Build 1144 - Programming Framework Updates

We've made amazing strides in the speed and efficiency of the programming scripts in MotorCubs RC. Here's a short summary of the improvements made since build 1029:

• Playfab allows for offline gameplay, useful for Steam Deck travel play.

• Vehicle A.I. is aware of other cars nearby.

• Vehicle A.I. fuzzy logic when it feels it's stuck in a wall.

• Vehicle A.I. can be taught where to jump.

• Vehicle A.I. decisions are hexadecimal instead of string for faster processing.

• Vehicles tilt forward in mid-air to align better with terrain.

• Vehicles can recover from being upside down or on their side by steering left or right.

• Vehicle wheels hang in mid-air.

• Vehicles are able to clutch flip, useful after a pit maneuver is executed on the player.

• Vehicle turning reduced by 30% if fewer than 3 wheels are touching the ground.

• Dead vehicle chassis' can be driven into and ripped apart for a Bear Biscuit reward.

• When steering in mid-air the vehicle tilts its yaw, which helps when landing on tilted surfaces.

• Vehicle tires catch on fire when driving too close to an explosion.

• Steer smoothing implemented for more nuanced steering.

• Vehicle physics have shorter calculations for faster frame response time.

• Pause Game function implements time slowdown to help maintain vehicle velocity and script stability.

• Custom particle emitter to respect time slowdown.

• Radio volume reduces when Paused.

• Cabin View Camera code less prone to rigid body issues when transitioning back to 3rd Person Camera.

• Menu caches selections for faster processing.

• Respawn function now has modular prefabs: Explosion, Car Chassis, Teddy Bear, empty slot for future effects.

• Car Path Follow function no longer searches hierarchy for premade targets.

• Massive refactoring of the waypoint list, respawn manager and other startup components for a 9x faster race load time.

• CarPathFollow no longer searches hierarchy for premade targets, not needed in level design anymore.

• UI buttons have more stickiness with the joystick.

• Set foundation for Player 2 to earn Bear Biscuits too.

• Level 9 "Cave Dweller" is playable while we work through the initial layout design process.

We currently only use the Patriot Oxide for A.I. vehicles until we're 100% happy with how they drive and react. Then will slowly roll out the other vehicles for the A.I. to select from through the end of December.

There's still a few more optimizations to make with the menu and car controller scripts, but the game runs a lot better on the CPU side compared to a month ago. Online multiplayer work depends on all these single player systems running as fast as possible with clean code, that way the server isn't slowing the players down or causing its own issues. Expect Online Quickplay to be available to test in early January.