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Making REC-powered cars in SL for the first time!
2 years ago
I wasn't expecting to be building anything other than D2 cars, nor expecting to make a REC powered car in the previous week or this week really, but a very generous friend in SL gave me enough L$ with the intention "Go build a car with REC, because why not", and so I did.
Process for first time building an REC powered car is very time tedious. I could make a working D2 car in maybe 1 hour 30 minutes, but for REC first time, I've been needing around 2 days and a half and still hasn't finished yet, but it's coming along steadily. This is how the car looks so far https://imgchest.com/p/pg73zp9j4rn
Well then, let's see how it'll go.
Checklist of stuff to do so far:
- Working and driving car [Done]
- Lights [Done]
- Coloring [Done]
- Collision boxes/skid plates [Done]
- Suspension visual simulation [Done]
- Working doors that are resizable friendly [Done]
- Driver and Passenger(s) seating position [Done]
- Basic gearing [Done]
- Car sounds [Done... sort of. Not up to expectations, but it's good enough]
- Door sounds that doesn't sound like a cheap econobox [I just mark this done because I can't find anything else]
- Fine tuning and testing cycle [Done]
Auxiliary stuff:
- Centered camera HUD [Done]
- Mouselook steering trigger [Done]
- Umbrella giver [Done]
- Gesture-based indicators [Done]
IS FINISHED NOW! Yay!
Process for first time building an REC powered car is very time tedious. I could make a working D2 car in maybe 1 hour 30 minutes, but for REC first time, I've been needing around 2 days and a half and still hasn't finished yet, but it's coming along steadily. This is how the car looks so far https://imgchest.com/p/pg73zp9j4rn
Well then, let's see how it'll go.
Checklist of stuff to do so far:
- Working and driving car [Done]
- Lights [Done]
- Coloring [Done]
- Collision boxes/skid plates [Done]
- Suspension visual simulation [Done]
- Working doors that are resizable friendly [Done]
- Driver and Passenger(s) seating position [Done]
- Basic gearing [Done]
- Car sounds [Done... sort of. Not up to expectations, but it's good enough]
- Door sounds that doesn't sound like a cheap econobox [I just mark this done because I can't find anything else]
- Fine tuning and testing cycle [Done]
Auxiliary stuff:
- Centered camera HUD [Done]
- Mouselook steering trigger [Done]
- Umbrella giver [Done]
- Gesture-based indicators [Done]
IS FINISHED NOW! Yay!
ACS/REC SECTION
I think your experience with REC might need some expansion perhaps - because I've had driven both ACS and REC alot before, and to me in terms of steering both feels slow (due to how they're both loaded with menu scripts that usually slows down engagement), atleast, compared to my favourite mainland driving script, so there's no upside to ACS for me there, not to mention the price that I would never be able to afford alone lol. It just comes down to tuning like what I said in group chat yesterday, if you remembered. Some makers don't tune their ACS/REC, some do, and I'm one of many (but not much) that actually do - and if I have ACS, I'll do too. Not doing fine-tuning really makes my whole being ITCHY.
And simulated stuff like the suspension and gimmicks, you CAN see it well enough while driving, though will need some clever camera positioning and accessory placement that's not bogus (which both ACS and REC makers lots tend to ignore and just... leave at stock values. It's not even that difficult, and only a staggering few did it.)
D2 SECTION
D2 is somewhat more simulation-realistic like in driving compared to ACS and REC, but not that realistic either - think of it like a simcade leaning towards arcade. Drifty at high RPMs, grippy at lower RPMS (watch the tachometer if your car has an animated one, or wear the HUD if it doesn't have one but comes equipped with HUD controller/can be modified to have HUD controller equipped in!). There's alot of tricks and mechanics to driving D2 that is very niche/hardcore which takes actual time to learn and sink into (I'm not that good at it either even though I've been learning alot), but if you're not willing to spend the time that deep (that's okay) it's best to stick to it's drifting course which is easier overall. As to the size of D2 cars....
Most D2 cars are realistically-sized (so always going to be to-scale like the real inspiration), and depending on how you sit and how your avatar's height actually is (5'7 in Edit Shape doesn't always translate to 5'7 in actual SL measurement - measure with a block prim for better accuracy. Yeah...) it might fit like a glove or have to make sacrifices like having your legs stick out of the engine bay, or have tail swishing below the car if your tail's neutral state is usually straight down, or have your butt go through the seats (both which I experience often and ignore as my male shark avi is around 6'2 - pretty tall compared to a regular person irl but in SL that's a "just fine" somehow! This isn't D2 exclusive issue however as makers of cars in SL tend to have their stuff at 110-125% scale, which skews the scaling in SL towards bigger avis that measure through agent measurement than prim measurement.)