Devlog #2: Building Endless Tracks with Procedural Tools

Hey Drifters,

Welcome back to the workshop.

The community vote on Discord was loud and clear: you wanted a technical deep dive into the procedural tools I've built for World of Drift. Honestly, I was thrilled this topic won. These tools are the secret sauce behind the entire project, and they get to the very heart of my philosophy for this game and its future.

The Mission: Declaring War on Content Fatigue

My biggest frustration with many racing games is the inevitable burnout that comes from mastering a limited set of tracks. You learn every line, perfect every corner, and eventually, the replayability starts to fade. My mission with World of Drift is to solve this problem from day one. I've spent a huge amount of my development time building a powerful, flexible, and efficient procedural content pipeline.

The goal is simple: to create a system that allows me to design, build, test, and ship a constant stream of fresh, high-quality track layouts. My target is to be able to release a new, unique layout for you to master every two weeks. This is how we ensure the game has massive, long-term replayability and that the drive always stays interesting.

The Workflow: From a Blank Canvas to a Racetrack

What you saw in the video is my real-world workflow for creating a new layout on our "playground" map, Loop Haven. It’s a system of interconnected blueprints, each with a specific job.

Step 1: The "Magic Box" - BP_Start
Every layout begins here. The starting gate is a powerful, self-contained blueprint that acts as the "brain" for any run. It’s packed with essential logic that I only wanted to build once:

• The Countdown Timer: The visual and logical sequence to start a run.

• Grid Positions: It contains the precise transform data for both the Leader and Chaser cars, ensuring a perfect start every time.

• Core Rules: It even handles fundamental rules, like the lane divider that detects if a leader unfairly cuts into the chaser's lane during a tandem battle.
  By making this blueprint modular, I can drop it anywhere on any map, and the foundation for a new, fully functional course is instantly in place.

Step 2: The Initiation
Right after the start, I place the BP_Initiation zone. In the world of competitive drifting, the initiation is arguably the most important moment. This zone is where the scoring officially begins, and it's specifically designed to measure the quality of that first, aggressive entry flick. It has its own set of parameters to judge whether a driver's initiation was clean, confident, and hit the right angle and speed.

Step 3: The Spine of the Course & The Scoring Zones
With the start and initiation set, I lay out the "spine" of the course using a spline. This becomes the guide for all the high-speed sections and precision points that make up the scoring.

• Outer Zones: These are the big, high-speed sweepers that make up the soul of any drift course. These are spline-based actors, and as you saw, the system gives me granular control over dozens of scoring parameters. For every single zone, I can define the minimum and maximum distance from the wall, the ideal speed range, the minimum and ideal angle required to score, whether it's a left- or right-hand turn, and much more. This deep level of control is how I can fine-tune a layout to be easy to learn, but incredibly difficult to master.

• Inner Clips: For precision, I place BP_InnerClip actors. These are single-point zones that test a driver's ability to hit a specific apex. They have their own simplified scoring parameters for angle and speed. But to add a layer of consequence, if you make a mistake and hit the cone, it’s an automatic zero for that zone. The game will even give you a dramatic, slow-motion "shot of shame" from the overhead camera in the replay to make sure you really feel it.

The best part, and my favorite magic trick, is that the moment I define one of these zones, the procedural system automatically generates all the necessary assets—the walls, the tire barriers, custom track markings, and even a full set of cinematic replay cameras, all perfectly placed and aligned. It's a system that turns days of manual labor into minutes of creative design.

The Environment Itself & The Modding Reveal

This procedural philosophy is at the heart of the entire project. In fact, all of the green islands and curbs on Loop Haven were the first things I built on this map, also generated from splines. This workflow allows me to build out a complex, detailed environment first, and then carve the perfect drift lines through it later.

But here’s the most important part of all this. This system isn't just for me.

My ultimate plan is to put these exact same tools into your hands. I'm building this so that, in the future, the community will be able to design, build, and share your own custom tracks using this procedural system. I'm not just building a game; I'm building a platform, and I truly want to see what you can create with it.

What's Next? A Glimpse into the Scoring System

You got a sneak peek at the scoring system in action during the test run. It's already tracking a huge amount of data—proximity to the ideal line, speed, angle, deceleration zones, and more. It's a massive and complex system that deserves its own video. So, get ready for Devlog #3, where we will do a full, in-depth breakdown of the entire scoring system and how it all comes together.

Thank you for nerding out with me on the technical details today. Your support and curiosity are what fuel this project. If you want to help me test these features and shape the future of this game, the best place is our community Discord.