 

 

3 hours ago, tomfyhr said:

 

Can I PM you? I may be can help. :)

 

Oh wow guys, I'm happy to see interest in a LEGO Racers 2 remake. I understand multiplayer is more tricky but LEGO Racers 2 only offered a split screen multiplayer option on the same machine. An actual multiplayer feature, allowing more than 2 human players to race each other via multiplayer would be fantastic. The split screen feature only allowed 2 human players to race each other without any NPC opponents. The different worlds of this game were beautiful and with modern hardware they could easily be enhanced or even improved upon.

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3 hours ago, tomfyhr said:

I have sent you an email.

 

4 hours ago, bradleybrand said:

 

 

Oh wow guys, I'm happy to see interest in a LEGO Racers 2 remake. I understand multiplayer is more tricky but LEGO Racers 2 only offered a split screen multiplayer option on the same machine. An actual multiplayer feature, allowing more than 2 human players to race each other via multiplayer would be fantastic. The split screen feature only allowed 2 human players to race each other without any NPC opponents. The different worlds of this game were beautiful and with modern hardware they could easily be enhanced or even improved upon.

 

Had a look at the email, and there is a lot of useful stuff in there, thank you. 

I started doing some research into possible ways of recreating the environment, and it turns out someone started making an LDraw plugin for Unity. So my idea at the moment, is to recreate the models in LDD, or Bricklink Studio, then I can export them as LDraw models, which could then be imported into Unity. I could start working on that right away. I've seen someone on this forum has already built a lot of the models using LDD, so I might get in contact with them.

I also wanted to make a list of the various game mechanics in LR2, like the action playback, and how the camera locations are picked. That sort of stuff. If anyone has info on these things, I would appreciate the help.

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1 hour ago, EggKiddo said:

So my idea at the moment, is to recreate the models in LDD, or Bricklink Studio, then I can export them as LDraw models, which could then be imported into Unity. I could start working on that right away. I've seen someone on this forum has already built a lot of the models using LDD, so I might get in contact with them.

I also wanted to make a list of the various game mechanics in LR2, like the action playback, and how the camera locations are picked. That sort of stuff. If anyone has info on these things, I would appreciate the help.

 

In LEGO Racers 2, players have the ability to either choose pre-built cars or to build their own car and during the races, the cars can get damaged and lose bricks. If you lose all your car's bricks, your LEGO man has to run the race. -- Is this possible or is this too complex?

 

These are prebuilt cars Custom Cars from Lego Racers 2 - Media Share - Rock Raiders United

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Just now, bradleybrand said:

 

In LEGO Racers 2, players have the ability to either choose pre-built cars or to build their own car and during the races, the cars can get damaged and lose bricks. If you lose all your car's bricks, your LEGO man has to run the race. -- Is this possible or is this too complex?

 

The pre-made cars would be represented the same way as the ones created by players, so I'd just have to build them by hand, then save them in the game files. If the players wanted to create their own, those would be saved elsewhere. So that feature would be sort of 'built-in'.

Regarding the pieces, it seems they come off in the reverse order to how they were placed. So the last one placed comes off first. If I were to keep the original mechanism for car building, then this would be quite easy to replicate. Making the player run shouldn't be too hard. I could probably use a simple character controller. Something I'll have to think about a lot is physics.

 

On 9/20/2019 at 4:54 PM, baraklava said:

I've been toying with the idea of re-creating Lego Racers (1 and 2) in Unreal Engine since I started working with it, I honestly think it'd go pretty quickly as landscapes, models and car mechanics all should be easily recreated with UE's engine. The only thing I haven't figured out completely is how building cars would work in a non-customized engine (it has to basically convert the pieces into a static mesh?). Car AI is also a bit finicky, but I've seen some tutorials of it. 

 

I would have to finish the Rock Raiders remake first though, one thing at a time lol so maybe next year

 

And answering a much older question, you don't necessarily need to create static meshes, since the cars come apart during gameplay anyway. And computers nowadays can easily handle the polygon counts. I know Unity has one, but I'm pretty sure Unreal has an API for generating meshes too, if you wanted to give it a try regardless.

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1 hour ago, EggKiddo said:

Regarding the pieces, it seems they come off in the reverse order to how they were placed. So the last one placed comes off first. If I were to keep the original mechanism for car building, then this would be quite easy to replicate. Making the player run shouldn't be too hard. I could probably use a simple character controller. Something I'll have to think about a lot is physics.

 

And answering a much older question, you don't necessarily need to create static meshes, since the cars come apart during gameplay anyway. And computers nowadays can easily handle the polygon counts. I know Unity has one, but I'm pretty sure Unreal has an API for generating meshes too, if you wanted to give it a try regardless.

 

Just to add. Some cars have more pieces than others. But still, the cars could take the same amount of damage. If a car has more pieces than another, maybe 2 pieces would have to come off per time or they would have an advantage. I am not sure how the game did this, but different cars have different piece counts.

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1 hour ago, bradleybrand said:

 

Just to add. Some cars have more pieces than others. But still, the cars could take the same amount of damage. If a car has more pieces than another, maybe 2 pieces would have to come off per time or they would have an advantage. I am not sure how the game did this, but different cars have different piece counts.


I'll have to look into how the original game handles this.
I'm working on the static models, and recreating the environment at the moment. Already got 10 models done, including 3 larger ones.

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11 hours ago, EggKiddo said:


I'll have to look into how the original game handles this.
I'm working on the static models, and recreating the environment at the moment. Already got 10 models done, including 3 larger ones.

Fortunately, all models (except the cars and terrain) have already been ripped from the game (see "Racers 2"-link and "Clothes for minifigures"), which should make things easier. 

(you only have to place the folder in Unity and the textures will automatically be applied to the model)

 

Here is a website with LDD-models from various theme (including car-models):
https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/41226-key-topic-official-lego-sets-made-in-ldd/#entry722512

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MinifigRenderer
11 hours ago, EggKiddo said:


I'll have to look into how the original game handles this.
I'm working on the static models, and recreating the environment at the moment. Already got 10 models done, including 3 larger ones.

https://github.com/lorenzorutayisire/lr2-blender-loader

 

This might help with world extraction. You'll have to do some fine tuning to get the textures properly working though

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