I've been giving DiRT 2 a new excuse to stay installed: DiRT2VR, my experimental cockpit VR mod. It adds stereoscopic rendering and head tracking, keeps the original menus on a virtual screen, and comes with a Windows launcher for getting into a race without a pile of manual configuration. Somewhere along the way, it also picked up quick races, controller setup and LAN multiplayer.
It is still a work in progress, but the tested Quest 3 setup is already driving in VR. Here's a look at what it does, what the interface looks like, and the bits that still need work.
The DiRT2VR launcher: choose an event, track and car, then launch on the desktop or in VR. Shown in solo Direct practice mode; opponent controls apply to Race.
Go Jače FPS has a new look for its entire player roster. The familiar DEFAULT sprites are still there, but PRERENDERED now offers a second interpretation of all fourteen characters: modelled forms, more consistent angles and an eight-pose walk cycle. Here's the old and new artwork side by side, starting with Knight.
Knight
DEFAULT
PRERENDERED
Silver plate, blue cloth and gold trim, reinterpreted with broader shading across the armour.
I've been giving two of Go Jače FPS's cargo-yard arenas a very different home. Shipment 1519 is a tight, lantern-lit harbor at night; Shipment 1519 Big opens that idea into an Adriatic-style waterfront district, with surrounding streets, elevated galleries and a warm sunset. Both revolve around enormous wooden cargo stacks, but the interesting difference is how you move around them.
Shipment 1519 Big from an elevated development camera: the cargo courtyard sits inside galleries and waterfront buildings, with the galley beyond the arena boundary.
I've added a rather different way to play Go Jače FPS. Heroes Arena takes the game's first-person shooting and retro characters into a 3v3 battle of lanes, towers, creep waves and destructible cores. You still aim the guns yourself, but now there's a bigger question than who's winning the firefight: are we actually pushing toward the enemy base?
Heroes Arena from the player's perspective: first-person gunplay, team portraits, lane objectives and a five-slot skill loadout.
GoRacer is starting to get a garage of its own. Alongside the tracks and the driving, I've been building original cars for it: a lightweight 16V hatch, an 800 hp hillclimb monster, two very different desert trucks, and rebuilt versions of the rally cars that started it all. Fictional names, their own bodywork and liveries, and plenty of that old arcade-racer character.
Rook HC4 in Summit Works colours, photographed on the new Bahía Roja circuit with the HUD hidden.
I've been working on AssettoServer Race Control, a Windows app for setting up and running custom Assetto Corsa events. Cars, grids, bots, weather, live race monitoring... all fairly sensible things for a racing simulator. Then there's the other mode: choose a loadout, grab a rifle, and play a Call of Duty-style deathmatch. Inside Assetto Corsa. Yes, really.
Race Control's Live Race view: circuit map, server controls and live bot telemetry. Click the screenshot for full size.
Got full wheel support working (clutch, H-shifter, FFB) and it feels great from the cockpit view. Still waiting on Fanatec to see if I can get their SDK - I really want FullForce in there as well. If I get that, I'll do a full "simulation" physics model (currently I have "Arcade" and "Simcade").
I'm really pleased with how well this works, so my next big feature is going to be - VR! Really excited about that one, being able to play my own racing game in full VR on my sim rig is kind of an amazing prospect, not gonna lie.
While my first game is about to be released on Steam (should be available here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4920290), I had the urge to start work on my own take on a 90's arcade racing game in the vein of Daytona, Sega Rally or Ridge Racer - or rather, the way I remember those games feeling and looking like.
It might not go anywhere, but as with anything I do, I'm fully committed at this stage and when I get excited about something, I get really productive. Here's a first (and hopefully not last) look.
Muzzle flash on my multiplayer characters started appearing as if coming out their ass due to a bug, and I was seriously contemplating leaving it and wiring a fart weapon type that shoots backwards.
I added a mutator system (applied before a multiplayer match), and some of the mutators literally give cheat mode to all players in the lobby. Wallhacks, aimbot, infinite ammo, speed hacks, you name it. It's fair play if everyone gets them though, right? Still feels wrong.
This continues the mashup philoshophy of my game development. It's a boomer shooter, but has heavy influence from Call of Duty in terms of game / match structure, and several ideas from Unreal Tournament as well (instagib, and now mutators).
