Algodoo

My god, what have you done to it
I knew it was able to go 20 m/s with the right gearbox, but 25 m/s ...
I don't know what to say, it's awesome.
It's weird to see my ugly little car actually ... work.
I knew it could work, but never got it to work.

It's just ... unbelievable.
Such a small change made such a huge difference.

You cleaned up the script box, and made it look much better.
The new gearbox is just awesome.
I am just speachless.

I didn't know how to use the new readable values, so I'm glad you know

Is it normal that the speed and rpm indicator needles jump a little while stationary and the engine is off?
And the black box in the middle in the dashboard is for the gear indicator I think?

I still have to learn to shift at 15 m/s, instead of the previous 6 m/s.
So, that's a bit weird, but besides that it is an fantastic gearbox.
I knew it, I knew it wasn't the engine.

So, do you also know how to calculate the torque and hp of my engine?
Because I am a bit curious about how good and strong it really is.

Thank you very very very much for helping me!!!
It works, finally.
I knew it could work, it just needed some tweaking by an expert

The needles jump because the rack gear mechanism leaves a space between the gear of the needle and the rack. Try with restitution 0.
And yes, that's the gear indicator.
Look at the speedometer: there are two red lines that mark when to change gear.
And if you want to meter the engine's torque in Nm, just put autobrake and rise the strenght slowly, and register the strenght you had to put to make the engine get really slow (3 rad/s is slow)., or just to brake it.
If you find any way to meter HP's, tell me . I'm glad to know how that's possible.

And for the readables... It's really simple, look at the last part of the script menu: there are some values that you can't change, but yes to take and display.
Just put (readable(*here goes e.geom if you meter this from a laser, e.other if you make a collision, and owner if you meter this from the geometry)).what you want to meter from the last part of the script menu.

An example is (readable(e.geom)).angvel, this meters the angular velocity in rad/s, and if there's an array, select what you want to take from there, like (readable(e.geom)).vel(0). 0 is the data place you take from the array.
In a color array, color(0) is red, color(1) is green, color(2) is blue, and color(3) is opacity.

Thanks for the info, I'll try it in a test scene so I know how to work with the new readables too.

I have done a test on how strong my engine is ... and it's not great.
Compared to my other engines it's a racecar engine, because it has 5 times the power of my previous strongest engine.
But compared to one of your engines, it's just rubish.
On the strongest setting (number 5, Turbo) my engine has about 60 Nm of torque and 26 Nm in it's first setting (number 3, Normal).
So, that's pretty weak or strong if you look at the 60 Nm.

I didn't noticed you changed the colors on the speed indicator too, but I have to say it's handy and realistic.
Normally you change at 40 and 100 km/h in a real car, so that's a good thing.
The only down side is that the car doesn't go that fast and that it's a fake reading, but it's still fun.

But I like it, and that's what counts.
I like the new ratios a lot, because it is much more realistic and most importantly it works.

Btw, I have done some little testing and I noticed something.
If you accelerate in the fastest setting (number 5, Turbo), it shoots to 25 m/s like a rocket .
I managed to get to 30 m/s, but then I lost control and it started jumping ... a lot.
So, if I had changed gears at the right moment, I think it could have gone even faster.
To prevent jumping I have to change the weight of the wheels and such to keep it on the ground, which ruïns it's performance.
So, I'll think about that later.

Thanks for helping me out, I really appreciate it.
The only thing left for me is turning it into a good looking car.
Which will be though, but I'm sure I can do it.

Wait... If it jumps, try to make the hinges that have to go fast legacyMode 0. I'll try to do that.

With LegacyMode on 0 it accelerates much slower, or I have changed the LegacyMode on the wrong hinges.
What is LegacyMode by the way?
Because even with LegacyMode on 0 the connection between the gearbox and rear wheel still jumps sometimes when the rpm is high.

It's normal, the old hinges didn't have much strenght and were stretchable.
They were stronger, and could go to (almost) infinite speeds. But with the new Algodoo, the hinges and springs changed A LOT, but now they can get to 117 rad/s without exploding, that's a really low value. So, with legacyMode 0, hinges are stretchable, and really weak, but can go to the speed your engine goes.
The car jumps because of the engine - gearbox connection, and the gearbox hinges. The engine's crankshaft isn't a problem.

Let's try with spring transmission or no clutch.

That's very nice of you to keep working on it.
I'm a bit curious about how fast it can really go too.
I don't think it will be more than 45 m/s (= 160 km/h), but we will see.
Of course it would be cool to go that fast, but looking at the engine it will take a lot of work to get there.

The scene.my.thruster script is for the thrusters on the pistons (maybe you already noticed), if you increase the number you increase the torque (but also the risks of exploding ).
So, you can do some things with that if you don't have enough torque.
I have had it on 250 Nm in Turbo mode (5), and that ran pretty well without exploding. As long as you give the engine something to power, so the rad/s are kept below 70 rad/s (above that the risks of jumping are higher).

You can also try to add more pistons in the engine, like some people do.
Some people add like 10 pistons in one cilinder, but I think 2 or 3 will be enough (and more realistic).
The upside though is that it becomes a V6 engine instead of a simple 3 cilinder one.
A V6 is more realistic but less fun, because it's funnier to see a 3 cilinder engine go 40 m/s than a V6.
But we'll see.
The only problem with more pistons in one cilinder is the scripting of the thrusters on the pistons.
But I think that that problem can be solved with a .geom (or whatever it's called) and a if-else script.
It will be hard though, but maybe it's possible.

Let's turn this ugly (I still have to work on the looks ) simple car, that wasn't ment to go fast when I first build it, into a race car

Look at this scene:
63435

What you have here are three thrusters hitting at the same time. So, why don't you just put only two vars in place of seven? (scene.my.thruster, scene.my thruster1,2,3,4,5,6)

The reason why there are so many scene.my.thruster variables is because of the timings.
The things connecting the pistons with the flywheel are placed at the same place, but because the cilinders are positioned as they are the pistons don't hit the scriptboxes at the exact same time.
For example, when the left piston is at it's highest position, the most right piston is not.
To keep the timings perfect I made a lot of variables.
So, now the thrusters change direction at the correct timing instead of 0.5 seconds too early (which can cause a small loss of torque).

You can check it for yourself when you download this scene and keep it on pause.
You will notice that the bottom of the most left piston is in the scriptbox, while the bottom of the most right isn't.

So, because my engine doesn't have much power, I do everything to get the most out of it. And if that means I have to add a lot of variables (which my computer is able to handle), why not?
If 7 different thruster variables mean I have 3 Nm more torque, why not?
It's a crucial difference if I want to get to high speeds, because that 3 Nm can mean the difference between 32 or 33 m/s.

It seems that the only way to get more speed is by scaling the back wheel. It gets to 157.08 rad/s, and that-s the max speed it can get.

IT WAS THAT!!!
65 m/s!

65 m/s ... 234 km/h, omg, what happend!
I know what you did, but Oh My God.
It's a racecar

I designed this car to look and perform like a 45 km/h car, because I couldn't get much speed out of my engines, but this is a racecar now.
My god, I don't know what to say ... again.

The engine is simple and pretty weak compared to other engines on Algobox, but the car performs like a supercar.
It's amazing what is possible with weak engines.

Uhm ... and you forgot something:
You forgot to make the wheels like 50 to 80 KG, because otherwise the car starts jumping in the Faster than normal (4) and Turbo mode (5).

And I have one little request, because the wheel is now so far away from the engine it's impossible to make it front wheel drive and have the engine at the front at the same time (or rear wheel drive and engine at the back at the same time, because now it's like a mid-engine supercar and I think that's ugly (despite the better weight balance)). So, could you make a nice car around it with the engine at the front and rear wheel drive (or with the engine in the rear and front wheel drive), like a real race car. Because now it looks a bit ... weird

I am very bad at building cars and a chasis, as you can see from how it looks now and how the previous versions looked (they where very bad looking, you can still see one of those previous versions on my profile).

Then I'll adjust the speedometer and the rpm meter when you re-upload it, because now the speedometer breaks if you go faster than 40 m/s (or somewhere near that).
And because the car now really goes 65 m/s, I don't have to put fake numbers on the speedometer anymore (I didn't have to anymore at v2).

By the way, thank you very much for making it go so fast.
It's like a race car now!!!
I've already started to make a nice test track/course for it.

I never thought it would go so fast, it's amazing.
I think 65 m/s is really the max, or the wheels have to be sized up even more and then the whole car won't look realistic anymore.
And I don't want to turn it into a monster truck

I couldn't
It just goes to 25 m/s, like my first mod.
Just don't know why!

Ok, now it's better, I'll upload it soon!

It's been a week and I still haven't seen it on Algobox.
Did you accendentally forgot to upload or are there some problems with it?

Trouble. It hasn't really got better, so that's why I'm not so active, as I have been working on it and may be.

Now yes! Possible to get to 65 m/s!

Thank you so much, it looks way better than before.
I'll add some additional striping later and make the wheels look pretty (that is something I can do), it was just the bodywork I have trouble with. Weirdly I'm always unable to get the right dimensions and realistic size
I can do small cars, but I have trouble with bigger ones and some times small ones too. So, thanks for helping me with that bit too.

I'll fix the speedometer, because now it can go faster than 120 km/h.
And Í am going to add a cruise control, because I don't always want it to go 200 km/h.
I already have a working one on a test car, but I don't know if it's going to work on this one.
Because this car has a different engine and is a lot heavier than the test car, but we'll see.
Maybe it works and if not I can simply remove it.

And I am going to add other small (sporty) things as well:
Maybe some lights, digital speedometer (or HUD), lights on the dashboard to indicate what mode is engaged (something similar to the lights I have on my golf cart), a sporty air intake on the hood and roof, a spoiler on the rear, some glow on the bottom of the car (like some street cars have).

Or I can go for the simple family car with maybe a caravan (the engine can tow 200 kg easily (and 1000 kg as well, slow but it goes), so why not).

But I don't know yet, there are such much things you can do with this car.
You can make it sporty or a family car, I don't know what to choose.
I do prefer a sporty car, but a family car with caravan seems fun too (and go racing through the alps with the caravan flying off ).
I don't know, I'll see it when I get to that point.
Maybe I combine some things.

I have enough ideas but getting them to work and adding/making them is a different story. But I can do it, it will be a piece of cake. Since I have done a lot of the ideas above before.
Maybe I'll add a "2 Fast 4 You" bumper sticker too

The digital speedometer however is a very cool idea.
Maybe I'll replace the analog one with the digital one, because the digital one is way more sporty. And easier to instal/calibrate.
Or I can combine them, which is also very cool.
Analog on the dashboard and a digital one on a HUD.

The speedometer needs to be fixed first, then I try to add some sporty things to the car and then I'll add other stuff like cruise control and lights.
But I'll do all that stuff, you have helped me already a lot and now it's my turn to finish it. I only needed help with getting it to work, but I can easily do the smaller things.

And I have the weird feeling the credits list is going to be large

EDIT: I have seen that you already made a light indicating the engine mode (haven't noticed it, but now I know).
The rpm-meter is a bit buggy though, when the engine stops it still indicates a high rpm and sometimes it doesn't even work or the mechanism breaks.

So, maybe a digital dashboard isn't such a bad idea at all.
It's easier to calibrate and a lot more stable.
The only problem I have with digital instruments is that the readings always have numbers behind the dot.
And with all other digital displays there are no numbers behind the dot.
So, how do you remove the numbers behind the dot to make a single number?

And I noticed something, the engine is stronger!!!!!!
I don't know what it is or what you have done to it, but the car is faster and the engine seems stronger.
The car climbed a 45 degree hill on turbo (5) mode like the hill wasn't even there. The car couldn't do a hill start, but with one meter to get to speed it climbed the hill fast and it looked like it kept accelerating.
The performance is amazing and I think the new suspencion is the reason why this car has a great performance.
I knew the engine wasn't as bad as I thought, it just needed the right car to get the maximum out of it.

By the way, did you get my PM?

I've got your PM.
The engine is stronger because of the springs, look at them. And the thrusters are stronger too.
And the speedometer is a bit bugged, I know, but it seems very realistic! (Put starter speed 100-200-300-400-500-600 and test)
Have you seen the thrusters on the engine block? They are to balance it, because if they weren't there, it would shake because of the suspension.
Anyways, I'm happy you liked it!

Ok, I haven't noticed that the engine has changed a bit, because you said it was still the old engine. So, I didn't look at it, since there is nothing wrong with my old engine.
And I have noticed in previous test with supsencion that the front bounced a lot.
So, now I know what the thrusters on the engine block do.
I already had an idea, but wasn't sure and now I am.
The speedometer is very realistic compared to the old one.

But I'll see if I can fix the bugs.
Otherwise I change it to a digital dashboard, because I hate buggy things.

But thank you for helping, I can do it myself from here.

I ran at max of 31 m/s.

Did you accelerate at turbo for a minute?
It hasn't got fast acceleration!

i realize that ITS NOT WORKING

xd?