I have the chain meshes fixed and cleaned up a lot of the frame meshes. The next few days are going to be spent working on final textures, thoroughly testing configs, and further fine-tuning engine sounds.
Figured I'd come in and give a weekend update. I have most of the random bugs ironed out now and have been focusing heavily on tuning the configs and making the engine sounds for the 250 and 350cc engines. I most likely will not be adding special sounds for the 450, 500, and High Rev engines unless it is requested as it is fairly tedious to design the engines and get the recordings. The new engine sounds are much closer to reality than the substitutes I used in the past (the autobello b4 and the pigeon i3), so it helps it feel like you are driving something powered by a motorcycle engine rather than a car.
I am finally happy with the karts, so it's all down to stress testing the configs, finalizing textures, and finally working on the 1.5L config and features. The 1.5L config needs a tow hitch, the brake mesh aligned, and to be stress tested as well. Once that's all done, it'll be a matter of finalizing color choices for the configs, fixing the descriptions, and updating the config thumbnails. The one thing I am debating is whether to add configs for the more powerful versions of the base engines(450cc and 500cc).
I swear I have a monkey brain sometimes. I spent like two hours adjusting values for a beam attached to a node that was vibrating only to find out it was vibrating because it was colliding with a triangle! That one change has made the kart significantly more stable and predictable at all speeds. I no longer have to fight the kart to remain stable at high speeds and can focus more closely on the handling. This did not make the bubble tires less likely to lose grip, but it did make the grip loss much more predictable. Today's progress: New Engine It is based on a 1000cc Ducati V4 It is a more drivable alternative to the High Rev2 Engine New Transmission Race 6-speed transmission based on the Scintilla 6-speed transmission Stability improvements found a few nodes that were colliding with triangles changing these made all forms of the kart much more stable Dummy changes Set the dummy to only be attached to the seat This means that the dummy is much less static over bumps and whatnot The dummy portrays the g forces in a much more natural way with subtle shifting to the front and back as you accelerate and the leaning now has to fight the turning gs This is double-edged in that the dummy now helps absorb bumps, but can cause the kart to go unstable when going over too many bumps in a row before it settles again. As with all bumpiness, this has almost no effect on the independent rear variants Added a tow hitch to the 1.5L variant The thing weighs around 1200 lbs and can pull the 5700 lb trailer uphill with a run-up Edit to say that at this point I am just tuning the configs and working on the 1.5L tractor build at this point. Update should be released between tomorrow and Friday
With this update in place, I received some feedback on a few things. Since they are fairly minor, I will be putting in an update over the weekend to address the points below. I did submit an update that should show up on 09/16, but it only addresses the incorrect engine sounds Changes over the weekend: The dummy helmet will be removable The country name will be changed to align with Vanilla standards Adding drag to the floor It didn't make sense that a huge flat sheet of metal would not affect aero On any variant that is tilted forward, there will be a slight downforce effect, and wheelies at speed may cause you to flip over backward Changing exhaust sounds This has a huge effect on the sound of the engines, which means I may not have to make the 4 cylinder sounds. Some more tweaks to the bubble tires A good portion of the instability came from the front tires Adjusting values in the diffs as some did not have standardized ratios Changing the texture file format from png to dds. This reduced the file size significantly
Try deep clearing cache, it addressed that issue on my end. By the way, another bug I spotted in the kart. The 500cc engine smoke seems to be misplaced:
Nice! I am glad that worked. Yeah, the exhaust tree doesn't quite work right due to how far back the exhaust goes from the rest of the body. I will add it to my list of things to work on, but I cannot promise it will be fixed with the next update.
Hey do you plan on adding an additional steering wheel a round one and also some sort of rollcage or roof cage (ik that you build it like it was yours one but i would be cooler)
I might put in a steering wheel for the 1.5L config since that one had an actual wheel, but the others will not. I might make a new mod based on this kart, which does have a wheel and rollcage.
Well, I feel dumb. Somehow, I completely neglected to put in the front coilover mounts. This explains the huge difference in performance between the IRS and Standard front suspension. Neither had the mounts, but the lack thereof was more noticeable on the standard frame. I have literally no idea how the suspension functioned at all since the coilover only connected to the mounts and the hubs. I will be putting in yet another update to address this and to further address the front wheels folding inwards. The update will also address the incorrect ratio ranges on the standard CVT. On the real thing, it's (roughly) 2.225 - 0.82. Setting it up this way gives more reason to use the predator CVT as it has almost 1.5x lower ratios at 3.125 and 1.14. List of changes: Front suspension rework CVT update Config update Tire tweaks
It's been about a week since the last update as to what I am working on with this. So far, the focus has been and continues to be the tires. I am getting closer to values that are stable up to 180 mph while not sacrificing low speed performance. Other than that, I decided to make a config designed for short course off road racing with yet another engine, this time a 750cc based on a Kawasaki. Before I get the update out, I want to refine the non-kart tires using what I learned with the kart tires and find ways to stop the steering from inverting. Changes: Kart tires have been improved immesely They still wobble at high speed, but they no longer cause you to spin out randomly 750cc Engine It is almost an exact middle ground between the 500 and 1000cc engines Further updates to the steering jbeam Further updates to the front suspension Added a set of twin gas tanks that help balance the kart better They do not fit the side-mounted configs very well. Added sequential transmissions 5-speed (non-adjustable) 6-speed (adjustable) Added limited slip diffs These actually perform better than the active diffs Changed front arm support beams They should now wiggle a lot less under normal stress (V10 and HR configs have enough power to shake them)
Time for the weekly update! I am getting closer to something that is significant enough to warrant an update, but there are still a few things I want to get closer to perfect before I upload an update. Changes since last post: Frame Frames can now deform Previously, the strength and deform values were set to flt max Redid collision Triangles Adjusted drag coefficient of the floor Engines Engines can now be broken off Retuned thermal values for the higher end engines Set the drivechain mesh to be based on the engine Added two new exhausts for the manual transmission engines High end Trades low end power for high end Low end Trades high end power for low end Reduced engine volumes to match the Scintilla with no exhaust Tires Further tweaks to the bubble tires The traction is much more realistic now. No more wheelies and flipping over on asphalt This did come at the cost of the squishiness of the tires, although they still have a much lower occurrence of bouncing Kart Tires Still working on getting the tires stable at 150+ mph, but it is closer. Spoilers Redid spoiler jbeams and triangles Still unrealistic amount of downforce, but I may add new ones that aren't unrealstic Misc Added a slot for right side fuel tanks This is to balance the kart or just to add more fuel All Redid all breakgroups Now every part can come off, including the seat To Do: Further refine tires Eliminate strange twisting in the air caused by the dummy Experiment with breakgroups for the front and rear subframes Eliminate instability caused by spoilers breaking Retune all configs
I could probably help with 1 cyl engine modelling. I reused Picollina textures and made use of some modelling skills (one of my mod pigeon performance has 1 cyl 150cc 2 stroke option)
An update should be coming soon. I had a breakthrough with the suspension that significantly improves handling. So much so, that now the only instability comes from the relatively floppy rear wheels(working on that), the engine torquing to the side(This is normal), and the tires. It's a big enough deal that I want to finalize it over the weekend and hopefully get it uploaded early next week. There are a ton of tweaks to the parts list and variable ranges, so all of the configs(and any custom ones you made) need to be retuned. Pre-weekend changelog: Frames The front subframe can now be detached in a collision Strength values are highly experimental at the moment and are set to be stronger than the engine mounts Weights have been adjusted to accommodate changes in suspension geometry Reduced beam count on the rear independent subframe Front Suspension IRS Front Changed limiter geometry Changed anti-shake geometry Changed hub geometry Adjusted weights Rear Suspension IRS Rear Changed limiter geometry Changed anti-shake geometry Changed hub geometry Adjusted weights Added rear half shaft beams Engines Added breakable engine mounts Transmissions Changed all transmissions to sequential Dummy Fixed a node that was colliding with a triangle, which was the source of the instability Made the hands connect more firmly to the handlebars To Do: Frames Further increase stability and refine strength values Front suspension Refine and copy new geometry from the IRS front to the standard front suspension Rear suspension Refine the geometry and beam values Engines Refine engine mounts per engine Right now, most share the exact same values Dummy Fine-tune beam strengths and breakgroups Configs Retune all configs to account for suspension changes --- Post updated --- That would be really cool! My level of modelling experience left me the option to reuse the same engine model several times lol. The engine model used now is to scale and a rough copy of the real 350cc engine.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PFhw9Th8KzZB_EDkO8vxyMKtfvhXCkOV/view?usp=sharing There, the texture name is "gx_engine". You can reuse autobello engine texture for texture.json (autobello_engine_b.color) (reason for renaming = prevent conflicts) Photos here Credits: Beamng - Some model are taken from Picolina engine, reason is they are very close to motorcycle engine (modelling wise) bitelaserkhalif - Observation for re-modelling them into 150cc single cylinder engine and predator 212 engine (GX200 based). I happen to have a generator that used Chinese clone engine for some observation. Predator 212 looks bit same with gx200, albeit the cover is black. For other people who managed to get there, If you want to reuse this model simply credit those in above.
Monday update time! Thanks to bitelaserkhalif for providing the meshes! I am pushing the update back a bit while I get the meshes optimized and redo the 250 and 450cc engine jbeams adjusted to match the new bounds and to add in new intake and exhaust parts for those engines. The rest of the changes in the previous post are nearly complete, so it shouldn't be much longer before the update is posted.
