01-08-2026, 07:50 PM
In some tracks, such as Maths Class, the difference in scale is considerable and intentional.
The more problematic cases are perhaps those where the scale difference isn't so huge that it feels deliberate, but still big enough to be perceived. I agree it can be a bit strange when there is a mismatch between the size of the characters and the environment, and I made a remark yesterday to Sven and Mish about how assets of the same type (say, people) can be scaled inconsistently from one track to the next (compare the woman in Candela City with people in Gran Paradiso Island).
If I had to guess, I would say that a major reason for making things bigger than they should theoretically be is to ensure that they are visible.
If you pay attention (or test manually with splitscreen to directly control two karts), you'll notice that other karts become small and difficult to see in details rather quickly. Increasing the size of models help to see them from farther away and to better notice their details.
Another way to resolve the apparent mismatch would be to make the karts bigger, but longer and especially wider karts would affect gameplay significantly. Tracks are designed for STK's karts, and karts are designed for STK's tracks.
The more problematic cases are perhaps those where the scale difference isn't so huge that it feels deliberate, but still big enough to be perceived. I agree it can be a bit strange when there is a mismatch between the size of the characters and the environment, and I made a remark yesterday to Sven and Mish about how assets of the same type (say, people) can be scaled inconsistently from one track to the next (compare the woman in Candela City with people in Gran Paradiso Island).
If I had to guess, I would say that a major reason for making things bigger than they should theoretically be is to ensure that they are visible.
If you pay attention (or test manually with splitscreen to directly control two karts), you'll notice that other karts become small and difficult to see in details rather quickly. Increasing the size of models help to see them from farther away and to better notice their details.
Another way to resolve the apparent mismatch would be to make the karts bigger, but longer and especially wider karts would affect gameplay significantly. Tracks are designed for STK's karts, and karts are designed for STK's tracks.