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by gus_massa 250 days ago
Have you tried compression?

For example instead of storing, x1, x2, x3, x4, x5, you can store x1, x2-x1, x3-x2, x4-x3, x5-x4 Using few decimals it may compress better with the standard algorithms.

Assuming almost constant speed, you may guess x3 from x2 and x1 and x3=~ 2*x2-x1, so instead of x3, x4, ... you store x3-2\x2+x1, x4-2\x3+x2, and compress it.

For a car, I'd assume constant acceleration and if I didn't make a mistake, x4=~ 3x3-3x2+x1, so you store x4-3x3+x2-x1 and compress the sequence.
1 comments
andvari_bekho 250 days ago
Hey, thank you so much! I’ll share this information with my programmer, maybe with this we can further reduce the ghost file size and bring in more samples to make the selection better match your skill level.

In any case, the ideal solution would be if the API allowed us to send the player’s average time as a parameter, so we could fetch opponents at a similar skill level, that would greatly improve the gameplay experience. I’ll mention it again to the backend team, and if we’re lucky, maybe they can prioritize that feature.

Cheers, and thanks again!

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gus_massa 250 days ago
Too late to edit. I forgot a 3 in

x4-3*x3+x2-x1 --> x4-3*x3+3*x2-x1

Good luck with the project.

PS: Usually tweaking the parameters to select the opponents/ghost and make the game fun (that is what is important) is hard. (More cars? Less cars? Use the last time of the player? Use the average time of the player?) So after you solve the problem, a post-mortem may be an interesting blog post to summit here.

PS2: another typo in my first comment: defectively -> effectively

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andvari_bekho 250 days ago
In the future, we plan to reuse the engine and everything we’ve learned from this project to create a new game, this time hosting the backend ourselves to have greater control over the matchmaking.

Right now, we’re limited by what the Gamesnacks API allows us to do, which makes it difficult to fine-tune certain aspects.

Even with those limitations, it’s great to see players enjoying the game. The leaderboard is highly competitive, and I keep seeing the same players battling for the top spot, shaving off just a few milliseconds each day.

I love how accessible HTML5 games are, but I’d also love to see our next racing game running on the Steam Deck. maybe we’ll build a Unity wrapper and release it ad-free on Steam for a few bucks.

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