Belated Happy New Year!

What have I been up to? I've been hitting the books on 3D graphics rendering; techniques and pitfalls. In this process, I think I have now identified about everything that makes GDSim unoptimized as it is. With that knowledge, within my power (with Godot 4's in-development OpenGL renderer), I still intend to make a game that runs on as many PCs as possible. I might launch two versions of the game, the default one Vulkan-powered, if it runs better on PCs that support Vulkan.

What else? I am settling on an art style! Stylistically retro, and efficient for both performance and development. I have a couple tricks up my sleeve to make it special. A strong visual identity is valuable for a game. 👍 Since my last post, I have also picked up new music software to suit the implied retro hardware. GDSim didn't have a soundtrack, but future stuff will.

The simulation itself? Stronger than ever. Recently, I've revamped surface bumpiness to read from a noise map, so bumps actually "exist" on the otherwise flat surface -- bump mapping, but just for physics. The drivetrain model is very much improved, with new clutch and automatic-transmission simulations. Clutch slip is much more accurate, and I was able to extend the code to simulate a torque converter too. Next on my list is redoing turbo-/supercharging like I redid the clutch.

I apologize for the delay -- sometimes life gets in the way. I am trying to do this the right way to help make it more likely that I can complete the project, and there is a lot to take on. A late game is better than an abandoned project, no?

To my fans: with your help, we can shake up the driving/racing simulation scene. 🙌 I promise I am committed, because the stagnation in the genre has affected my sim hobby. Unless someone else coincidentally beats me to the same thing and does it better, perhaps, I'm not quitting. 💪