I would like to see a shiftability from 2-4WD. This would incease realism and you would under steer less in let's say, an SUV or a pickup truck if you can take it out of 4WD.
+ Support. Dont think it would be too hard to import into the program/game. I would like to see this make it.
If you look at this thread here, http://www.rigsofrods.com/threads/70503-LEGO-car-suv?highlight=lego Voulk has creaed a lego Vehicle the has a manual tansfer-case that you can shift between 2WD and 4WD. Go check it out.
This would be really cool if it also was affecting a possible fuel consumption where the car would be less economic it you had 4x4 connected and vice versa
Although this might be slightly off-topic, it still has to do with the same coding I think.... It might be a cool idea to, instead of a 0 and 1 for undriven and driven wheels, (and 2 and 3 for braked steering etc.), use a decimal value to control how much a wheel is driven. A lot of sportscars(which will probably eventually be made for this game, that's just how people are) have a non 50/50 4x4 system. For example one of the Porsche 911's has 60% of the power on the rear wheels and 40% on the front. With the way Rigs of Rods worked, it was impossible to simulate that(as far as I know?). I'm no programmer of course, but I'd imagine if something like a transfercase would be made for the game, it would use the same values(a 0 to 1 number) to set which wheels are driven, so *while* switching between 4x4 and 2x4 it would still hit a decimal value for a split second? So perhaps it's posible, using the same system, to also use decimal values to set how much power goes to every wheel? Of course you can't just use 0.6 for one wheel and 0.4 for another, but you'd have to use 1.0 on the rear wheels and 0.66667 on the front, but it would get the right result I'd imagine? Of course if this would require the devs to rewrite a lot of the already done coding for the drivetrains, this isn't really worth the effort(I think)... Plus perhaps this would just create a big mess: since this game is based purely on physics, rather than faking physics, I can imagine if you'd use a decimal powersplit between 4 wheels, the front wheels would turn slower or than the rear wheels... Which would result in some, well, interesting handling characteristics...
Well, we're already doing this for brakes, to make front/rear (or even side to side) brake bias possible.
For realistic 4wd sports car simulation, also a center differential should be implemented, which is the differential between the drive axles. The drive ratio is not usually solid on all wheel drive road vehicles or vehicles that are used in the racing world. There's usually a differential between the drive axles and as addition some kind of system that limits the speed difference between drive axles, like torsen, vcu, or active differential. Not all systems have the center diff, some have only some sort of clutch pack system that still allows speed variation between the two drive axles. But the point is, that should be possible to have speed variation between the drive axles in all wheel drive vehicle in order to make the system realistic. Maybe should implement some sort of system, where differentials can be linked easily. As normally a differential has one input, and 2 outputs. Would be good, if it was possible to give 2 other differentials as outputs for one differential, and the engine power source as input. So the output for the differential wouldn't necessarily have to be a wheel like it is in RoR. The torque split ratio 40 - 60, also requires this feature as you can't make the wheels turn so that rear wheels turn more than front wheels. In practice, front and rear wheels both roll at the same speed for as long as the traction is good and there is no slip. Only the torque split ratio is different.The different ratio will really show up only when cornering or slip occurs and in this case rear wheels drive with more force.
