AI Racing Systems: Spline Navigation & Box-Trace Avoidance
This technical demo showcases a high-speed racing framework developed entirely in Unreal Engine Blueprints. The project focuses on reactive AI behavior, spline-based pathing, and a robust race-management system designed for scalability and designer control.
Key Technical Features:
Spline-Based AI Navigation: AI competitors are programmed to follow a track-defined Spline Component. To create natural-looking racing lines, the AI maintains a variable offset to the spline, allowing for a "living" race feel rather than a rigid, single-file line.
Reactive Obstacle Avoidance: Implemented a Box Trace Collision System on the lateral axes of each AI pawn. The AI dynamically analyzes these sensor sweeps to determine if it needs to offset its position (steering left/right) or modulate its velocity to avoid collisions with other racers or track obstacles.
Designer-Centric Variables: The AI speed and behavior parameters are exposed as instance-editable variables, allowing level designers to quickly tune the difficulty and "aggressiveness" of the AI without modifying the core code.
Race Management System: Developed a comprehensive manager that tracks:
Real-time Positioning: Live ranking of the player vs. AI pawns.
Telemetry: Tracking current speed and forward-axis velocity.
Lap & Time Logic: High-precision lap timing and a post-race leaderboard to rank performance.