ExpanSim
Official Discord server launched!
- https://discord.gg/uQEmSUh
Patch update #5
What's new
- Added a new electric racing car inspired by Formula E
- Added a new electric car inspired by Tesla Model X
- Added a new electric truck inspired by Tesla Semi
- Added Nurburgring Race Track
- Added guard rails and improved grasses on Track Poznan
- Added a controls panel (now you can edit input mappings and calibrate custom steering wheels)
Physics
- Implemented base physics of an electric motor
- Stabilised lateral wheel forces
- Eliminated vertical jitter for high speeds
- Adjusted tire traction and improved controllability of racing cars
- Improved self-aligning force feedback of the steering wheel
- Enabled wheel collision with small dynamic objects
Bugfixes
- Urban City: fixed missing dynamic objects
Other
- Added individual config file versions
Patch update #4: Dynamic environment
What's new
- Added physics simulation for small and medium scene objects
- Lamps, posts, and road signs bend when they are hit
- Testing Ground: added spawn points for testing dynamic objects
Physics
- Added the interaction between vehicle wheels and dynamic scene objects
- Improved ABS
- Improved ASR
- Adjusted the force of the retarder
- Tuned fuel injection parameters
Performance
- Added the grass rendering distance to the quality settings
- Reduced the rendering distance and details of the vehicle mirror cameras
- Reduced the rendering distance of the secondary camera
- Optimised geometry in all maps
- Added occlusion culling
- Upgraded to the newest game engine version (Unity 2019.1)
Bugfixes
- Aligned tire deflection position to the contact point
- Fixed ASR error for a semi-trailer
- Track Poznan: improved grasses, trees, and road geometry
- Fixed minor UI problems
- Tuned sound effects
Work in progress
- Adding the possibility to edit input mappings and calibrate custom steering wheels (75% progress)
- Implementing Artificial Intelligence system (25% progress)
Patch update #3: Mirrors, transmission, and a retarder
What's new
- Added mirrors to vehicle interiors (you can turn them on/off in the settings)
- Added a semi-automatic mode to an automatic transmission (M key)
- Added an electric retarder as a default retardation mechanism in trucks
- Added VR head offset controls to the settings panel
Physics
- Increased the capacity of the friction clutch
- Changed the definition of the capacity of the torque converter (k-factor)
- Added a lockup clutch to the torque converter
- Reimplemented the gear change logic in an automatic transmission
Bugfixes
- Tuned sound effects (reduced the volume of tire squeaking)
- Windridge City: removed an invisible collider blocking the road and adjusted terrain geometry
- Track Poznan: improved track geometry and graphics
Other
- Reduced the default deadband of a steering wheel and controllers (in the future, you will be able to adjust it in the settings)
Patch update #2: Quality boost
What's new
- Added four new racing karts
- Added images of vehicles and spawn points to the UI
- Added a quality options panel (now you can change both the graphics quality and the precision of the physics simulation)
- Added more vehicle sounds
- Reorganized plots and added description tooltips
Bugfixes
- Improved the input system
- Meadow Environment: added fences around the map bounds
- Urban City: replaced obsolete road materials with new ones
- Fixed minor UI problems
Other
- Prepared code structure for vehicle modding (more information soon)
Patch update #1: Racing wheels FTW
What's new
- Added default support for Logitech G29 / G920 and Thrustmaster T500 RS racing wheels
- Added more details to Track Poznan
- Reorganized config file structure (separated wheel shape, tire, and brake parameters)
- Added input signals to the plot list
Physics
- Improved steering wheel force feedback (self-aligning torque, wheel collision force, and vibration)
- Tuned vehicle suspension parameters
- Tuned brake forces
- Improved tire deflection animation
Bugfixes
- Fixed objects suddenly spawning in front of you (LOD bias)
- Track Poznan: removed grass from the asphalt, fixed incorrect physics materials
- Windridge City: removed terrain protruding from under the asphalt
- Added map bounds colliders
- Added minor UI design improvements
Issues
- Sometimes force feedback is lost when entering VR mode - otherwise, it should work
eXpanSIM entered Early Access
eXpanSIM just recently surfaced on Steam, but the development really started more than a year ago. Thanks to the hard work of the team, our new project is finally ready to be announced.
Our adventure with vehicle simulators began about two years ago when we were contracted to make a new truck driving simulator for Grupa CARGO, the largest driving school in Poland. One of the biggest challenges was understanding all the aspects of realistic vehicle physics and implementing them efficiently. After almost a year of development, our software was officially certified and put into practical use. It is now an important element in the training process of professional drivers.
But what do you do to take a break from such a strenuous project? Of course, you start another one! This is how an innocent exercise intended to learn the new Entity-Component-System (ECS) in Unity 'suddenly' evolved into a new vehicle simulator. Only this time we had proper tools and knowledge of how to do it right from the beginning.
In short, ECS is a new way of writing performant code in Unity. Thanks to ECS-based architecture we can:
- Take full advantage of today's multicore processors
- Accelerate the computation of vehicle physics and AI
- Increase the frequency and precision of vehicle physics simulation
At the current stage of development, our original ECS-based vehicle physics engine is ready to be released. During the next weeks, we will prepare foundations for a research testbed in our simulator. It will be a modern tool for engineers, designers, Artificial Intelligence researchers working on autonomous vehicles and more. We believe that our realistic vehicle physics will help to minimise the gap between experimental results and the real-world performance.
Sounds boring? Then how about racing with autonomous vehicles? We have not forgotten about gamers who play vehicle simulators for fun. With VR technology, we are going to deliver the most realistic experience a game can offer you. It will be possible to use the simulator to learn driving a real car or a truck.