Wheel improvements
With the wheel code being reworked we're even more excited for the upcoming update. Instead of posting a long list of all the changes that have been made it's best if we mention the most important ones, so let's get right to it!
Torque on the wheels
In our quest for better wheels we've improved the way that torque is applied. In the upcoming update torque will divided amongst the wheels.
Sliding vehicles
Homebrew vehicles sometimes had the bad habit of sliding over the ground even when no force was applied. While reworking the underlying code something that we refer to as the "grip lock" has been added to ensure that this is a thing of the past.
Grip curves
In the current version grip is calculated from the wheel's relative velocity compared to the ground. This approach, although it works isn't physically correct .
After looking at many, many ... many (and yes it was A TON of information), we realized that this whole aspect had to be revamped. Eventually we ended up with a slip % curve for forward friction and a slip angle curve for the sideways friction.
This approach has finally enabled us to enter correct curves by the book ;).
Rolling and static resistance
Homebrew’s old wheels didn't have these and after experimenting for a while we quickly realized that these are way too important to be left out.
Rolling resistance: this is the resistance that the wheel has when it’s rolling, simply put your car will eventually slow down out of itself and come to a halt.
Static resistance: this is needed to get going from standstill, in general it is a lot higher than the rolling resistance but after you’ve passed this threshold this resistance disappears and rolling resistance takes over.
Maximum traction
The maximum traction that your wheel can provide depends heavily on how much the wheel is pressed against the ground and by how much the wheel is slipping.
Homebrew’s old wheels didn’t take slipping wheels into account. We’ve improved the behavior by making sure that the new ones look at how much your wheel is slipping and multiplying it with the wheel’s maximum traction.
This means that when you do a burnout, your sideways friction will drop significantly which makes doing doughnuts or power slides a lot of fun.
Skidmarks and sound effects
Having better wheel physics is one thing, making land vehicles even more enjoyable needed other changes as well. With this in mind skidmarks are accompanied by sound effects that will change based on the ground surface type and other physical properties.
Other changes
A lot of other changes that affect wheel behavior have been made as well. Below are some of the more important ones.
- Default wheel settings have been changed
- Fixed wheel cog
- Wheel weight is more accurate.
- Wheels are visible on the wheel hub by default.
Additional wheels and reworked visuals
With all these improvements it'd be a shame if we wouldn't rework the visuals and add in some new ones while doing this. After the new build goes live you'll have the following choices:
- Thin wheel
- Monster truck wheel
- Dirt wheel
- Default wheel
- 5 different sports wheels
And yes, just like most of you we too wanted to have wooden wheels :D
What's next
The upcoming update also brings along new engines and a bunch of physics improvements to the existing ones. Therefore our following post will focus on this specific area.
DREAM - BUILD - ENJOY
Copybugpaste Team