Wheel Connection

So I've began a simple project to make a vehicle that has basic damping suspension steering and wheels.

But every time I try to connect a wheel it either faces the wrong way or shows up in the jbeam fine but is very unstable... I am using the properties of wheels that are already in-game and trying to adapt them to my suspension, why do they blow up?


How do you connect them?

The wiki's explanation is minimal and very confusing to me, anyone care to make a more visual approach to how and where these nodes are used and what each one does?


Sorry to ask this but I really am stumped

 

You just set 2 nodes, and a nodeArm and the wheel will connect on them.

The reason the wheel is unstable is because, on the default vehicles, we have scaleBeamSpring and scaleBeamDamp. On your vehicle, you most likely don't have these values, meaning the wheel has some large beamSpring and damp values, causing it to be unstable. To fix this, either copy the scaling from the vehicle you took it from (you'll need to also copy this scaling to all your jbeam files), or scale them manually.

Also, what do you mean by it faces the wrong way?

 

The reason the wheel is unstable is because, on the default vehicles, we have scaleBeamSpring and scaleBeamDamp.

FACEPALM****
Thanks for pointing that out.


So I've fixed that and added it to the rest of the vehicle rather than removing it from the wheels [Tried removing it first]

No luck, still surprisingly the same issue.

The wheel is connected but the model isn't appearing for anything and the you have to violently tape J and K to make the jbeam appear then the jbeam debug options won't update unless you pause the physics and than when you pause and unpause the jbeam will move only after you've repaused the physics than it will teleport to a new location.

it is very broken, never seen anything quite like it.

If I remove the wheels, the vehicle gets stable physics again and the model of the whole vehicle comes back.

 

You also have to remember that every vehicle is different, and some need more tweaking than others. Try playing around with the tread/hub spring in the wheels section.

The mesh for the wheel needs to be defined as a flexbody ex.

Code:

"flexbodies": [
     ["mesh", "[group]:","nonFlexMaterials"],
     ["my_mesh", ["my_group"]],
],

Then, make your wheel line reference the flexbody group.

Code:

 ["FR", "my_group", "axle1", "axle2", 9999,  "brake1", -1,  {"speedo" : true, "torqueArm":"diff1"}

 

All the flexbodies are set, it's just the wheels for some reason are so unstable they negate the flexbody of the main portion of the vehicle.

 

Try lowering the hub/periphery springs in the wheels section, they should then become stable.

 

/= So I tried everything, even stiffening the bottom portion of the base for the entire vehicle [Increase weights on specific nodes], lowering all wheel values back and forth... double checking beams and nodes for the wheels, nothing seems to be fixing this ridiculous level of unstable physics.

And it's only unstable when the wheels are on...

If I got into the wheel jbeam and set the first 3 lines like this to negate the whole file it is stable.

Code:

{
}
}

 

Would you mind posting/sending the files?

 

Sure, just give me till tomorrow to do so.

 

Here it is, don't question the poor quality and awkward suspension, after I can at least figure out how to connect the wheels or get them to a point when I can place beams to the wheel properly I'll just redo the suspension to actually mimic a real-world concept.

 

Any Luck?
Please get back to me when possible, even if it's just to say you haven't gotten around to it yet.


Sorry, I just want to know what I did wrong and what needed fixing.

 

Looking at your file now

EDIT : Sorry for the delay! I've attached the fixed file . The reason yours wasn't working was:

a) You had no engine, wheels need one
b) "hubTreadBeamSpring" was too high, causing the wheels to become unstable, I reduced it by 100000

 

Thanks for the information and help.