Hello all, I am currently enduring a severe headache as a result of a problem that I cannot solve. I am currently hard at work on the AI logic for our cartoon racing game, and am having issues with the smoothness of its motion. The logic is fine. We are using a physics simulator and are providing the car input values for turning based on the next waypoint (we are using a system of waypoints for navigation). The problem is, as is probably self-evident, that the car will turn to face a waypoint, drive to it, turn, drive, turn, drive, producing very jerky, angular behaviour. I was thinking of introducing a Catmull-Rom spline into the whole thing, but I'm not really sure how I would go about doing it. I know that I need a smoother motion, I'm just not sure how to obtain it without generating thousands of waypoints. If you require some code snippets, I'll post whatever is needed. Thanks a lot. This problem is driving me insane. Best Regards, Julian Spillane

Instead of using splines, try using a more simple method:
Every frame (or when ever the AI is updated) have the cars turn towards the waypoints by a small amount.

For example, if the cars turn a few degrees towards the waypoint every ten frames, the motion will appear much more smooth.

Thanks a lot! This paper was exactly what I needed.

:)