[Help] Vehicle physics

[Rhino]

I was thinking about a different system.

The engine control input has a range, depends on what you set it to. Hard to explain but anyways. The range dictates how many stages it has between 0 throttle and 1 (full throttle), just like in planes. If the range is 1 it equals the range 0-1 wich is 0 or full throtle without any stages, kindof like driving on keyboard is.

The settings currently are set to reset after you release the throttle, so it brings that 1 to 0. But if you disable that reset, engine will strive for full speed wich is 1 even if you release the forward key. Now if i split the 0-1 range into 5 parts, that would mean that i'd have to press the forward key 5 times to get to the full throttle. (I've set the truck to have 5 gears).

Now i dont know how it would work when braking, will it be as now or youd have to tap backwards like a maniac to get down to "neutral" or 0 in this case.

I've just done some tweaking on the M-939, wich turned out promising as the truck drives like normal BUT if you let off the throttle at speed it will come down do a sloooow cruise, and you have to tap backwards to get it into neutral. Also if you just tap forward from standing still, it wont engage the "cruise" as you have to rev the engine up a little.

Ill keep working on this and see what comes out.

Ye the battleships mod had something like that for there ships which was really cool, but for land vehicles its really dont see it working too well tbh.

[Arnoldio]

Ye the battleships mod had something like that for there ships which was really cool, but for land vehicles its really dont see it working too well tbh.

Seems like i cant get it to work properly anyways, was looking at BF1942 tutorial and it seems the BF2 settings are a bit different.

So, no gears so far people. :/

[Arnoldio]

Or you could fix it with one line of code

ObjectTemplate.CenterOfMassOffset 0/-0.5/0

This, im going to try it tomorrow and i hope that vehicles wont need reexporting, wich would save someones work, though make mine harder, but im not in a hurry.

[Arnoldio]

Ok sorry for being away but im back with a fresh installment of windows, so now im doing it all over again, not that much was lost anyway.

So i made the the US logistics truck heavier, brought the center of gravity a tad forward, modified the suspension so it actually sits on it nicely. With the weight added, there comes the need for a stronger engine so i tweaked the engine power and transmission ratio to get the raw power out of it. For everything not to act as an F1 car (as it does now, i compared it to the unmodified transport version and it was FAST compared to thing i modified, not to mention that it seems it includes F1 sequential transmission with zero clutching time... ). Also changed the gear ratios and added an extra gear, wich, combined with longer time between changing gears, makes it harder to get up hills... Well not harder in terms of truck struggling to get upwards, but the driver needs to "change gears" down to first one before advancing steeper hills because there is a chance he will get stuck and when the thing shifts down, he will loose momentum and revs and torque and power, resulting in the truck sliding back down or in worst case scenario flipping while driver tries to save the whole thing, possibly driving over few frendlies and plummiting into certain death... of the truck, not neccesarily the driver. Also the engine stopping was decreased a bit.

Rhino, if you have time (Or any other DEV), you can get this modded file and try it out ingame, possibly compare it to the unmodded trans truck and see the differences, can also suggest changes.

EDIT: I shortened the gear change time because it was a bit ove the top. Also fixed the gear ratios a bit. Truck is ready to use. Also fixed the trans version to meet the same abilties. (Note that the file is not updated).

[Arnoldio]

Files are updated and russian version of logi Ural is in. But you cannot get it to stop for some reason even if you get out ,it just keep going forward or backwards. Its also kinda slow but that will get fixed. (But the no stopping problem is the priority.)

[Arnoldio]

Seeing many random guys from the community improving the mod, i am intrigued to jump on the bandwagon again and continue this. Question for Rhino, or whoever knows their ways around the editor.

I know that Rhino has posted a vehicle test map somewhere in this thread, my question is, is it possible to run it in editor and test vehicles from the editor on that map or will i have to load the game for every tweak i make?

If possible to test in editor, id like some rather detailed instructions please.

My plan would be as stated in the first post, focusing especially on center of mass and suspension characteristics, next being a PR-wide fix of shifting gears, wich (last time i checked) is done without ordinary clutch action but rather extremely fast sequential doubleclutch futuristic gearbox. After that, engine characteristics, fiddling with gears etc.

[Arc_Shielder]

You didn't told me about this Mr Arnold. Good stuff. Maybe one day we will be able to set up a PR race track event with this.

Keep it up mate!

[Tim270]

I havent checked in most of the PR vehicles but I am pretty sure most of them do not have the newcar2 engine that gives quite a few extra nice values to play with (although I could be wrong). Although it is not such a big deal.

One problem with the gears though is the engine decides when the gear shift occurs, not the player so having longer gearup times in some cases means that you will get stuck on small hills as you cant get up the RPM's you need. Thus, most of the gear changes are pretty quick. Although I am sure they could be a bit slower without too many problems. As you stated though, for a realistic gear system there has to be a player-controlled element in shifting gears to really make it worthwhile.

Pretty much bf2 only has 5 gear settings. Usually, it is 4 for going forwards and 1 for reverse, you can however have only 1 for going forwards, like most of the tanks in bf2 as it just makes it able to get over most small objects. The final number in the gears defined will always acts as the reverse.

Good luck with the changes :3

[J.F.Leusch69]

to test vehicles inside the editor (they might behave differently ingame, but might be limited to the gears)

go to the level editor, load a map.

switch to object editor, enable toogle draw terrain, map shows up.

drop a vehicle on the map, enable physics etc

[Arnoldio]

I havent checked in most of the PR vehicles but I am pretty sure most of them do not have the newcar2 engine that gives quite a few extra nice values to play with (although I could be wrong). Although it is not such a big deal.

One problem with the gears though is the engine decides when the gear shift occurs, not the player so having longer gearup times in some cases means that you will get stuck on small hills as you cant get up the RPM's you need. Thus, most of the gear changes are pretty quick. Although I am sure they could be a bit slower without too many problems. As you stated though, for a realistic gear system there has to be a player-controlled element in shifting gears to really make it worthwhile.

Pretty much bf2 only has 5 gear settings. Usually, it is 4 for going forwards and 1 for reverse, you can however have only 1 for going forwards, like most of the tanks in bf2 as it just makes it able to get over most small objects. The final number in the gears defined will always acts as the reverse.

Good luck with the changes :3

Tell me more about the newcar2 thingy?

Also, i dropped the manual gear change thingy. The actual shifting time will be increased, especially for trucks and also i will enable the clutch torque option so its more like real life.

In combination with better suspension, better weigh distribution and overall handling, going uphills shouldnt be a problem, especially if the player has common sense. With more riskier gear changes, it will be up to the player to maintain correct RPMs, so its not just holding down W and Shift. Its not hard or game breaking, just gives you some challenge.

All in all, vehicle physics in PR are all over the place, FH2 has managed to unify the feelings of vehicles and give them more dynamic feeling. If youre involved in the driving, it becomes more thatn just a box on four wheels.

And yeah, thanks Leusch, as ive seen editor does the physics so-so, but, we will see.

[Arnoldio]

I have a problem.

I started up editor, went to object editor, loaded a map and placed a vehicle, enabled physics, an drove it around. Worked good.

Then i loaded AAVP, and got horrible lag, 1 fps, whils driving and physics enabled. Since then, i tried laoding the us supply truck again and its laggy... not so bad as the AAVP but still rpetty low, especially when the vehicle is close to the camera.

I have all 4 cores working on it and my computer aint bad at all.

[Rudd]

have you got any red text coming up when its laggy? sometimes the editor doesn't like it when an asset is using a colmesh or whatever that is actually in another folder (you see it alot with trucks and chinooks or other models that are the same between multiple teams)

[Spush]

Try it out ingame?

[Arnoldio]

have you got any red text coming up when its laggy? sometimes the editor doesn't like it when an asset is using a colmesh or whatever that is actually in another folder (you see it alot with trucks and chinooks or other models that are the same between multiple teams)

Its that yeah. Most logi trucks dont have the no colmesh thingy error and on almost every vehicle there is that too many network properties error.

So I guess ill just work with the original model for each vehicle like mil_trk_logistics works like a charm.

Spush, if i was to load up the game for every minor change i make... yeah.

[Rhino]

Ye the editor isn't very good at finding col meshes out of other folders from other vehicles/objects and laggs to **** when it can't

Its pissing off as hell for the editor but easier for the servers running the game as they are not having to load/process clones of the same col mesh for vehicles.