Last Updated: 22 Nov 2023

Realtime Car Racing

Experience the thrill of high-speed competition in my multiplayer car racing game! Built in Unity, this game features real-time multiplayer, stunning graphics, and smooth controls, delivering an immersive racing experience. Compete with players worldwide and test your driving skills on dynamic tracks.

Challenges

Creating a high-quality racing game involves more than just speed and visuals—it requires careful attention to gameplay mechanics, performance, and player experience. Every element, from responsive controls to fair competition, contributes to making the game immersive and enjoyable. The challenge is to balance realism, excitement, and technical limitations while ensuring a smooth and competitive racing environment. Here are some key challenges faced during the development process:

In a fast-paced racing game, even a small delay in player input can ruin the experience.
If there aren't enough players in a lobby, the game feels empty.
The camera needed to follow the car dynamically without abrupt jerks or lag, especially in high-speed turns.
Preventing players from skipping parts of the track or taking shortcuts unfairly.
Adding realistic weather effects like rain, fog, and night-time lighting without hurting performance.
Keeping the UI clean, readable, and non-intrusive while showing important race information.
Allowing players to upgrade their cars while maintaining balance in multiplayer races.
Making sure car engine sounds match speed, acceleration, and gear shifts in real-time.
Ensuring the game runs smoothly on mid-range and low-end mobile devices.

Solutions

Developing a racing game that delivers a seamless and engaging experience requires overcoming several technical and gameplay challenges. From ensuring real-time responsiveness in multiplayer matches to optimizing performance on mobile devices, every detail plays a crucial role in shaping the player's experience. The goal was to create a game that not only looks and feels immersive but also runs smoothly while maintaining fair competition and dynamic gameplay.

To tackle network latency and input delay, client-side prediction and server reconciliation were implemented, ensuring that players experience smooth movement even in fluctuating network conditions. AI opponents were introduced for low-player matches, using Unity’s NavMesh and behavior trees to simulate real racers and maintain competitiveness. Smooth camera movement was achieved with Cinemachine, allowing the camera to dynamically adjust based on speed and direction without abrupt jerks. To prevent unfair advantages, a checkpoint system was integrated, requiring players to pass through all track checkpoints in sequence while server-side validation detected any position manipulation or cheating attempts.

Enhancing visual quality while maintaining performance was another major focus. Shader Graph and GPU-based particle effects were used to render realistic weather effects like rain and fog, while dynamic lighting adjusted the time of day smoothly. The UI and HUD were optimized with a minimalistic design, world-space rendering, and DOTween animations for efficient performance. A modular car upgrade system was developed to balance multiplayer matchmaking based on upgrade tiers, ensuring fair competition. For an immersive audio experience, FMOD Audio Engine was used with real-time pitch shifting linked to speed and RPM. Finally, mobile optimization strategies such as dynamic quality settings, texture compression, and adaptive resolution scaling were applied to maintain smooth gameplay on various devices.