We’ve been promising some additional detail on the progress of our physics systems for some time but the development has seen several blockers, including the production of additional features and general improvements, including updates to our live physics model.
The project has been ongoing for Cristi (AKA the Physics Guy) for months. Our development process can be simplified as follows:
- Step One – Development and testing by the development team
- Step Two – Development and testing by the wider RGT Team
- Step Three – Development and testing by the RGT Community
- Step Four – Pushed live for general use
Each of these stages includes extensive adjustments and tweaking by Cristi.
WHERE ARE WE NOW?
We’re currently at Stage Two in the process. This involves the wider team recording their rides and open conversation to establish the best experience before asking the community for help.
We’re sharing this to show how the development is progressing, we conscious of the fact the frequency of updates has not been as often as we would have liked.
HOW WAS THE TEST?
In the most recent round of testing, we identified various undesirable behaviors including a slow response from the avatar to pull into the draft and some unusual braking where speeds of the riders being passed were not being taken into consideration.
The goal is to create an experience that is very similar to the current drafting but with a much more granular set of parameters that can be adjusted to improve it. This will then allow us to take feedback from the wider community on improvements and next steps.
The rides we have done are already better proving to be an improvement. The general feeling on the bike feels more natural and there is an overall sense of optimism about this from the community.
WHAT WILL CHANGE?
Those who are regular visitors to the blog or have watched the AUA will know that we’re committed to realism. We will not be increasing event or road capacity for the sake of accurate rider positioning. We’ve seen some outrageous videos from “prime time” racing that validates this commitment.
However… With that said, we’re confident that the work will optimise the platform and naturally increase the number of athletes in each event