Driving on the truck platform

[Duplode]

Here is a tiny Restunts plaything -- thanks @alanrotoi for the idea of looking into it!

The starting line truck features an actual raised platform with a slope, as demonstrated by the animation at the beginning of the race (as well as the car dropping glitch that happens when you pause the game during it). This platform then magically disappears along with the truck once the lap begins. It turns out the surfaces that make up the platform are part of the start/finish line element; however, their existence is controlled by a conditional in build_track_object which skips them unless the animation is running. Since this is such a simple test, it is straightforward to disable it by poking at the executable with the help of a debugger. That allows us to get a taste of what would be like if the truck platform were a real track element!

Attached to this post you'll find a Restunts game executable that has been hex-edited to disable the aforementioned test. I have also added a demo track, in which you can drive straight at the beginning (out of the broken path and onto the chicane) in order to break the path finding, thus allowing you to drive through the start/finish line in either direction as many times as you want.

As expected, the platform works as a small ramp when driven the wrong way. While there is no slope when approaching the platform from behind while driving along the direction of the track, the platform is low enough that hitting it provides a well-behaved bounce, not unlike the boulevard bug one. Another quirk is that the platform covers only the right lane, as there is no truck for the opponent car on the left side.   

[Cas]

Very interesting!  It actually extends to the right outside the road. Makes me think we should put more attention to the wall/plane system and we may be able to obtain productive results for element variations

[alanrotoi]

I love it. Sometimes it happens you speak about stunts and the crazy ideas come out

I like an element with half of the road is a crest and the other half plain road. That's very stuntish.