I'd love to go for a Sunday drive but..........................

[Perrie Juran]

I love driving in my car and riding my motorcycle in SL.  I really do.

But I am a serious hazard on the road.  Maybe it's me, maybe it's my computer, what the cause is I am not certain, but simply put I have a terrible time staying on the road.  The slightest touch of my movement keys to turn left or right and I am veering off the road.  And when I say veering, I mean I can find myself 50 meters off the road.  I constantly find myself going down embankments and landing in water.....you name it.

I understand that some of this relates to how 'physics' work in SL.

But one of the other issues is how short a time it takes to cross a single Sim even in low gear.

You can not go for a leisurely Sunday drive across the Mainland roads.

Which leads me to ask, why don't vehicles have a "true" low gear?  Something that would allow me to putter around SL at sub sonic speeds?

 

 

[Hugsy Penguin]

It sounds to me like you need to get a better handling vehicle.  The key to a good drive is speed – in particular, a slow speed.  There are too many vehicle makers who know how to make a pretty vehicle but they don't know how to script it.  Or they tune it thinking everyone wants to race on a single sim track.

Off the top of my head, anything by ACCC motors should be good.  Also, anything by Yevad Doobie should be good too.  I recently bought the Thunder from Pro Street and it's very drivable (except 6th gear and above – it's like the jump from impulse to warp speed, LOL).

Never spend a lot of money on a vehicle if you can't test drive it first.

[Theresa Tennyson]

My jeep can go pretty slow and if it goes off the road it looks like you meant to do it:

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/GPW-JEEP/2096511

I think a big part of the problem with driving on the Mainland is you keep entering new regions so you constantly get a flood of new information your viewer has to deal with. Also, be very subtle with the left and right arrows - if you hold them until you see yourself turn you've probably held them too far.

[Knutz Scorpio]

The cars I've purchased from Haru seem pretty slow in first gear, it's not until I've shifted up to third that I feel like I'm doing at least jogging speed.  You can set them to "economy mode" which removes all nonessential scripts.  And though I still have bad moments (like when the car would do a hard right into the ditch no matter what I did) overall these cars have worked well for me.

A few things I do when mainland cruising that I think may help.  Turning off my AO.  Trying to time my key presses so that at the sim crossings my hands are off the controls and I'm just coasting across.  And once I've successfully made it onto the next sim wait for everything to rez before continuing.

[Celestiall Nightfire]

---

Perrie Juran wrote:

I love driving in my car and riding my motorcycle in SL.  I really do.

But I am a serious hazard on the road.  Maybe it's me, maybe it's my computer, what the cause is I am not certain, but simply put I have a terrible time staying on the road.  The slightest touch of my movement keys to turn left or right and I am veering off the road.  And when I say veering, I mean I can find myself 50 meters off the road.  I constantly find myself going down embankments and landing in water.....you name it.

I understand that some of this relates to how 'physics' work in SL.

But one of the other issues is how short a time it takes to cross a single Sim even in low gear.

You can not go for a leisurely Sunday drive across the Mainland roads.

Which leads me to ask, why don't vehicles have a "true" low gear?  Something that would allow me to putter around SL at sub sonic speeds?

---

Perrie, it's the scripting.  

For some reason a lot of SL vehicles have either a common vehicles script, or a script where the scripter has not corrected for this issue. 

I've talked to different SL vehicle makers about this.  Some say they're trying to duplicate RL steering and response.  But, this is not RL!   Personally, I'm only interested in duplicating RL into SL...if it works as an enjoyable attribute.  Otherwise...there is no point.  (for me)   

(Oh, and if the vehicle is one that you made, tweek your script!!  ; ) 

 

 

[Celestiall Nightfire]

---

Hugsy Penguin wrote:

There are too many vehicle makers who know how to make a pretty vehicle but they don't know how to script it. 

 

Never spend a lot of money on a vehicle if you can't test drive it first.

---

THIS  ^^^

 

[Perrie Juran]

Thank you all for your answers.

I haven't invested a lot in the vehicles I drive so I probably need to test drive some higher priced models.

I have run so many people off the road at some of the motorcycle tracks it's a wonder I have never had any one yell at me or ban me.

I am super super gentle with my left / right arrows, just barely tapping them to correct direction.

I just can not afford to kill any more of my girl friends crashing into things.  My friends list is just getting too short.

[Orca Flotta]

Perrie, greetings to Mars (or wherever you're from)!

Most motorcycles these days are on the ACS (or sumsuch) script, which you can tweak in settings with a menu. I always tune mine to a very unresponsive steering and start by going in 1st gear. I only shift up on long stretches of road once I'm gotten used to my bike. Often I see the more speedy types passing me on race bikes but since I'm an explorer rather than a racer I don't care. Farewell my speedy friends. Godspeed.

Expensive doesn't equal good or better. My favourite bikes are like 400 or 500 Lindenbucks, no need to pay thousands for a MLCC. BUR Classic Motorcycles and Dirty Garage are very nice for not much money.

Always keep the minimap open and watch for sim borders. Slow down there for a smooth transition.

A good smooth Linden mainland road to start is the one in the northern parts of Nautilus (the continent, not the island). Not too many bends and curves, nice blacktop asphalt, a good road to check out everything. Some time ago I bloggered about it. See the url in my sig.

[Perrie Juran]

---

Orca Flotta wrote:

Perrie, greetings to Mars (or wherever you're from)!

Most motorcycles these days are on the ACS (or sumsuch) script, which you can tweak in settings with a menu. I always tune mine to a very unresponsive steering and start by going in 1st gear. I only shift up on long stretches of road once I'm gotten used to my bike. Often I see the more speedy types passing me on race bikes but since I'm an explorer rather than a racer I don't care. Farewell my speedy friends. Godspeed.

Expensive doesn't equal good or better. My favourite bikes are like 400 or 500 Lindenbucks, no need to pay thousands for a MLCC.

BUR Classic Motorcycles

and

Dirty Garage

are very nice for not much money.

Always keep the minimap open and watch for sim borders. Slow down there for a smooth transition.

A good smooth Linden mainland road to start is the one in the northern parts of Nautilus (the continent, not the island). Not too many bends and curves, nice blacktop asphalt, a good road to check out everything. Some time ago I bloggered about it. See the url in my sig.

---

I may need to look closer at my menu settings for other possible "tweaks" but I never get out of first gear.  Anything faster launches me into orbit.  I just simply hate all the blisters I get on my skin from the heat of re-entry.  Takes weeks to heal.

 

[Echo Hermit]

I think you and me need to be sticking to safer forms of transport

[Echo Hermit]

---

Theresa Tennyson wrote:

My jeep can go pretty slow and if it goes off the road it looks like you meant to do it:

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/GPW-JEEP/2096511

I think a big part of the problem with driving on the Mainland is you keep entering new regions so you constantly get a flood of new information your viewer has to deal with. Also, be very subtle with the left and right arrows - if you hold them until you see yourself turn you've probably held them too far.

---

Aye, jeeps and trucks seem quite safe sometimes. I had a marvellous journey with my partner, and a hitchhiker a few weeks ago.  The truck fell to pieces along the way (it was scripted to do so, so that was OK) but sim crossings were actually quite smooth.

 

[Perrie Juran]

---

Echo Hermit wrote:

I think you and me need to be sticking to safer forms of transport

---

I love it. 

But I've also heard that Camels can be quite testy, biting and spitting with no warning so do please be careful.

And if you've never been there, the Afgahnistan SIM is a very cool place to explore.  There are also a few Merchants there who donate portions of their proceeds to educational efforts for Afghanistani Women.  Plus your camel may feel more at home there.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Trillia/54/75/74

 

 

[Cerise Sorbet]

---

Perrie Juran wrote:

I haven't invested a lot in the vehicles I drive so I probably need to test drive some higher priced models.

---

Unfortunately that approach can hurt, the SL vehicle market is wack. Some of the worst handlers are also some of the most expensive ones, including some of the "big" names.

The most driveable bikes I've bought cost all of L$300. It uses the KCP vehicle scripts which are generally good, but equally important these bikes have a really good simple physics footprints.

Maybe even more important is to look for modifiable vehicles that can be tweaked to your liking. A good physics setup was really hard to achieve before the new "none" type was available, so just about anything more than a year old can probably be improved in this area.

[arton Rotaru]

In my Mudskipper, I have built in what I call  'LL Road Turn mode (easy to maneuver on LL roads)'. Combined with cruise control, I have a fairly easy time staying on the mainland roads.

[Echo Hermit]

---

Perrie Juran wrote:

---

Echo Hermit wrote:

I think you and me need to be sticking to safer forms of transport

---

I love it. 

But I've also heard that Camels can be quite testy, biting and spitting with no warning so do please be careful.

And if you've never been there, the Afgahnistan SIM is a very cool place to explore.  There are also a few Merchants there who donate portions of their proceeds to educational efforts for Afghanistani Women.  Plus your camel may feel more at home there.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Trillia/54/75/74

 

 

---

I'll check out the dress code and pop across there. I don't want to draw attention to myself with my mad red hair. 

The camel doesn't spit, as long as I give him plenty to chew on before the journey.  Classy, eh?

[Echo Hermit]

---

arton Rotaru wrote:

In my Mudskipper, I have built in what I call  'LL Road Turn mode (easy to maneuver on LL roads)'. Combined with cruise control, I have a fairly easy time staying on the mainland roads.

---

Looks like it handles really well. Nothing seems to phase it at all.

I vote LL make a deal on that with you, buy it from you for a fair price, and give it out as the next premium member free gift.  I'd love to see a few hundred of these out on the roads and waterways of SL.

[Raven1 Short]

I can't drive either.

[Echo Hermit]

---

Raven1 Short wrote:

I can't drive either.

---

Looks like it's camels for three then :matte-motes-big-grin-squint:

[Coby Foden]

Steering vehicles - motocycles, cars, airplanes - with a digital on/off switch such as a keyboard, is never going to be a smooth experience.

Few years ago I used to fly a lot using commercial flight simulator software.  I had a special joystick with lots of controls. The throttle was a wheel where one could adjust the amount of throttle smoothly with fine precision.  Turning was handled by tilting the stick sideways.  Again very smoothly and with fine precision.  Tilt the stick slightly, the vehicle turns slowly. Tilt the stick more, the vehicle turns more quickly.  Airplane nose up, nose down was handled by pushing/pulling the stick.  It was like all was analog, no jerky steps.  Great smooth experience

Unfortunately I have not been able to try the joystick in SL as my new computer does not have suitable connection for it.  I wonder how joystick would handle vehicles in SL.  Like turning, would it be smooth, stepless?  Or would it be similar as with keyboard on/off style?

 

[Perrie Juran]

---

arton Rotaru wrote:

In my Mudskipper, I have built in what I call  'LL Road Turn mode (easy to maneuver on LL roads)'. Combined with cruise control, I have a fairly easy time staying on the mainland roads.

---

Now that is cool!

And I bet many people would love the plow feature for encounters with AnnMaries vehicles. 

 

[Cerise Sorbet]

---

Coby Foden wrote:

Unfortunately I have not been able to try the joystick in SL as my new computer does not have suitable connection for it.  I wonder how joystick would handle vehicles in SL.  Like turning, would it be smooth, stepless?  Or would it be similar as with keyboard on/off style? 

---

It will still still be on/off, that's the only interface available for most vehicles.

Some vehicles also use the "mouselook steering" mode which tries to be more like analog; but like the name implies, it only works with the first person camera. It can still be finicky, as network, client and region performance stil affect responsiveness.

[Dillon Levenque]

I was waiting for a chance to do some driving while reading all these posts, thinking I might want to acquire a new vehicle; I did finally get some drive time in today and I'll stick with my car (although I have to admit I am seriously thinking about having that Jeep).

I've only taken the Lotus to a 'drive' sim once and really didn't spend enough time to get any good with it, but for normal SL driving it's all I need. I just keep it in low gears and do everything—acceleration and steering—with taps. I do use mouselook if I'm trying to cover ground in a hurry since the sim crossings are faster that way, but for the most part I'm driving to sightsee, so mouselook defeats the purpose.

 

 

I have found some pretty good roads on Corsica. The picture was taken in Black Lion, just north of an intersection. It's a really fun road, paved all the way, over the mountains. Going north to south it's like one whoop-de-doo after another; I bet it would be fun on a motorcycle. The main road along the coast it intersects with is also on mountain terrain and has a big grade. For some reason the rez zone in the picture didn't work for me, but there's one just down the main road at Trendone that did.

Here's a map just to give you an idea of where this all is:

By the way, I think everyone has hinted enough with the pictures. Pretty sure a picture of Perrie on the bike is if not required, at least expected.

 

 

First image edited for prurience.

[Knowl Paine]

I've owned land in Shempo, and in Wavepaw, small World :smileyhappy:

[Paul Hexem]

SL is terrible for most vehicles. No precision. The entire system is set up so you can either turn or not turn, no fine tune control over it. Even mouselook can be inaccurate.

 

Which is annoying, since I love vehicles too. I keep hoping LL gets around to adding full support for joysticks and game controllers like every other 3D platform on the planet did 10 years ago...

[Knowl Paine]

In a past discussion, and probably in many, putting the Roads on their own Servers has been discussed.

One of my suggestions, was to redefine the shape of a Region. I was informed by other Residents, that the mechanical structure, and physical layout of the Server, in part, is what makes Regions square. Reconfiguring that system is not a viable option.

 

 

The Linden Realms.... Promotion, not sure what to call it. I have never visited, but it got me thinking about the roads again.

What If, a Resident could teleport to a copy of the road, on a different grid? When you exit the road, you would be teleported to the land adjacent to your exit point. A confirmation window could approve or decline road exiting.

 

An extreme, but effective solution, would be to relocate the inhabitants (Residents) from the Regions containing Roadways.

 

A far out idea, is to travel under the surface patch. Move the roads underground.