Skins mechanic in RVGL
Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2018 10:21 pm
We just spotted on RVH that skins work online for joining players (joiners), but only if skins of joiners' choice have the same skins names as the hosters. If a joiner uses a skin that the hoster doesn't have (names of those skins have to be the same), then the skin doesn't change for the joiner (even on his own PC). Hoster can change to any skin he has. This mechanic has two major downsides:
1. All skins on players' PCs have to have the same names to work properly. This is fine, but not necessarily when people are free to add, delete and change the names as they wish (this is especially problematic when the hoster does that, as it influences all joiners as explained above).
2. Joiners may also want to use other skins (skins that only they have), which causes them to see a deafault skin of their car (because the hoster doesn't have the skin). It's natural that all other players, including the hoster see his car in the default skin, but I see no reason for the player himself to see his car in the default skin.
3. (unrelated) Skins are not listed at all, they are not remembered by the game at all, even at the car selection screen. They have to be picked every time when selecting the car. This would become very problematic if there would be a large number of selectable skins (very possible in the future).
A possible fix to issues in my mind can be adding these features/mechanics to RVGL:
a) For stock cars, create a folder in the cars' folders named "skins". Custom skins would be put there. They would be downloadable from IO, from whatever source or even bundled together with RVGL downloads. This folder (or the main car folder) could also contain a .txt file, which would assign a specific number to a specific skin that has a specific name. This way the skin could be remembered by the game (just like the last car and track selections are). Re-Volt community through voting on the channel "#car-skins" will pick which skins will go into the "official" skin pack and these would be updated and uploaded on IO page and packed with future RVGL updates. The numbers would be assigned to the skins based on the (for example) date of submission (stock skin = #1 or #0 or #stock, first win = #1 or #2 etc or something similar). Unofficial skins could be added to that folder by the player, but such skins wouldn't have their numbers assigned and wouldn't be remembered by the game, and in online games they would be seen only by the player using it, other players would see his car in the custom skin. That would organize the skin system and fix these 3 issues.
b) Allow for the same mechanic (a)) to work with custom cars.
tl;dr: Skins are great but need to be polished.
1. All skins on players' PCs have to have the same names to work properly. This is fine, but not necessarily when people are free to add, delete and change the names as they wish (this is especially problematic when the hoster does that, as it influences all joiners as explained above).
2. Joiners may also want to use other skins (skins that only they have), which causes them to see a deafault skin of their car (because the hoster doesn't have the skin). It's natural that all other players, including the hoster see his car in the default skin, but I see no reason for the player himself to see his car in the default skin.
3. (unrelated) Skins are not listed at all, they are not remembered by the game at all, even at the car selection screen. They have to be picked every time when selecting the car. This would become very problematic if there would be a large number of selectable skins (very possible in the future).
A possible fix to issues in my mind can be adding these features/mechanics to RVGL:
a) For stock cars, create a folder in the cars' folders named "skins". Custom skins would be put there. They would be downloadable from IO, from whatever source or even bundled together with RVGL downloads. This folder (or the main car folder) could also contain a .txt file, which would assign a specific number to a specific skin that has a specific name. This way the skin could be remembered by the game (just like the last car and track selections are). Re-Volt community through voting on the channel "#car-skins" will pick which skins will go into the "official" skin pack and these would be updated and uploaded on IO page and packed with future RVGL updates. The numbers would be assigned to the skins based on the (for example) date of submission (stock skin = #1 or #0 or #stock, first win = #1 or #2 etc or something similar). Unofficial skins could be added to that folder by the player, but such skins wouldn't have their numbers assigned and wouldn't be remembered by the game, and in online games they would be seen only by the player using it, other players would see his car in the custom skin. That would organize the skin system and fix these 3 issues.
b) Allow for the same mechanic (a)) to work with custom cars.
tl;dr: Skins are great but need to be polished.