Pulp race progress report #1
Been sometime i didn't push update here,
Bullet shoot chronicle have been release since.
In this early 2025, I want to share my try to create race game in pulp. We can say that pulp seem not a fit for that kind of game. So it should be interesting to try to create one.
Started this project in the first week of january.
To create a race we need to have :
- a track
- lap finish by a finish line
- A vehicule
- Direction to cross this finish line
- At least one cpu to race against that is able to complete a lap
use of a tile perspective way of doing that rule and
that Pulpscript is really great to break Pulp basic functionnality.
gonna help much.
Top view of a track and for the moment just being
using frame rate of pulp (20 frame per second) i construct
first prototype of a square track.
Player movement : with the dpad making a stale direction while player moving
stoping by solid thing.
example of track :
direction will be needed to track, one thing that is very usefull and
nice is that in a track there is a start and an end. they finish at the same point represented by the finishline.
We just sure we don't want to get back from the same direction.
We generally won't go back when you racing!
That was superusefull for tracking lap from the player and the
cpu.
Oh, let's talk about cpu, firstly i wanted to do some
tile tracking target in function of tile use by the cpu, but it was a lot of effort for complex track...
Then i decide to implement an angle advancing cpu that work in most of the case.
I didn't implemented yet a way to do all the track i created by the cpu but i have some idea but it would be for a next post.
One another interesting subject that i think i break is how to track position between cpu and you.
But first here's the first track :
p variable you see is the position in the race, you can see i track it when i outrun the cpu or when the cpu pass you.
Here a concret way of see how i did that track.
Math formula :
Activation depending of the distance , the triangle you see show the area checking if the player is in front of the cpu or not 
But this way on device, i make to many computation to check
2 frame are lost
so i use repetition at all frame on front and back only over distance as you see 3 range at 3frame...
(the computation seeing by triangle is an animation played then swaped so it's just a projection, all the calcul are done at 1frame rate)
Other aspect are interesting but are not yet "cpu friendly yet" like the different tile make different speed within the track or teleport for breaking the trackfield
there is also directional forced by tile, key that open door, hole that stop your run and hyperspeed tile that transport the player
So what i want to do next is work other way for the cpu to do the race other then bouncing on tile.
More tracks
more use of mimic for the code
other cpu?
other challenge?
projectile?
use of crank?