A Racing Game Tutorial

A second tutorial for Unity designed to allow the read-

er to create a complete racing game. This tutorial will
introduce more advanced concepts and techniques in
Unity, and focus on scripting advanced functions with-
in the game. We will gradually build a complete game
following easy step-by-step instructions and a progres-
sion of concepts.

Contents I – Introduction
I Introduction Welcome to the second tutorial created for Unity! The idea behind
this second tutorial is to provide users the opportunity to create a
II Setting the Scene full, working game. This is a more advanced tutorial and will fo-
A quick chapter setting up the ob- cus more on the general concepts of programming and scripting a
jects and assets for the game, includ- complete game within the Unity environment. It will introduce you
ing the track, cars and lighting. to advanced physics and modeling, camera views and styles that
work for the racing genre, the basics of enemy AI, triggers, setting
III Controlling the Player’s Car up more complex GUIs for a game, scoring and end-game goals.
Scripting the player’s car. Starting This tutorial assumes that you have a decent familiarity with the
with the basics of movement Unity interface and workflow, and also some familiarity with the first
and moving on to explanations tutorial, as we are going to skip some basic concepts to quickly get
of RigidBody, Colliders, friction, in-depth into the game.
force, transform, and variables.
Moving Forward
The tutorial will lead you through a series of steps that will build on
Moving Left and Right
one another, with detailed explanations so that you have an ex-
An Introduction to Variables
cellent working knowledge of the technical aspects of the finished
Basic Physics
racing game. There will also be some detailed explanations of
Advanced Physics
basic programming questions and concepts. When complete, you
will be able to take away scripts and techniques applicable to many
IV The Game Camera
How to create and use a third-person other types of games that can be used in your own projects.
view camera to follow the player’s car.
Simple Camera Theses scripts include such things as: player car/object scripts,
Smooth Camera camera scripts, enemy and AI scripts, goal trigger scripts, creating
waypoints, timer scripts, and game startup and GUI scripts. Be-
V The Other Cars and AI cause of the complexity of this tutorial, it will be broken down into
Introduces basic AI concepts applica- several main sections, some of which will have a number of specific
ble to many genres of games. Explains subsections, as shown in the Contents at left.
basic coroutines in scripting, and how
waypoints are created and used by The Goals Of This Tutorial
game objects. This tutorial was intended to be a script tutorial that really focuses
AI Car Script solely on scripting; it is meant to be an introductory tutorial on script-
Waypoints ing in Unity for beginners. For this reason, the models are kept as
simple as possible, and in the scripts we chose to use the simplest
VI Start Your Engines! possible solutions to get a functional game. The car, for example
Wrapping up the game by adding a race can be tweaked much more than we did in the tutorial. This tutorial
timer, game GUI, text objects, count- is not meant to create a fun game, but rather it is meant as a script-
down timer and scene transitions. ing tutorial to show the complete process of creating a game from
the scripting side.
1
Thanks A Note About The Files
Thanks To Those Who Helped! The most up-to-date versions of the files for this tutorial are always
I was thrilled when the guys at OTEE available for download at the following URLs:
allowed me to help create a second,
more complete, complex tutorial for http://www.otee.dk/tutorials/car_tutorial.zip
the Unity 1.1 release.
http://www.otee.dk/tutorials/car_tutorial_complete.zip
Joachim and Nicholas at OTEE were,
as always, especially helpful and ex- There are two versions of the project files supplied with this tu-
tremely responsive and professional. torial. The first version provides all of the assets (scripts, objects,
David and Keli at OTEE also provided models, textures, physic materials etc) but assumes that the reader
a great deal of help, ideas, direction will assemble these into working form and create the working
and support for this tutorial. scenes by reading through this tutorial and actually doing all of the
steps as outlined in the tutorial. This "bare bones" version starts with
The Unity forums are an active com- a single scene containing only a track and non-functioning player
munity of involved, fun, resourceful
car. This is the recommended starting point and goal for readers
users of Unity and I’d strongly recom-
when starting working on this tutorial.
mend visiting the forums to contrib-
ute and help others create cool things
The purpose of this method is that at the end of each of the tutorial’s
with Unity. The forums are online at
subsections and sections, the reader will have a completed, func-
http://ww.otee.dk/forum/. Thanks
to all the regulars there who help out! tioning scene with which to build the next scene with.

Unity 1.1 brings a whole bunch of very The second version (car_tutorial_complete) is a completed and fully
cool updates and improvements to working version of the tutorial and all of the scenes to be used as a
the application. Among these: the reference should a part of the tutorial not make sense or the reader
ability to build standalone Windows wants to see a section of the tutorial fully functioning.
applications, easier level loading,
updates to hinges and a new raycast Thanks!
collider, water textures, and many Most thanks must go to the guys at OTEE who helped create this
more. joint-effort tutorial. Their help with creating the scripts and explain-
ing them to me for the tutorial was excellent. The tutorial certainly
Unity version 1.5 has introduced wouldn’t exist without especially Joachim’s patience, support, and
specialized wheel colliders. The new desire to help me get it packaged like this. The great community on
wheel collider has support for slip the Unity forums also have contributed a great deal to the develop-
curves, a specialized friction model ment and exciting nature of Unity. Thanks, guys! Thanks also to
for cars, dampers, and allows you to fellow WidgetMonkey, Ron Letkeman, the artist and modeler who
model anything from a dune buggy always come up with fun ideas for games and the art to make them
through to a F1 racing car game. come to life. And finally, hello to my kids, Cal and Luke.
See page 42 for details.

This tutorial document will be up-

dated as necessary, and is © 2006
by OTEE and David Janik-Jones.
Any errors in this tutorial are the au-
thors’, and not OTEEs. 3 September
2006. Version 1.2.


Tutorial Assets II – Setting the Scene
Racing Game Tutorial Assets In this section, we’re going to quickly set up the physical objects
The latest versions of the two files to and assets that will be necessary in our racing game. These include
work through this tutorial are found the players and enemy cars, the racing track, scripts for each of the
online as explained on page 2. One tutorial sections, and pre-made scenes that explain the tutorial’s
file is the tutorial with assets set up concepts. We’ll start by downloading the pre-made assets and cre-
for the reader to work through creat- ating our project by opening them.
ing the full game, while the second
is a completed version of the project Begin by downloading the Tutorial Asset files and then unzipping the
for reference purposes. files to create the "car_tutorial" and "car_tutorial_complete" project
folders. Both folders contain all of the required assets for the tutorial
I’ve assumed that readers will want separated into logically arranged subfolders.
to use this tutorial as a basis to build
larger games, so the game assets
Move these folders where you prefer on your hard drive and then
have been structured into folders
open Unity. Select File -> Open Project and locate and open the
that are based on the asset’s func-
"car_tutorial" project. Unity will restart, update the assets, and then
tion rather than type, the reasons for
open the standard tutorial game world. Open the Basic Setup scene.
which were explained in the first tu-
We’ll make two minor modifications now by changing a couple of
torial (mainly ease of finding assets
in complex game projects). the values in Edit -> Project Settings -> Player. Change the De-
fault Size of the build to 800x600, and change the Default Graphics
Remember, this tutorial was created Quality to 4 (1024 x 768 is now the default setting for new projects).
using the latest version of Unity as of If you work in the 2 Split layout your screen will look like this:
this writing, version 1.1.

The 2 Split Layout

But Mine Doesn’t Look Like That!
I’m using the 2 Split layout for this
tutorial because I find it the most
basic and intuitive of the UI lay-
outs that come with Unity. Feel
free though to use the layout that
works best for you while working
on the tutorial. But note that if you
do use a di�erent screen interface,
your screens will vary from the ones
shown here.

We’ll use the provided assets ([A] Car Control through [D] Game
Setup) to work our way through the sections and concepts in the
tutorial. At the end of the tutorial, we will have learned enough to
create a small series of complete scenes that incorporate all of the
tutorial concepts, and create a complete racing game. To begin,
we’ve opened the Basic Setup scene and will start work on the first
working section, III - Controlling the Player’s Car.

3
What is Code? III – Controlling the Player’s Car
Showing Code In The Tutorial This is the longest section of the tutorial, so it’s been broken into
I will be showing all examples of five major subsections. Each of the subsections builds upon the
scripts in a Courier typeface and knowledge learned in the previous subsection so that at the end
inside a faint blue box, as shown be- of Section III, you’ll have a thorough knowledge of many important
low, so that code is easily picked out aspects of Unity and will have saved several scenes of your work.
from the rest of the tutorial content.
Controlling a player’s car in a game requires an understanding of
var power = 3.0; physics in game engines, with a main focus on motion of a ve-
function FixedUpdate () { hicle, over time, through a specific game world. It also involves the
mechanics of collisions (and collision detection), and will introduce
// When you press space the concept of variables that will be required for this sort of player
// we move up the box control of objects.
if (Input.GetButton
Many Unity users will be familiar with much of what is discussed in
("Jump")) {
this section. This section will provide a complete understanding of
rigidbody.AddForce (Vector3. all of these concepts to the beginning user and, for the advanced
up * power); user, I hope to illustrate how Unity uniquely handles all of these
} physical and mechanical concepts, so that they can be used as a
basis and help you develop your own titles.
}
We’ll start with the very basics in the first subsection – moving a
player’s car forward through the world

1. Moving Forward
Objects in a scene are moved by using "Transform" and an "Up-
date" function that is "called" (runs) every frame. Transforms take
care of all the movement of every object in Unity. Before we get to
the code, let’s review some very basic coding stuff.

A function is a piece of JavaScript code that is defined once,

but then can be called many times by the program. A JavaScript
function can be passed parameters that specify the values that
a function will operate on. Functions can also return values back to
the program. Functions are defined in JavaScript like this:

function square (x) {

return x * x;
}

Once a function is defined you can invoke it by following the func-

tion’s name with an optional comma-separate list of arguments
within parentheses. The following four lines of code would print the
number 9 to the console:

function square (x) {

return x * x;
}
print (square(3));

4
Functions Some functions are automatically called on certain events. An im-
A Complete List portant and very useful function in Unity that is called every frame
You can find a complete list of all of is the "Update" function.
the functions that are automatically
called by Unity in OTEE’s online script To do anything interesting in your game, you’ll have to call some
reference documentation. of Unity’s built in functions. A few paragraphs ago I mentioned that
objects in a scene are moved by using the class "Transform" and an
"Update" function that is called every frame. Transforms take care
of all the movement of every object in Unity. A complete list of all
You Comment, Right? function’s supported by Transform can be found online.
What’s This Section Of Code Do?!
In my day job, I code CSS websites. To call a function on an object, you refer to the object, followed by a
Big, big websites with lots of CSS to period and the function to call. In the following example, we call the
make sure everything is accessible Transform’s Translate function. It has 3 parameters that are used to
and compliant. And the only way to define how much to transform (move) an object along it’s x, y and
make sure that I can remember what z axis.
I did six months ago, or make sure
that the guy in the o�ce next to me // Move the car forward along it’s z-axis
understands what he’s looking at, function Update () {
is to comment my CSS code really, transform.Translate (0, 0, 1);
really well. }

I’d strongly recommend, even if you In the tutorial, this is the MoveForward.js script in the [A] Car Con-
work alone, that you comment your trol -> 1 Move Forward folder, and has the comment line at the be-
code well enough that anyone look- ginning to remind us and anyone else who looks at our code what
ing at it can understand what they’re this does (see the You Comment, Right? note at left). Attach this
looking at and what does what. In script to the Player Car object using drag and drop so that the car
JavaScript, comments are those will simply move forward one unit along it’s z axis each frame. The
helpful lines of code like this ... z axis is the blue arrow when you select the car. Run your scene
to see this script in action. Do a Save as... and save the scene as
// fade screen to black Move Forward in the 1 Move Forward. Play with the values of the
script to make the car go up or sideways instead of forward, or to
lines that you will thank yourself for go faster forward.
later. It’s just good coding practice.

5
 2. Moving Left and Right
We’re now going to use Transform and Input to move the car left
and right. Open up the Basic Setup scene again and attach the
[A] Car Control -> 2 Move And Turn -> MoveAndTurn.js script to
the Player Car. Run the scene and use the arrow keys to move
the player car. The motion is very simplistic but we’re now using
input from the player to modify an object within the game world.
Here’s the code (MoveAndTurn.js) that’s making this happen:

// The Update function is called once every frame

function Update () {

// Apply motion along the z axis of the car

transform.Translate (0, 0, Input.GetAxis
("Vertical"));

// Apply motion along the y axis of the object

transform.Rotate (0, Input.GetAxis
("Horizontal"), 0);

We’re still using the Update function to make the car move, but
only every frame it receives player input. Instead of declaring a
number of units to move along either the z or y axis as in our first
section, we’re using a new function to make movement happen:
Input.GetAxis; and one new function called transform.Rotate to
make the car turn. These are basic movement functions in Unity.

Input.GetAxis is a function that looks for mouse or keyboard input

from the user and who’s values range from 1 to -1 (for keyboard).
You can change many of the settings/variables associated with the
Input.GetAxis using the Edit -> Project Settings -> Input menu and
find more information in the online script reference documentation.

transform.Rotate is similar to transform.Translate, except that in-

stead of moving ("translating") an object along an axis, it rotates
the object around the specified axis. In our example, it will continue
to rotate the object around the specified axis as long as one of the
"Horizontal" input keys (the left and right arrows) are held down.
I mentioned that the motion of the player car is still simplistic. But
before we add some more physics to the car’s motion, I want to
review to concept of variables in Unity. Save as... and save this
completed scene in 2 Move And Turn as Move Forward.

Framerate Independent Movement

I’d like to take a second to go off track (pardon the pun) here for a
few minutes and talk about something called "framerate indepedent
movement." Notice how old computer games play really quickly on
your new computer? Or how one frame of game action can take a
different amount of time depending on how much motion or how
6 many explosions were taking place?
 That’s the result of framerate dependent movement.

// Move the object along it’s z-axis

function Update () {
transform.Translate (0, 0, 1);
}

In the above code, we move an object 1m along it’s z axis per

frame, but this will move the object a different distance along the z
axis per second on different machines.

To work around this issue, you will most always want to change val-
ues dependent on time. In our simple example, you want to move
a car 1 meter per second. In code this translates to:

// Move the car along it’s z-axis 1m/second

function Update () {
transform.Translate (0, 0, 1 * Time.deltaTime);
}

Time.deltaTime is the amount of time the last frame took. By mul-

tiplying with Time.deltaTime, you make your objects move 1 meter
per second instead of 1 meter per frame. When should you multiply
by Time.deltaTime? You want to multiply by delta time when con-
tinously changing a value every frame. Most of the time this is
when dealing with input, as shown in the following two simple code
examples:

function FixedUpdate () {
transform.position.x += Input.GetAxis
("Horizontal") * Time.deltaTime;
}

function Update () {
light.range += 0.1 * Time.deltaTime;
}

There is one notable exception when dealing with input: Mouse

delta, which is always absolute. It is how far the mouse moved.
Thus you should not multiply by delta time. A simple code example
of this is shown below:

function Update () {
transform.Rotate (0, Input.GetAxis ("Mouse X"), 0);
}

In the next subsection, An Introduction To Variables, we will apply

this knowledge about framerate independent movement.

7
Case Sensitivity 3. An Introduction to Variables
JavaScript Is Case Sensitive Many Unity users have some programming experience and will be
You will need to remember that able to simply skim this section. But since this tutorial has been
JavaScript is a case-sensitive designed as an introduction to Unity’s programming functionality,
language. This means that language we should explore a cornerstone of computer programming known
keywords, variables, function names as variables for newer users. The concept of variables will come
and other identifiers have to typed into play in the next section of the tutorial when I will add some ad-
with consistent capitalization of vanced physics and behvaiours to the player’s car.
letters.
At its most basic, variables are used to store and manipulate data.
For example, the function keyword A variable has a unique name and stores a value (numeric, text etc)
has to written "function", and not that can be used by the program to do something.
"Function" or "FUNCTION".
The first line of code in the following example creates a variable
named "i" and assigns the value "3" to it, while the second line of
code creates a variable named "sum" whose value is equal to our
first variable "i" multiplied by "2". In this case, "sum" would be equal
to "6".

var i = 3;
var sum = i * 2;

Variables also have something called "scope;" most easily understood

as being the area of your program in which it is defined and used. A
"public" variable is defined outside any functions and available for use
everywhere inside of a script, while a "local" variable is defined only
inside a specific function where it is created, as shown here:

var publicVar = 1;
function Foo () {
var localVar = 1;
}

Function parameters are also local; in the following example, t is a

parameter and thus considered a local variable:

function Square (t) {

return t*t;
}

Any public variables in your script will show up in the inspector when
you attach a script to a game object. In the inspector you can then
change the value. How is this important? The value that is showing
in the Inspector can be changed in the Inspector and overrides the
value used in the script. This means that ...

var i = 5;
print (i);

doesn’t always print 5, because you can change the value of i in

the Inspector to say 7.
8
 We can summarize what we now know about variables so far
by way of a short example script (shown below): playerLives is a
public variable, while carSpeed is a local variable.

// A public variable needs to be defined outside of

// any function blocks as shown with playerLives

var playerLives = 3;

function Update () {
// Every frame we decrease playerLives by 1.
// This means playerLives will become
// smaller and smaller every frame.

playerLives -= 1;

// Car speed is declared inside the Update function

// so it is a local variable. It can not be
// used by other functions in the script.
// At the end of the Update function it will
// always equal 3.

var carSpeed = 2.0;

carSpeed += 1;
}

That was pretty easy, huh?

So let’s get back to the game now and combine some of this coding
stuff into making something fun happen to the player’s car. Our next
subsection, Moving Left And Right With Variables, will make the
player car move left and right using variables in a new script.

Important Note!
Unity-specific Terminology
I have put comments in the previous two code examples that
state:

// The speed variables can be changed in the

// inspector without changing any scripts.

In Unity, component variables are known as "properties". This

means that the term "public variable" actually means, and is the
same as, a "component property".

9
 Moving Left and Right (With Variables)
Open up the Basic Setup scene again and attach the [A] Car
Control -> 3 Variables -> Variables.js script to the Player Car.
Run the scene and use the arrow keys to move the player car.
The motion has now dramatically changed when compared to the
previous scene. It’s now the Variables.js script in this asset folder
making the player’s car move. Here it is in detail:

// Variables defined outside of functions appear

// in the inspector and can be changed there
// without having to change the script

var speed = 10.0;

var rotationSpeed = 100.0;

function Update () {

// The update function is called every frame.

// Read user input and store it in a
// translation and rotation variable

var translation = Input.GetAxis ("Vertical");

var rotation = Input.GetAxis ("Horizontal");

// Multiply speed with the input.

// The speed variable can be changed in the
// inspector without changing any scripts

translation = speed * translation;

rotation = rotationSpeed * rotation;

// To make the car move frame rate independent,

// we multiply how quickly we rotate and move
// with Time.deltaTime.

translation *= Time.deltaTime;
rotation *= Time.deltaTime;

// Apply translation along z axis of the car

transform.Translate (0, 0, translation);

// Rotate around the y-axis

transform.Rotate (0, rotation, 0);

Notice that var speed = 10.0; and var rotationSpeed = 100.0;

are public variables that are outside the functions and will appear,
and can be edited, in the Inspector panel. feel free to experiment
with them. Don’f forget to now Save as... and save this completed
scene in 3 Variables as Variables.

10
Transform The script makes use of everything we discussed in the Introduc-
Transform Is An Important Class tion to Variables section. The player car now slows gradually after
Transform is one of the main classes the player stops holding the arrow keys.This is a bit weird at first
in Unity. Most game object manipu- because our code actually just moves the car forward with a con-
lations are done either through stant velocity. But the Input.GetAxis function automatically smoothes
the game object’s Transform and/or keyboard input and because we multiply the input with velocity the
Rigidbody. velocity is automatically smoothed. You can modify the smoothness
of keyboard input, setup joysticks etc. via the input manager. Edit ->
Every object in a scene has a Project Settings -> Input, and see the Input reference online for more
Transform. It’s used to store and information. With these basic in mind, we can now bring other phys-
manipulate the position, rotation ics into our racing game; specifically, RigidBody and Colliders.
and scale of the object. Transform
has a number of variables and 4. Basic Physics
functions associated with it, and In this scene, we want to start to affect the player’s car through
a complete list of all of these are the use of forces and torques (angular forces) rather than position
online in OTEE’s script reference web and rotation directly. This has several advantages including more
page. realistic motion, but more importantly, we don’t have to multiply
movements by Time.deltaTime when working with physics because
Every Transform can have a parent, forces are already time independent. Once again, start by opening
which allows you to apply position, up the Basic Setup scene, then click on [A] Car Control -> 4 Phys-
rotation and scale hierachically. This ics -> SimplePhysics.js and examine it in the Inspector panel.
is the hierarchy seen in the Hierarchy
pane. They also support enumerators
The SimplePhysics.js script for this is not any more complex than
so you can loop through children.
the script for Moving Left and Right With Variables, shown here:

// We are now working with forces and torques

// (Angular forces) instead of position/rotation-
var speed = 30.0;
var rotationSpeed = 10.0;

function FixedUpdate () {

// Multiply speed with the input.

// var speed can be changed in the inspector
// without changing any scripts
var force = Input.GetAxis ("Vertical");
force = speed * force;

// Don’t multiply by Time.deltaTime

// since forces are already time independent.

// Apply force along the z axis of the object

rigidbody.AddRelativeForce (0, 0, force);
var torque = Input.GetAxis ("Horizontal");
torque = rotationSpeed * torque;

// Rotate around the world y-axis

rigidbody.AddTorque (0, torque, 0);

So now let’s create a working version of this scene.

11
Raycast Colliders In this section we will build the first version of a raycast car. A ray-
Collision Detection Using Rays cast car is a car which slides over the ground. It’s wheels don’t
A raycast collider simply uses a ray spin as at drives forward; in this respect it is actually more like a
for collision detection instead of a snowmobile than a car. Every frame we apply a force to move it
volume shape such as a sphere, box, forward. It doesn’t move sideways because we will use a Physic
or capsule. Material with anisotropic friction. Anisotropic friction is a necsssary
part of a game involving motion because it allows you to have dif-
Raycast colliders are useful when ferent friction values for forward or sideways motion. When moving
modelling cars because any volume sideways we will use a much higher friction value than forward. This
based colliders can have small nu- will make the car tend to slide forward instead of sideways and
merical imprecisions, which makes follow the front wheels when they are rotated. We’ll use a simple,
the motion more jerky. Raycast three-step process to build the first version of a raycast car for the
colliders are, therefore, a little more player to control.
robust. When dealing with fast
moving cars this is very important. First, we want to create colliders for the car: add a box collider to the
car_body of Player Car, then add raycast colliders to each of the four
wheels. These are added to an object by selecting the object in the
Scene view or the Hierarchy panel, and then selecting Component
-> Dynamics from the menubar. A raycast collider simply uses a ray
for collision detection instead of a volume shape; i.e., a sphere. Also
attach a RigidBody with a mass of 10 to the Player Car.

Second, create a Physic Material and set it up as shown in the fol-

lowing screenshot. Rename it WheelMaterial and move it to the 4
Physics directory. Assign this new material to all the 4 wheels using
drag and drop.

Above: The Physic Material settings

for the next section, Advanced Phys-
ics. these apply to both the front and
back wheels. See the middle of page
13 for an explanation.

12
Connecting Variables You create a new Physic Material by clicking on the "Create" button
Public Variables In The Inspector in your project panel and selecting Physic Material. These materials
As mentioned much earlier, variables contain all the friction and bounciness parameters that are needed
in a script appear in the Inspector to handle and enhance collisions between objects. Physic Mate-
panel and will need to be "associ- rial also has a setting to combine/multiply these effects to increase
ated" with an object. In this case, these two forces.
our four variables (frontLeftWheel,
frontRightWheel etc) appear linked The third and final step is to attach the SimplePhysics script located
to "None" when we first click on the in your Project panel 4 Simple Physics to the car. If you play with the
Play Car in the Hierarchy panel. You value of the variables of the Simple Physics script in the Inspector make
link a variable to an object by simply sure that Speed is at least 100 and Rotation Speed is at least 80.
dragging the object onto the vari-
able in the Inspector as shown in this We can now Run this scene and test the motion of our car. Save the
screenshot. scene as Simple Physics in the 4 Simple Physics directory.

5. Advanced Physics
In this section we’re going to improve the raycast car. The main
change we’ll make is that we will now rotate the wheels instead of
applying a torque to the entire car to make it rotate. Start by open-
ing up the Basic Setup scene, and adding a box collider, raycast
colliders, and a RigidBody to the various Player Car parts as we did
on page 12 in the previous section. Save as... the scene now in the
5 More Physics directory naming it simply Physics.

Now create and save two new Physic Materials – one for the back
wheel named BackWheel, and one for the front wheel named Front-
Wheel. These will give us more control over the car handling, be-
Private Variables cause we can tweak and fiddle with the friction values for the front
Public vs. Private Variables and back wheels as separate entities in the Inspector. Set these up
In Section 3 we introduced public using the values as shown in the smaller Physic Materials setting
variables. Public variables are de- screen shot in the left sidebar on page 12.
clared like this var i = 5;.
Notice how we refined the values we’ve assigned the Physic Ma-
It is also possible to declare a variable terials by adding a springy contact to the wheel’s physics material
as private as shown here:
to make it soft. This is done by enabling the use Spring flag, and
setting spring to 25 and damper to 5. Feel free to play around with
private var i = 5;
these values to get the dampers in your car right. We can now Run
this scene and watch the improved motion of our car.
Declaring a variable as private is
useful for storing state that should
Now let’s tackle the script associated with this scene: PlayerCar.js.
not be accessed from other scripts.
Private variables are also not visible
There’s two things in this script that will give the car better physics
in the inspector. This is quite useful in this section. 1) In the script we will now tweak the center of mass
to unclutter the inspector from and inertia tensor so that the car has a lower center of mass (to
unneccessary variables. prevent it from flipping over too easily). 2) We remove the torque
from the car because we’ll modify the rotation of the wheels based
We will be using private variables in on the input horizontal axis instead of torque.
the Physics.js script on the following
pages. When we attach this script to the player car, the four declared vari-
ables will have to be connected in the Inspector so that the script
knows which variable is associated with which wheel (shown at top
left). The script is shown in all it’s gory detail on the next page:
13
Dynamic/Static Typing // These transforms need to be connected in the
// Inspector so the script can identify the wheels
Unity Uses Static Typing
var frontLeftWheel : Transform;
Netscape’s JavaScript implementa-
tion is a dynamically typed language.
var
var
frontRightWheel : Transform;
backLeftWheel : Transform;
1
For example you can assign a number
var backRightWheel : Transform;
to a variable and later assign a string
to it, for example:
// Speed is a multiplier of how much force
// we add to the wheels every frame
i = 5;
var speed = 150;
i = "Hello World";
// The maximum steering angle of the wheels
In most cases writing the above is
var maxSteerAngle = 30;
an oversight in the script and not in-
tentional. Statically typed languages
// This is used to track if
usually require you to specify the
private var hasBackWheelContact = false;
type of the variable when declaring
it like this:
// Tweak the center of mass. You’d want a
// low center of mass, a bit towards the front
var i : int = 5; // of the model on a long but not very tall car

Unity’s Javascript implementation,

2
rigidbody.centerOfMass = Vector3 (0, 0, 0);
however, is statically typed but rigidbody.inertiaTensorRotation = Quaternion.identity;
doesn’t require you to declare the rigidbody.inertiaTensor = Vector3 (1, 1, 2) * rigid-
type yourself. How is this possible? body.mass;
Instead of having to specify the type
every time, the type is automatically function FixedUpdate () {
inferred when assigning a value to a var motorForce = speed * Input.GetAxis ("Vertical");
variable. For example i is automati-
cally inferred to the type int in this // Do the wheels touch the ground?
example: i = 5; // Apply force along the z axis of the object
if (hasBackWheelContact) {
If you write:
}
rigidbody.AddRelativeForce (0, 0, motorForce);
3
i = 5;
i = "Hello World"; // The horizontal is in the range [-1 ... 1]
// The maximum steer
The compiler will give you an error var rotation = Input.GetAxis ("Horizontal") * maxSteerAngle;
because the types don’t match. This
is a big advantage of statically typed // Set rotation around the y-axis of both wheels
languages – they give you compile
errors early on, telling you when you frontLeftWheel.localEulerAngles = Vector3 (0, rotation, 0);
do something wrong. frontRightWheel.localEulerAngles = Vector3 (0, rotation, 0);

Common Mistakes // This tracks if the back wheels are grounded

Inferring the type can sometimes
4
// Every frame we reset the variable
cause small errors that are hard to // OnCollisionStay will then enable the variable
track down because you don’t think // if the wheel is grounded.
about what the type was inferred to. hasBackWheelContact = false;
For example, in the following script:
}

14
 // countdown is inferred // Called every frame if car collides with something.
to an integer value // Used to calculate if the wheels touch the ground.
function OnCollisionStay (collision : Collision)
var countdown = 5; {
for (var p : ContactPoint in collision.contacts)
function Update () { {
// countdown will never
decrease!!!
// Enable hasBackWheelContact if we are
// touching the ground
5
countdown -= Time.del-
taTime; if (p.thisCollider.transform == backLeftWheel)
hasBackWheelContact = true;
// When subtracing if (p.thisCollider.transform == backRightWheel)
// deltaTime from countdown hasBackWheelContact = true;
// deltaTime is rounded to }
// an int, because }
// deltaTime is normally
// less than 0.5 we will There are several important parts to this script that I will quickly review
// always subtract zero for the reader.
}
1. These are the four transform variables that we needed to connect to
Instead we have to make countdown specific wheels in the Inspector panel as demonstrated on page 13.
a float:
2. This is where we change the player car’s centre of mass based on
// countdown is inferred
our car model. In our case, the car is long and not too tall so we’ve
to be a float value
moved the centre of mass slightly down and toward the front of the
var countdown = 5.0;
car. The center of mass is relative to the transform’s origin. If you don’t
set the center of mass from a script like we are doing here, it will be
function Update () {
calculated automatically from all colliders attached to the rigidbody.
// This works perfectly InertiaTensorRotation and InertiaTensor are the rotation of
fine, since countdown now the inertia tensor and the diagonal inertia tensor of mass relative to
is a float. the center of mass respectively. The inertia tensor is rotated by the
inertiaTensorRotation.
countdown -= Time.del-
taTime; 3. This function checks to see if the car’s back wheels are in contact
} with the ground/track surface, then applies a relative force along the
car’s z axis to move the car either forwards or backwards based on
the player pushing the up or down arrows. This part also sets the
angle of the front wheels turning based on the player pressing the left
or right (horizontal) keys.

4 and 5. These parts of the script track if the wheels are still in contact
with the ground. At the end of every frame we set hasBackWheel-
Contact to false. OnCollisionStay is called every frame if any of
the colliders of the car are colliding with other objects. Inside OnCol-
lisionStay we check if the collider is a backwheel. If it has, we en-
able hasBackWheelContact again. This is all repeated every frame,
thus hasBackWheelContact will track if the car is grounded or not.

Now that we have a fully functional player car, it’s time for us to set up
a camera to follow the player’s progress in the race.
15
 IV – The Game Camera
The goal of this shorter section is to create and manage a camera to
follow the player’s car as it races around the track. In a racing game,
one of the most common camera views is from a third-person per-
spective; that is, behind and slightly above the player. This tutorial will
show you how to create one of these cameras and then to move it
along in a fluid manner with the player car. In more advanced games
you might wish to set up numerous cameras to capture the action
from different angles. This more complex camera work is done by
enabling and disabling various cameras based on user input.

1. Basic Camera
Let’s start by first simply getting the main camera positioned above
and behind the player car. Open our previous scene’s Physics.unity
scene and do a Save as... in [B] Camera Control Scripts -> 1 Basic
Follow Camera and name the file Camera. This scene contains all
of the elements and scripts from the previous section of the tutorial.
Now attach the Camera.js script to the main camera.

The Camera.js script has a distance and height variable that we will
be able to modify from the Inspector, but also a "target" variable that
we will need to assign to the player’s car. Connect this variable to
the player car object the same way we connected the wheel control
variables to the wheel objects of the car object back on page 12.

// The target shows up in the inspector and has to

// be assigned to the object it should follow

var target : Transform;

var distance = 10.0; 1
var height = 10.0;

// LateUpdate is like Update but always called

// after all Update functions on all scripts
// are called.
// This allows you to order script execution
// in the same frame.
// Cameras should always be updated last.

function LateUpdate () {
2
// Early out if we don’t have a target
if (!target)
return;

// Get the forward direction of the target

forward = target.TransformDirection (Vector3.
forward);

// Get the target position

3
targetPosition = target.position;
16
Lerp Function // Place the camera distance behind the target
transform.position = targetPosition - forward *
What Is Unity’s Lerp Function?
A Lerp function is simply an inter-
polation between two values. In the
distance;
4
// And move the camera a bit up
Smooth camera.js script we use it
transform.position.y += height;
for both angles and height. The Lerp
function can be used on many di�er-
ent types of values including colours,
// Always look at the target
transform.LookAt (target);
5
float, quaternion and vector3.
}

The Camera.js script is very simple.

1. We set up variables for height, distance and target.

2. We use the function LateUpdate in this script to make sure that

this particular script runs after any other scripts that are run during
a frame.

3. It gets the position and direction of the car to position itself.

4. It places itself a specific distance and height behind the target

using variables. In this instance we’ve specified in the script that be-
hind means along the negative z-axis of the target. Then we move
the camera upwards by height, so the camera looks down on the
car.

5. We rotate the camera to always look at the target. Run the scene
and drive the player car to see the camera in action. Neat!

But this is a very simple solution. What we’d really like to see is the
camera reacting better to the motion of the player car. We need to
create and use a camera script that smoothes out the motion of the
camera as it follows the car.

2. Smooth Camera
Start again by opening the Physics.unity scene and do a Save as...
in [B] Camera Control Scripts -> 2 Smooth Camera and name the
file Smooth Camera. This time, attach the Smooth Camera script to
the main camera. Connect the target variable to the car object as
we did in the previous scene and Run the scene to see the camera
react more smoothly to the car’s movement.

What’s now happening is that this camera script smoothes out ro-
tation around the y-axis and height, while still maintaining a static
horizontal distance. This method gives you a lot of control over how
the camera behaves because you can tweak lots of the variables.
For every of those smoothed values we calculate a wanted value
and the current value. Then we smooth it using the Lerp function.

Here is the Smooth Camera.js script in detail.

17
 // The target we are following
var target : Transform;

// The distance in the x-z plane to the target

var distance = 10.0;

// Height we want the camera above the target

var height = 5.0;
1
// How much we want to dampen the camera’s motion
var heightDamping = 2.0;
var rotationDamping = 3.0;

function LateUpdate () {

// Early out if we don’t have a target

if (!target)
return;

// Calculate the current rotation angles

wantedRotationAngle = target.eulerAngles.y;
wantedHeight = target.position.y + height;
2
currentRotationAngle = transform.eulerAngles.y;
currentHeight = transform.position.y;

// Damp the rotation around the y-axis

currentRotationAngle = Mathf.LerpAngle (currentRo-

tationAngle, wantedRotationAngle, rotationDamping
* Time.deltaTime);

// Damp the height

3
currentHeight = Mathf.Lerp (currentHeight, wanted-
Height, heightDamping * Time.deltaTime);

// Convert the angle into a rotation. The

// quaternion interface uses radians not degrees
// so we need to convert from degrees to radians

currentRotation = Quaternion.EulerAngles (0, cur-

4
rentRotationAngle * Mathf.Deg2Rad, 0);

// Set the position of camera on the x-z plane to:

// distance meters behind the target

transform.position = target.position;
transform.position -= currentRotation * Vector3.
forward * distance;
5
18
 // Set the height of the camera
transform.position.y = currentHeight;

// Always look at the target

transform.LookAt (target);
}

The Smooth Camera.js script is very simple.

1. We set up variables for height, distance and additionally for damping.

2. We calculate both current and wanted rotation and height for the camera.

3. We dampen the height and rotation by using the Lerp function

(explained below).

4. We convert our rotation calculation from degrees into radians so

that the Quaternion interface understands it.

5. In this part we finally position the camera where we want it and

point the camera to always look at the target.

Run the scene and drive the player car to see the improved camera
in action. Notice that we’re using specifically the Mathf.LerpAngle to
damp the rotation around the player car’s vertical (y) axis, and using
Mathf.Lerp to damp the height. It also uses some other basic func-
tions built into Unity such as EulerAngles, Time.deltaTime and oth-
ers. Most of the rest of the script uses basic variables and functions
to move the camera with the car. It’s now time to add opponent ve-
hicles and program them to race around the track against the player.
Otherwise known as the "cool stuff."

V – The Other Cars and AI

This section is where the fun begins. Up until this point we’ve been focus-
ing on getting a car under the control of the player and also to set up a
simple camera that will smoothly follow the car along a race track. But this
is a "racing" game – we certainly need some other cars on the track that
will race around the course trying to beat us. It will be the most difficult to
date as the scripts in this section are more advanced than anything we’ve
looked at so far, mainly because we need to create a method for opponent
cars to drive themselves around the track. To begin the section we’ll start
by creating a car that drives itself around the race track. This car will be
duplicated in the scene to create multiple opponent cars.

AI Cars
Start by opening the Physics.unity scene and do a Save as... in
[C] Camera Control Scripts -> 1 AI Car and Waypoints and name the
file Waypoints. Create a new Physic Material called AI Car Wheels
and set it up as shown at left, then remove the previous wheel phys-
ic materials from the wheels in the Inspector by replacing it with our
new AI Car Wheels material via a drag and drop.
19
Basic AI Remove the Playercar script component from the AI Car in the In-
How Basic AI Cars Function spector and attach the AICar script, making sure to connect the four
AI cars generally work with a simple, wheel variables to their associated wheel objects. Finally, rename
two-step process like this: 1. Calcu- the player car to AI Car. Save the scene at this point. I’ll explain how
late where we should drive towards; to create waypoints after we we examine our AICar script in detail.
this is handled mainly by setting up
"waypoints" and using the Waypoint In our AICar.js script we have the UpdateWithTargetPosition
script. 2. Calculate how to get there. function which is the meat of the AICarScript. It rotates the wheels,
Suprisingly, with a car this is really accelerates forward and slows down in sharp turns. The Update-
simple – we just rotate the wheels WithTargetPosition function is called from inside FixedUpdate. In
towards the waypoint targets and FixedUpdate we also calculate where we should drive towards, and
drive forward. calculating where we drive towards is simple and goes like this:

We have a current waypoint as a target and we switch to the next

waypoint whenever we enter our current waypoint trigger. So we
simply drive an AI-controlled car towards the current waypoint and
if we get close to the waypoint, we let the car drive towards the
waypoint after that. This improves the AI car quite a bit because
the car will otherwise have to drive exactly through the waypoint
and will do sharp turns shortly before hitting the waypoint trigger.

With the basic in mind, we can now examine the AICar.js script func-
tions in detail, like we did with some of our previous scripts.

// Variables defined outside of functions appear

// in the inspector and can be changed there
// without having to change the script
var frontLeftWheel : Transform;
var frontRightWheel : Transform;
var backLeftWheel : Transform;
var backRightWheel : Transform;
var wheelForce = 120.0;

// All these variables are only used internally,

// thus we make them private
private var hasWheelContact = false;
private var steerMaxAngle = 40.0;
private var activeWayPoint : WayPoint;

function Start () {
// Initialize the waypoint we drive towards!
activeWayPoint = WayPoint.start;
1
// Tweak the center of mass.
// - Low center of mass a bit towards the front
// - model a long long and not very high car
rigidbody.centerOfMass = Vector3 (0, 0, 0);
rigidbody.inertiaTensorRotation = Quaternion.identity;
rigidbody.inertiaTensor = Vector3 (1, 1, 2) * rigid-
body.mass;
}

20
 function UpdateWithTargetPosition (target : Vector3) {

// Calculate the target position relative to the

// target this transforms coordinate system.
// eg. a positive x value means the target is to
// to the right of the car, a positive z means
// the target is in front of the car
relativeTarget = transform.InverseTransformPoint
(target);
2A
// Calculate the target angle for the wheels,
// so they point towards the target
targetAngle = Mathf.Atan2 (relativeTarget.x, rela-
tiveTarget.z);

// Atan returns the angle in radians, convert to degrees

targetAngle *= Mathf.Rad2Deg;

// The wheels should have a maximum rotation angle

targetAngle = Mathf.Clamp (targetAngle, -steerMax-
Angle, steerMaxAngle);

// Apply the rotation to the wheels

// We want the wheels to rotate around the y-axis
// The rotation has to be relative to the car,
// which is the transform parent of the wheels
frontLeftWheel.localEulerAngles = Vector3 (0, tar-
getAngle, 0);
frontRightWheel.localEulerAngles = Vector3 (0,
targetAngle, 0);

rigidbody.drag = 0;
if (hasWheelContact)
{
// Accelerate ...
2B
// force = maxSpeed * force;
rigidbody.AddRelativeForce (0, 0, wheelForce);

// Too fast? Need to turn too much? Slow down!

if (Mathf.Abs (targetAngle) > 15 && rigidbody.
velocity.magnitude > 10) {

// We are too fast

rigidbody.drag = 4;
}
}

21
Debugging // This is handy for debug visualizing where
// we actually want to drive
Debugging Scripts In Unity
// Debug.DrawLine (transform.position, target);
Unity provides a couple of useful
tools to debug scripts, for example,
// This is reset every frame.
the Debug.Log function.
// OnCollisionStay enables it again.
hasWheelContact = false;
function Update () {
}
Debug.Log ("Inside Up-
function FixedUpdate () {
date", gameObject);
// Calculate position the AI car should drive towards
targetPosition = activeWayPoint.CalculateTar-
}
3
getPosition (transform.position);
When you run this script, "Inside
// Apply forces, steer the wheels
Update" will popup in the status bar;
UpdateWithTargetPosition (targetPosition);
when you single click on it, it will
}
popup the console and show the
connection to the gameObject we
// Whenever we hit a waypoint we have to
passed as the second parameter of
Debug.Log.
// skip forward to the next way point 4
function OnTriggerEnter (triggerWaypoint : Collider) {
if (activeWayPoint.collider == triggerWaypoint) {
This can be used for any reference to
activeWayPoint = activeWayPoint.next;
another Object. It is extremely help-
}
ful when you have some bug where
}
you don’t know exactly in which
object the problem occurrs.
// Track if we the wheels are grounded

Another very useful tool is Debug. function OnCollisionStay (collision : Collision) {

DrawLine. It will simply draw a line. for (var p : ContactPoint in collision.contacts) {
I have used this Debug.DrawLine if (p.thisCollider.transform == frontLeftWheel)
when developing the AI car for hasWheelContact = true;
example. if (p.thisCollider.transform == frontRightWheel)
hasWheelContact = true;
It was very useful to show:
1) where the car calculated it wants
if (p.thisCollider.transform == backLeftWheel)
hasWheelContact = true;
5
to drive to; and, 2) where the wheels if (p.thisCollider.transform == backRightWheel)
where actually pointing towards hasWheelContact = true;
}
function Update() { }

Debug.DrawLine (trans- There are several important functions of our AICar script that I will
form.position, Vector3.
review in more detail for the reader now.
forward, Color.green);

} 1. Start. The Start function initializes the center of mass like we

did on page 15. And also intializes the activeWaypoint to the start
Also if you don’t know already, waypoint. The active waypoint is used in FixedUpdate to find where
private variables can be viewed we want to drive towards.
but not edited in the Inspector
by clicking on the Expert button. 2A. UpdateWithTargetPosition. Rotate the wheels towards the
target. We use transform.InverseTransformPoint to get the po-
sition relative to the local coordinate system. Then we calculate the
22 angle using Atan2. We clamp the angle, because in real life wheels
 have a maximum steering angle. Then we apply the rotation to the
wheel transforms.

2B. If the wheel has contact (also previously discussed on page

15) we move the car forward. But that makes the car drive over the
edge way too much, so we slow down if we have a large turning
angle and are driving fast. We slow the AI car down by simply giving
the rigidbody a high drag value. This is obviously not a very realistic
way of doing it, but it is very easy and effective for our purposes.

3. FixedUpdate. In FixedUpdate we talk to the waypoint system to

calculate the target position the car should drive towards this frame.
Then we pass the target position onto the UpdateWithTargetPosi-
tion function, which carries out the movement of the car.

4. OnTriggerEnter. In OnTriggerEnter we register when we hit a

new waypoint. When we hit a waypoint we first check if it is the next
waypoint – so that the player can’t skip one waypoint or go back-
wards – then make the active waypoint the next waypoint.

5. OnCollisionStay. This function is the same as shown in points

4 and 5 on page 15 that calculates wheels being grounded.

With the AI car now functioning, it’s time to look at setting up and program-
ming waypoints around our race track for the cars to drive towards.

Waypoints
To set up waypoints you add an empty game object to our scene,
add a box collider to it, and set the isTrigger property to true, then
attach the WayPoint script to it (this also draws the W texture linked
in the Gizmos folder). The waypoints need to be manually connect-
Prefabs ed by setting the next variable of every waypoint. The screenshot
A Perfect Use For 30(!) Waypoints at left shows our completed track with 30 waypoints set up in the
I’d strongly suggest after setting up Scene view. The first waypoint on the track should be named "Start"
one waypoint with it’s box collider in the Inspector; the others should be called "Waypoint".
set up and the Waypoint.js script
attached to create a prefab waypoint The waypoint script is used by the AI cars and is rather simple – the
object from it. Drag more prefab scripts contain a varible to the next waypoint. This variable needs to
waypoints into your scene to create be setup manually in the Inspector for every waypoint. Then there
the rest of the waypoints. That way, is a CalculateTargetPosition function which calculates where the
any changes made to the prefab will car should drive towards. Here’s the script:
be reflected in all of the waypoints
created using the prefab object. // The start waypoint, this is initialized in Awake.
// This variable is static thus all instances
I’d also recommend creating an // of the waypoint script share it.
empty game object that holds all of static var start : WayPoint;
the waypoints you’ll want to create
in one scene. The finished version // The next waypoint, this variable needs to be
of the tutorial uses 30 waypoints. // assigned in the inspector.
// You can select all waypoints to see the
// full waypoint path.
23 var next : WayPoint;
Static Variables // This determines where the start waypoint is.
var isStart = false;
Static Variables Are Shared Variables
What if we want to share (or not
// Returns where the AI should drive towards.
share) a variable between all "in-
// position is the current position of the car.
stances" of the script? Sometimes
function CalculateTargetPosition (position : Vector3) {
you want a variable to be shared
between all instances of the script
(e.g., is a player dead, setting a
standard reset value for a timer, etc).
//
//
If we are getting close to the waypoint,
we return the next waypoint. 1
// This gives us better car behaviour when
An instance of an script occurs when
// cars don’t exactly hit the waypoint
you attach a script to a game object.
The script with its value shows up in
if (Vector3.Distance (transform.position, posi-
the inspector. All variables become
tion) < 6) {
instanced and can be modified for
return next.transform.position;
this particular instance. You use the
}
static keyword for this as shown in
the following code example:
// We are still far away from the next waypoint,
// just return the waypoints position
static var count = 0;
else {
function Awake () {
return transform.position;
count++;
}
print (count);
}
}
// This initializes the start and goal static variables.
If you attach this script to more than
// We have to inside Awake because the waypoints need
one game object, count will increase
// to be initialized before the AI scripts use it
for every one of them. So if you at-
// All Awake function are always called before all
tach it to 3 game objects and hit play,
// Start functions.
it will print 1, 2, and 3 to the console.
function Awake () {
If you leave out the static keyword
if (!next)
(i.e., var count = 0;) it will print
1, 1 and 1.
Debug.Log ("This waypoint is not connected,
2
you need to set the next waypoint!", this);

if (isStart)
start = this;
}

// Draw the waypoint pickable gizmo 3

function OnDrawGizmos () {
Gizmos.DrawIcon (transform.position, "Waypoint.tif");
}

// Draw the waypoint lines only when you select

// one of the waypoints
function OnDrawGizmosSelected () { 4
if (next) {
Gizmos.color = Color.green;
Gizmos.DrawLine (transform.position, next.trans-
form.position);
}
24 }
 In this script we are using something called a static variable for the
first time. The static start variable is of type waypoint. On Awake,
we set the start waypoint to the waypoint, which has the isStart flag
enabled.

Static variables are shared between all instances of the script and
can also be accessed by other scripts by using the name of the
script followed by a period and the function or variable name, as
shown in this example:

SomeScript.js has the following static variable in it:

static var staticVar = 5;

Another script called YetAnotherScript.js has this:

print (SomeScript.staticVar);
// will print 5

The static start variable was used by the car script to find the first
waypoint like this: activeWayPoint = WayPoint.start;. Also the
game controller in the next chapter will use it to find out when we cross
the finish line. Let’s look at the functions in the waypoint script.

1. CalculateTargetPosition. This function simply takes the cur-

rent position of the car and returns the point that the car should
drive towards. This returns either the position of the waypoint, or
the next waypoint beyond that one if we are close to the waypoint
already. This is important so that the car doesn’t drive exactly to the
center of the waypoint when it doesn’t exactly hit a waypoint in the
middle.

2. Awake. This function initializes the start variable to the waypoint

which has the isStart flag set in the inspector. We also do error
checking here to check if all the next variables are setup.

3. OnDrawGizmos. This draws the waypoint icon so waypoints are

easily pickable. Specific information about Gizmos can be found on
OTEE’s scripting reference site.

4. OnDrawGizmoSelected. This function neatly draws the line con-

necting one waypoint to the next waypoint. You can select all way-
points to visualize any setup errors that might exist in your track in
the Scene view.

Now that we have the script written, we can actually go about set-
ting up waypoints on our track, placing a test car in the scene, and
attaching the AICar script to it to watch it drive itself around the
track. I’ve shown the track from the completed files below. In other
words, to set things up, you simply need to place a few waypoints
in the scene – remember, one of them has to have the isStart flag
25
Future Unity Feature enabled, so we know where to start. All of them have to be con-
Dedicated Wheel Components? nected together by setting the next property in the Inspector of each
Version 1.2 of Unity should introduce waypoint. This scene uses a total of 30 waypoints.
dedicated wheel components that
will allow for very realistic cars. Create duplicates of the AI Car we assembled on page 19 and place
them in the scene. Now Run the scene. While the scene Runs, our
AI cars will simply drive towards the start waypoint. When a car hits
it, the car will start driving towards the next waypoint in turn, and
then keep driving from waypoint to waypoint around the track.

To get ready for the final chapter, Save this scene in [D] Game
Setup -> 1 Finishing the Racing level and name it Track1.unity.

VI – Start Your Engines!

This section is where we finish the game by adding some necessary
things to polish the game. These include things commonly found in many
genres of games and what we learn here will certainly be applicable to
your own games in the future. They include things like (race) timer, the
game’s graphic user interface (GUI), text objects, a countdown timer, and
simple scene transitions. Let’s begin by finishing the racing part of the tuto-
rial in a basic way.

1. Finishing The Racing Level

Start by opening the Track1.unity file we saved above. This should
contain four copies of the AI opponent car and our finished player
car from the Physics.unity scene. We need to add a script to all
of the cars, both player and AI, that tracks the cars as they drive
through the correct waypoints (CarStats.js). And we need to create
a simple text object that will display a countdown to begin the race
by using a simple script (StartGame.js). Let’s begin by creating the
GUI object.

26
 Create a text object by selecting GameObject -> Create Other ->
Text in the menubar and position and scale it so it is in the centre of
the screen. You can leave the default text it is displaying or delete it
to leave it blank, in the Inspector, once you are happy with it’s posi-
tion and scale. Attach the StartGame.js script to the text object.

The camera will always display the Text object in front of all oth-
er objects in the game because the camera contains a GUILayer
component. The camera’s GUILayer displays objects that have a
GUIText component and GUITextures always in the front specifi-
cally to make interfaces for games. Text objects have a GUIText
component included, visible in the Inspector panel by default. GUI
objects remain in the same position in relation to the camera even if
we move the camera because they are, for al intents and purposes,
attached to the camera.

The StartGame.js script is used to temporarily disable all the cars

in the race until a "ready, set, go" series of words flashes on the
screen for the player, then enables all the cars so that they can be-
gin racing. It then will "hide" the text object that displays the words.
This script also introduces a simple, but very useful kind of function
called coroutines.

Coroutines are functions that can be paused at any point and wait
for a specific event to occur, after which they should continue to
the next instruction. For example, while a function was running,
we could wait for the next frame or wait for 5 seconds. Coroutines
make your life a lot easier when dealing with a sequence of events.
For example, if you want to display some text for 2 seconds and
then want to remove it again you can do it by simply attaching the
following script to an object in your scene; assuming the object has
a GuiText component:

guiText.text = "Hello";
yield WaitForSeconds (2);
guiText.text = "";

For more information about coroutines also see documentation

about the yield statement can be found on the OTEE scripting ref-
erence documentation website.

Now that we understand basic coroutines the StartGame.js script,

shown in detail on the following page, will be very easy to under-
stand.

27
 function Start ()
{

// Disable AI Cars
aiCars = FindObjectsOfType (AICar);
for (var car : AICar in aiCars)
car.enabled = false;

// Disable Player Cars

1
playerCars = FindObjectsOfType (PlayerCar);
for (var car : PlayerCar in playerCars)
car.enabled = false;

// Display get ready, wait

guiText.text = "Get Ready";
yield WaitForSeconds (.75); 2
// Display Set, wait
guiText.text = "Set";
yield WaitForSeconds (.75);

// Display go and enable all cars

guiText.text = "Go";
aiCars = FindObjectsOfType (AICar);
for (var car : AICar in aiCars)
car.enabled = true;
3
// Enable Player Cars
playerCars = FindObjectsOfType (PlayerCar);
for (var car : PlayerCar in playerCars)
car.enabled = true;

// Wait and Hide text

yield WaitForSeconds (.75);
guiText.text = "";
4
}

1. We "disable" all the cars in the race, including the AI cars and
the player’s car. We find all the AI cars by calling FindObjectsOfT-
ype. This returns a list of all active loaded objects of Type type. It
will return no assets such as meshes, textures, prefabs or inactive
objects. More information about calling FindObjectsOfType can be
found online. We give it the type of the class we are looking for, i.e.,
the AICar, and get back all instances of that script. We go through
all the script instances we found and set enabled to false. So what
happens if a script is enabled or disabled?

The answer is simple: the Update function and FixedUpdate func-

tion is only called when the script is enabled. By disabling the up-
date function we prevent the car from being able to drive.

28
 The enabled checkbox is also visible for an object or its compo-
nents in the Inspector (the small checkbox next to the title).

2. Then we display the words "Get Ready" in our Text object and
then wait for 3/4 of a second using yield. Then we display the word
"Set" and wait for 3/4 of a second using yield.

3. Then we display the word "Go" and enable all car scripts similar
to how we disabled them.

4. The final step is to wait for another 3/4 second and then remove
the Text object, in a manner of speaking, by putting nothing ("") in
the GUIText, and then the race can begin.

But before the cars will actually go, we have to make sure to have
attached the CarStats.js script to all of the cars (player car and AI
cars). Make sure that has been done, and then save the current
scene so we can examine that script.

The CarStats script simply tracks that we drive through the correct
waypoints. When we hit the start waypoint, it will disable the car
like we did in the StartGame.js script, since the car has completed
the race and it no longer should drive around the track. If it is the
player’s car that has completed the race, then we’ll need to tell the
GameController about it. This "GameController" will be introduced
in 2. GameController and handle a number of tasks in our racing
game such as showing the highscore etc. Here’s the CarStats script
in detail:

private var activeWayPoint : WayPoint;

function Start () {

}
activeWayPoint = WayPoint.start.next; 1
// Keeps track of when the player reaches the goal

function OnTriggerEnter (triggerWaypoint : Collider) {

// We allow the player to go through the waypoints

// only one after another so he can’t skip any

if (activeWayPoint.collider == triggerWaypoint) {
// When we reach the game might be finished!
if (activeWayPoint == WayPoint.start)
ReachedGoal();
2
activeWayPoint = activeWayPoint.next;
}
}

29
 function ReachedGoal () {

// Stop driving if an AI car has completed the race!

var aicar : AICar = GetComponent(AICar);
if (aicar != null)
aicar.enabled = false;
3
// The player has finished
var playerCar : PlayerCar = GetComponent(PlayerCar);
if (playerCar != null) {
// Stop driving
playerCar.enabled = false;

// Tell game controller that race is complete

var controller = FindObjectOfType(GameController);
if (controller)
controller.SendMessage("CompletedRace");
}
}

1. On Start we set the activeWaypoint to the waypoint after the start

so that we don’t complete the game immediately. We discussed this
also in the previous chapter of the tutorial.

2. In OnTriggerEnter we register when we hit a new waypoint. When

we hit a waypoint we first check if it is the next waypoint so that the
player can’t skip one waypoint or go backwards, and then make the
active waypoint the next waypoint. When we hit the startWaypoint
we have completed the game and call the ReachedGoal function.

3. The ReachedGoal function uses something called GetCompo-

nent. This returns the component of Type type if the game object
has one attached, null if it doesn’t. More information about access-
ing other components can be found in the Script Reference and the
Get Component information online.

Remember that the CarStats script was attached to the PlayerCar

and AICar? We will need to handle these two cases differently be-
cause there are two different results if: a) we have a player finishing
the race, or b) if we have an AI car finishing the race. If the AI car
crosses over the start line, it should simply be disabled so it stops
driving. If the player crosses the start line it should be also be dis-
abled but we also need to tell the GameController about it so it can
display highscore etc. So we use GetComponent(AICar);.

This will return null if there is no AICar attached to the game ob-
ject. In that case we simply ignore it. If we do have an AICar then
we disable it. We do the same check for the PlayerCar and then
disable the player car and send a message to the GameController.

30
Think Of It As ... 2. The GameController
GameControllers Are Like Includes We’ve mentioned this thing called "GameController" a great deal in
Anyone familiar with web design the last few pages. What we want to create is an object that will ex-
and coding might recognize in this ist throughout the entire game, in all of its scenes, and act as a cen-
"GameController" object many tral place that we can use to, well, control aspects of our game.
aspects of something known as
a server-side include ... and they’d Create a new scene (File -> New) in [D] Game Setup -> 2 Game-
be right. Controller and save it as GameStartup . In this scene create a GUI-
Text object displaying the name of our game; i.e., Racing Car Tu-
An include is a bit of code on a torial. Now create another new scene in the same asset directory
website that exists on numerous called MainMenu. There are two scripts in the [D] Game Setup -> 2
pages, i.e., like a right column menu. GameController folder; a Button script (see page 34) and the game
Since it’s the same on all of the controller. The button script implements a simple mouse over effect
pages, it makes sense from a website
and simply forwards mouse clicks to the GameController. Reopen
maintenance standpoint to create
the GameController scene and create an empty object in the scene
a single version of the right column
and attach the GamerController.js script to it. Let’s take a quick look
menu on its own, and then use a
at the first part of the script.
single line of code on all of the pages
to bring it (Include it) in the page
function Start () {
when the page loads. That way, when
you need to change the right column
// Make sure that the gamecontroller
menu on 50 pages, you only need to
// always survives level loads
change it in one file and then all of
DontDestroyOnLoad (this);
the pages are updated.
// Wait until any key is pressed
A GameController object that is set
while (!Input.anyKeyDown)
to not be destroyed when a di�erent
yield;
scene loads can be used for a myriad
of purposes like this, as the Game-
// Load the main menu
Controller script illustrates.
Application.LoadLevel ("MainMenu");
}

This first part of the script does three simple things: it makes sure
the GameController script and the object it’s attached to are going
to be available in every scene; it waits until a key is pressed; and
then it starts our game by loading the MainMenu scene.

The GameController is scripted to be not destroyed when loading

a new level. This is done using the function call: DontDestroyOn-
Load (this); in the start function of GameController. Why do we
need this? Because, normally, when a new level is loaded, all game
objects from the previously loaded level are destroyed. DontDe-
stroyOnLoad allows you to prevent this by calling the function on
the objects you don’t want to be destroyed.

This is very useful in many programs: for example, to keep playing

music while loading a level, or when you need to maintain some
state from one level to another level. And since GameController is
the only game object we keep alive when loading levels, this makes
it the ideal place to perform all the menu commands; for example,

31
 DisplayHighscore (), which loads the highscore level, waits until
user pressed a button, then loads the main menu again. This function-
ality is only possible if the object is marked DontDestroyOnLoad.

What’s going to happen with the GameController script now is this:

When a GUI button is pressed in the MainMenu scene, we find the
GameController instance and send it a message. The message sent
can be changed in the Inspector, however, so when we add new menu
commands that are associated with new buttons in our scene, we don’t
need to modify the Button script. Instead we change the action string in
the Inspector and add a new function to GameController.

A GameController that never gets destroyed when moving from

scene to scene is the ideal way to handle all the menu commands
in a game because we implement the menu commands in it, rather
than individual Button scripts for every menu command. As I men-
tioned earlier, the button script can then simply be used to create a
simple mouse over effect and forward mouse clicks to the Game-
Controller. Here’s the rest of the GameController script:

// - Display highscore and let user enter his name

// - keep displaying until user pressed any key
// - Display the main menu again

function CompletedRace () {
// How long did it take the player to finish

1
// The race starts only 0.75 seconds
// after the level is loaded
finishTime = Time.timeSinceLevelLoad - 0.75;

// Display "Race completed".

// We reuse the gui text from the
// Start game display script.
FindObjectOfType (StartGame).guiText.text =
"Race Complete!";

yield WaitForSeconds (2);

// Load the high score scene

Application.LoadLevel ("HighScore");

// Wait one frame, because LoadLevel is

// delayed until the end of the frame.
yield;

// Wait until user has entered the highscore

var highscore = FindObjectOfType (HighscoreTa-
ble);
yield highscore.StartCoroutine ("EnterHigh-
Score", finishTime);

32
 // Go back to the main menu
Application.LoadLevel ("MainMenu");
}

// Shows the high score and hides it again

// after the user pressed a key
// Display high score is called from the main menu
// when the Highscore text is clicked.
function DisplayHighscore () {

// Load the high score scene

Application.LoadLevel ("HighScore"); 2
// Wait until no key is pressed anymore
while (Input.anyKey)
yield;

// Wait until any key is pressed

while (!Input.anyKey)
yield;

// Go back to the main menu

Application.LoadLevel ("MainMenu");
}

function Quit () {
Application.Quit ();
}
3
function NewGame () {
Application.LoadLevel ("Track1");
}

1. CompletedRace is called from the CarStats script when the player

has finished the race and displays a familiar "race over" message to
the player. The game then waits a bit and loads the highscore. The
calculated highscore is the time it took the player to complete the
race. We call EnterHighScore with the score and wait for Enter-
HighScore to complete using yield. EnterHighscore will complete
once the user has finished entering his name. Then we go back to
the main menu.

2. DisplayHighscore is called when Highscore button is clicked.

The High Score button referred to in the script is actually located in
the MainMenu scene (not GameStartup).

3. Quit simply quits the application and the NewGame button loads
the first track, which in turn starts our game.

Save the scene and reopen the [D] Game Setup -> 2 GameCon-
troller -> MainMenu scene now. Create three text objects (we’ll use
33
 as buttons) named "HighScore", "Quit" and "New Game" in the cen-
tre of the screen. Attach the single Button script to these objects.
Let’s take a look at this simple script:

var action = "The name of the action";

// Change the color of the text when the mouse enters

function OnMouseEnter () {
if (audio)
audio.Play ();
guiText.material.color =
1
Color.yellow;
}

// Change the color of the text back to white

// when the mouse exits

2
function OnMouseExit () {
guiText.material.color =
Color.white;
}

// We simply forward all mouse down events

// to the GameController.

// The function that will be called is defined

// by the action string.

// The action string is setup in the inspector.

function OnMouseDown () {

var controller : GameController = FindObjec-

tOfType (GameController);
3
controller.SendMessage
(action);
}

1. This Button script simply changes the colour of the Text GUI ob-
ject when it’s rolled over and plays a sound if there is an audio
source attached to the button.

2. It changes the text colour back to white when the cursor exits the
button object.

3. And finally, when the text object is clicked, it send a message to

the GameController object so that a specific function is run.

34
 This, by the way, is an example of why we used a script and object
that contain DontDestroyOnLoad in the GameStartup scene. The
GameController object will continue to exist in the MainMenu scene
after we’ve loaded this scene from the GameStartup scene.

The function that is being called in the GameController script is the

string called "action" in the Inspector. The Button script is passing
a message to the GameController script so that the script knows
which function to run. So in this case, DisplayHighscore loads the
highscore, then waits for the user to press a key, then goes back to
the main menu. All of the buttons in the MainMenu scene work in
the same way and that is why we needed only one Button script.

Technically, the MainMenu scene doesn’t do anything on its own. It

only forwards messages to the GameController. Because the game
controller is stored our games splash/opening scene that we called
Gamestartup, you will need to open the GameStartup scene and
hit Play from that scene to see how our game will work, rather than
opening the MainMenu scene, which on its own, does not contain
the GameController script.

You will find that this technique will make creating your game GUIs
much easier. By separating the splash screen from the game op-
tions screen, and putting a game controller-type script with a Dont-
DestroyOnLoad function in it, in the same scene as the splash
screen, we don’t end up with multiple instances of a game controller
for each time we load (return to) the main menu level of our game.

3. High Scores
We’re almost done with the racing game tutorial and only need to
create a high score display that will record the top 10 player’s names
and times. Unfortunately, this little requirement happens to be the
hardest part of the tutorial. It was left until the end so that you’d have
well-grounded introduction into programming before tackling it. But,
no racing game would be complete without a way for the player to
record his name after the race. One of the many rewards players
get out of both causal and hardcore computer games is when they
finally get to see their names listed in a game’s top scores. And we
wouldn’t want to leave that out, would we?

Create an new scene in [D] Game Setup -> 3 Highscore and call it
HighScore. Create a text object in the scene called HighScoreTable
and attach the script of the same name to it. The HighScoreTable.js
is a complex script fully shown on the following three pages. Take
your time and review it function by function. Now that you’ve come
this far in the tutorial, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how much
you’ll understand. Once again, I’ll examine and explain the key
parts of the script after you’ve read through it.

35
 // This stores the score and name of the players
class Entry {
var score = 0.0;
var name = "";
}
private var entries = ArrayList ();

// How many high score entries are shown?

var maxEntryCount = 10;
// How long is the player’s name allowed to be?
var maxNameLength = 10;
1
function Awake () {
// Load the entries from prefs
LoadEntries ();
// And display high score table text.
SetupHighscoreTableText ();
}

// This is a coroutine which runs until the user has entered his name.
// To enter a new highscore in the table do like this:
// highscoreTable.StartCoroutine ("EnterHighScore", 10);
function EnterHighScore (score : float) {

// Setup the highscore table text

2
SetupHighscoreTableText ();

// Insert the entry, it might get rejected if the score is not high enough
var entryIndex = InsertEntry (score);
if (entryIndex == -1)
return;

// Check for the last name the user entered and reuse it
var inputName = PlayerPrefs.GetString ("LastHighscoreName");

while (true) {
for (var c : char in Input.inputString) {
// Backspace - Remove the last character
if (c == "\b"[0]) {
if (inputName.Length != 0)
inputName = inputName.Substring(0, inputName.Length - 1);
}

// End of entry.
else if (c == "\n"[0]) {
// But the user must have at least entered something
if (inputName.Length)
{
ChangeName (entryIndex, inputName);
SaveEntries ();
// Store the name the user entered as the last high score name,
// so next time the user doesn’t have to enter it again
36
 PlayerPrefs.SetString ("LastHighscoreName", inputName);
return;
}
}
// Normal text - just append
else {
inputName += c;
}
}

// Make sure the name doesn’t grow above max entry length
if (inputName.Length > maxNameLength)
inputName = inputName.Substring (0, maxNameLength);

// Add a "." as a blinking text marker.

// Show the "." every .5 seconds
blinkingName = inputName;
var time = Mathf.Repeat (Time.time, 1.0);
if (time > .5)
blinkingName = inputName + ".";
else
blinkingName = inputName;

// Change the name

ChangeName (entryIndex, blinkingName);

yield;
}
}

// Insert a new entry

function InsertEntry (score : float) : int {
entry = Entry (); 3
entry.score = score;

// In
for (var i=0;i<entries.Count;i++) {
if (entry.score < entries[i].score || entries[i].score == 0.0) {
entries.Insert (i, entry);
break;
}
}

// Remove excess entries

if (entries.Count > maxEntryCount)
entries.RemoveRange (maxEntryCount, entries.Count - maxEntryCount);

37
 // We changed the high score table, so we need to rebuild
// the text we rneder
SetupHighscoreTableText ();

return entries.IndexOf (entry);

}

// Changes the name of the entry at index

function ChangeName (index : int, name : String) {
var entry = entries[index]; 4
entry.name = name;
SetupHighscoreTableText ();
}

// Loads all entries from the preferences

// Sorts them and removes excess high score entries
function LoadEntries ()
{
entries.Clear ();
5
// Load entries from preferences
for (var i=0;i<maxEntryCount;i++)
{
var entry = Entry ();
entry.name = PlayerPrefs.GetString ("HighScore Name " + i);
entry.score = PlayerPrefs.GetFloat ("HighScore Score " + i);
if (entry.score != 0)
entries.Add (entry);
}

// Add empty entries to fill up the remaining highscore entries

while (entries.Count < maxEntryCount) {
entry = Entry ();
entry.name = "Empty";
entry.score = 0;
entries.Add (entry);
}

if (entries.Count > maxEntryCount)

entries.RemoveRange (maxEntryCount, entries.Count - maxEntryCount);
}

// Saves all high score entries to the preferences

function SaveEntries () {
for (var i=0;i<entries.Count;i++) {
PlayerPrefs.SetString ("HighScore Name " + i, entries[i].name);
6
PlayerPrefs.SetFloat ("HighScore Score " + i, entries[i].score);
}
}

38
 function SetupHighscoreTableText () {
text = "";
count = 0;
// Loop through all entries
for (var entry : Entry in entries) {
// Create one line of the entry text
7
text += entry.name + "\t" + FormatScore (entry.score) + "\n";
count++;
}

guiText.text = text;
}

function WipeoutPrefs () {
for (var i=0;i<maxEntryCount;i++) {
PlayerPrefs.SetString ("HighScore Name " + i, "");
PlayerPrefs.SetFloat ("HighScore Score " + i, 0);
8
}
Awake ();
}

// We format score like a count down timer

function FormatScore (time : float) : String {
var intTime : int = time;
var minutes : int = intTime / 60;
var seconds : int = intTime % 60;
var fraction : int = time * 10;
9
fraction = fraction % 10;

// Build string with format 12[minutes]:34[seconds]

var timeText : String = minutes + ":";

if (seconds < 10)

timeText = timeText + "0" + seconds;
else
timeText = timeText + seconds;
timeText += "." + fraction;

return timeText;
}

39
 While it may seem complex at first glance, this whole script is actu-
ally only doing a small handful of tasks. These tasks include: setting
up an array (think "table") and populating it with the current high
scores; recording a time and allowing the player to enter his or her
name; automatically adding or removing entries after a race and
then rebuilding the array; saving the scores to the game’s prefer-
ences; adding the ability to clear the high scores; and making sure
the score is correctly formatted. The reason the script is so long is
that some of these tasks are made up of a number of subtasks and
functions. Let’s go through the function in the script in details now.

1. In this part of the script we create a class that contains two vari-
ables named score and name. We will add these two variables
to the entries array. For those readers who have never heard
the term before, an array is simply a list, and is one of the most
basic data structures in computer programming. Arrays hold some
number of data elements, generally of the same data type. Awake
is called when the script is first loaded. In this script, we call two
functions: LoadEntries., which reads the entries from prefs;
and SetupHighscoreTableText, which builds a string out of the
highscore list and assigns it to the HighScoreTable text object we
created in the scene.

2. OK, the EnterHighScore function is a big one but is made up

of understandable sections. EnterHighScore is simply a coroutine
(see page 27), which runs until the user has entered his or her name
in the high score table. It’s made up of several discrete steps. First
we try to insert an highscore entry using InsertEntry. If the player
raced to a score that did not make it into the top 10 best scores, we
exit the coroutine at this point.

Then we loop waiting one frame between every iteration. A program

loop is something that receives an event, handles the event, and
then waits for the next event. An event loop usually does not end
until the conditions set up in the loop are met. In our example, we
do this using a while loop with a yield statement at the end. In the
loop we update the user typed string. If the user hits enter or return
("\n") we simply update the highscore name one last time, write out
the highscore table to the prefs, and then exit.

The last part of this section of script simply allows us to show a blinking
dot if the user hasn’t completed entering his name yet. We do this by
adding a "." to the entered user string the first half of every second.

3. Insert Entry. InsertEntry enters an entry and returns the index

or position. If the player’s score is too low we return -1. We find the
right place to put the player’s score entry by looping through the
highscore list. As soon as we find something with a higher score
we Insert the score and break. Then we need to Remove any high-
scores that dropped out because they are not in the top 10 scores
anymore. Then we update the guiText to reflect the changes. Fi-
40
 nally, we return the index of the score. If no score was added In-
dexOf will return -1.

4. Change Name. ChangeName simply changes the entry at index to

the given name and then updates the guiText.

5. The LoadEntries function does pretty much what it says it does:

it loads the highscore from the prefs. We use the PlayerPrefs class
to read and write from the preferences file. More information about
PlayerPrefs can be found online.

All written highscore prefs follow a simple pattern: highscore’s are

keyed: "HighScore Score 0" 1, 2, 3 etc, and highscore names are
keyed: "HighScore Name 0" 1, 2, 3 etc. When loading the entries
we simply retrieve the score and name for the index then add it to
the entries array. Afterwards we fill up the rest of the highscore
with empty entries.

6. The SaveEntries function works like in a similar fashion to Loa-

dEntries. This simple function saves out the high score entries in
the same pattern as we loaded them by looping over the entries
array writing every score and name using PlayerPrefs.SetString
and PlayerPrefs.SetValue.

7. The SetupHighscoreTableText is used to build a string out of

the entries array. We make the program go through all entries, tab
separate a player’s name and score, then add a newline. It repeats
itself until all of the top 10 names and scores have been displayed.

8. WipeoutPrefs is a utility function that you can use to clear the

highscore when debugging. It’s sometimes useful to include func-
tions in complex scripts to track down where problems might occur,
to reset certain variables or events, etc. We used a similar sort of
debugging function in our Waypoint script on page 25, when we
discussed what the OnDrawGizmoSelected function did.

9. The FormatScore function is used to nicely format the score

float. We want to split up the time float into minutes, seconds, and
deciseconds integer values. The integer values are then concat-
enated (strung) together to form a nicely formatted time string.

And that’s it! Now, that wasn’t too hard was it? Really take your time
to review the sections in this script. Many of the techniques used
here are very simple and quite commonly used in many types of
games. You’ll be using many of these basic scripting ideas in your
own game. Once you’ve read through them and start to use and
alter them for your own games, they will become second nature
and you’ll be able to look at other scripts and better understand and
utilize them for your own projects.

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 Updates (Unity 1.5)
The latest version of Unity (1.5) has provided users with a signifi-
cant number of improvements and enhancements to the Unity en-
gine. One example has been the introduction of a specialized wheel
collider, and thats what users should now use for car wheels in this
tutorial. An example project showing the new wheel collider can be
downloaded from http://www.otee.dk/examples

The new wheel collider has support for slip curves, a specialized
friction model for cars, dampers, and allows you to model anything
from a dune buggy through to a F1 racing car game. The wheel col-
lider is of very high quality, so you can create cars that just feel right,
regardless of the type of vehcile or terrain your game models.

The new wheel collider has changed the way cars are setup from
how we did it in this tutorial. The example project (at the link above)
contains a description on how to set up cars with wheel colliders.
many of the concepts like waypoints and AI can be applied to the
new car model as well.

Where To Go From Here?

You will likely want to use your own artwork for the player car. When
creating the artwork for the car you need to make sure it fits how the
scripts were made. The z-axis of the car and all wheels have to be
in the direction of travel. The x-axis of the car and all wheels have
to be to the right when you view the car from behind. Try replacing
the included racetrack with your own 3D race track. Experiment
with some of the variable settings used; e.g., make the car acceler-
ate faster or turn sharper, increase or decrease the number of AI
opponents or stagger their starting position, or modify the Physic
Material values. Most of all, experiment, have fun, and drop by the
Unity forums to share questions, ideas and comments.

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