Arcade-style car simulation without physics

Oxmyx · 2004-05-20T08:26:56

I have a terrain and a car that drives on this terrain. Currently the car simply aligns itself with the terrain polygon directly below it. It works fairly well, but the car is completely unsprung and desperately needs some kind of car simulation to make it feel like a car, and not some kind of sticky object. However, I don''t know enough physics to do a real physics engine that could simulate friction, weight transfer, etc. in full detail. How would you design a really simple car model that is fun to play in an arcade-style way, but doesn''t require an entire physics engine to work?

Math and Physics Programming

Started by Oxmyx May 19, 2004 02:13 PM

9 comments, last by Oxmyx 19 years, 11 months ago

MrRowl

2,496

May 20, 2004 08:26 AM

Feel free to nick anything you like from

http://www.rowlhouse.co.uk/jiggle

The cars in there use a raycast for each wheel to generate the suspension forces. Then the drive/grip forces are calculated for each wheel - There''s a lot of scope for improvement.

Another way is to use the raycast for the suspension forces, but for the drive/turning (etc) forces/torques calculate them for the car as a whole - not per wheel. I.e. do things like have a lookup table that tells you what the turning torque will be for a given car speed/steering wheel angle etc.