Animated Steel Coaster

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This package gives you an anmated coaster prefab, that you can use in your Unity scenes. The track uses two LOD levels for optimal performance and high visual quality.

Animated Steel Coaster Plus also features a prefab, that you can use in combination with Tracks and Rails by Zen Fulcrum LLC to create your own coasters. (requires both assets)

On this page you will find setup guides, descriptions aswell as information on effective usage of this asset. If you have questions visit the forum or contact the author by using the links below.


This documentation is designed for Animated Steel Coaster Plus. Not all features listed below are available in version 1.

Release Notes:

  • v 2.1  - Added runtime control script for Tracks And Rails prefab. Added mobile coaster prefab.
  • v 2.11 - changed shaders for mobile prefab due to rendering issues with the scenes skybox.
  • v 2.12 - fixed errors
  • v 2.13 - fixed Unity 2017.3 compatibility and T&R 4.0.0 compatibility
  • v 2.14 - minor animation fix

known Issues:

Contents

  1. Coaster Prefab

  2. Tracks And Rails Prefabs (Plus/v2 only)

  3. LOD Settings

  4. Editing Supports

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Coaster Prefab

The coaster prefab is located at: "Assets/Laxer Assets/Coaster/coaster sw.prefab"

You can add the coaster to your scene simply by dragging the prefab into the scene view or the hierarchy.

The prefab contains:

  • curves : this object contains the track, starting with the station
  • other stuff : this object contains the supports and their bases.
  • Pillars and bases can be adjusted by selecting either the pillar or base gameobject. You can move them by setting tool handles to local and dragging them along their local y-axis.

Use the attached script to change the settings of the coaster. Settings will be applied on 'start'.

If you use the foldout for advanced settings, „train prefab“ and „start delay“ fields appear. If you want to modify the trains, you have to modify the associated carts.

The train prefab field contains the carts, that are duplicated on startup to get the correct number of trains. These carts have to be deactivated duplicates of carts one to five.

The script activates and copies these carts at the start of the game and adjusts the start delay time for each train. If you want to modify the carts, you also have to modify these deactivated carts.

The number of trains defines, what start delay is used. If there is one train, start delay will be 0. If there are four trains, start delay will be 17.25 seconds.

This ensures, that trains don't go through each other. You should only do minor changes to these values.

Coaster Controller Script:

Trains: Number of trains that will be instantiated on startup

Animation Speed: Sets the speed of the coaster animation on startup

Break Prefab Connection: Make this prefab unique. Click this button to be able to modify the properties of this script. If you don't break the connection, all settings will be reverted to prefab state on startup. Alternatively you can also apply all settings to the prefab.

Advanced Options: Use this only if you want to modify the prefab

Script: Coaster controller script. Do not change this!

Info: Toggle info box above. Use this to disable notifications and warnings shown above.

Train Prefab: These are links to deactivated carts in the prefab. The script will instantiate these carts on startup to create the desired number of trains.

First Train: These are links to active cart prefabs. These are unique and do not get instantiated on startup. For example you could add a camera to these and it won't get cloned on startup. Usually these prefabs are identical to the 'train prefab'.

Start Delay: This is the animation offset used if multiple trains are on the track. For example if there are two trains, the second one starts 48.5 seconds after the first one. When there are 4 trains the second train will start 17.25 seconds after the first.

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Tracks And Rails Prefabs

This asset is compatible with Tracks and Rails by Zen Fulcrum LLC. If 'Tracks and Rails' is installed, you can use the 'Coaster station for ZFTrack' prefab to create your own track. Drag the prefab called „Coaster station for ZFTrack“ from „Assets/Laxer Assets/Coaster/Tracks and Rails plugin/“ into your scene. It will automatically create all required components to create a fully functional coaster station. This will give you a good starting point to create your own track.

If you select the prefab it will also show you information on how to proceed.

Tracks and Rails prefab usage

Editing:

To start editing the track select the track piece after the lift (or any other part. You can not edit the station). Once you selected a part of the track, editing handles will appear. Click a cylinder to edit this node or click the cone to create the next / previous track piece. Editing works best with the 'hand' tool selected in the top left corner (or press Q). This way the default handles don't interfere with the editing handles.

To finish your track move the last node close to the rail that leads into the station. 'Snap to nearest' will now connect both rails.

Tracks and Rails editing

Change lift and coaster settings:

To change the speed of the lift, select all parts of the lift and modify the 'Acceleration' values to the desired speed.

Tracks and Rails Lift

To modify the station settings select 'Station Track ZF' and scroll down to the 'station' script in the inspector. There you will find all settings for the station.

Tracks and Rails station

Track Designs:

Use the 'Rail Mesh' and 'Tie Mesh' fields of the 'Track' components to change the track design.

Meshes for 'Rail Mesh' and 'Tie Mesh' are located at 'Assets/Laxer Assets/Coaster/TRACKS AND RAILS PLUGIN/ Models'.

Track designs

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LOD Settings

(Coaster prefab only. Tracks and Rails does not support LOD levels)

LOD settings

All curves except the station use LOD meshes. The LOD component is attached to numbered curve objects.

You can also adjust the LOD bias in the quality settings (edit->project settings->quality) LOD Bias affects the distance at which the LOD of all objects is changed.

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Editing Supports

To add supports, use the support prefabs from „Assets/Laxer Assets/Coaster/Tracks and Rails plugin/Models“. Setting the anchor to 'pivot' makes positioning easier.

Editing supports
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