Truck Haul Contest (Advanced - Idea Stage)

[sPetersen]

Hey there! I have been looking at the forum lately. Sadly I cannot find an active contest. So I decided to try making one myself. This is only in the idea stage, but I am confident it would work well. The contest would be for only advanced users with experience in creating engines.

The contest would be about creating a semi truck and haul a heavy load to some destination. Along the track you would be forced to do multiple full stops, and would have to accelerate multiple times. It would also consist of some kind of hill. Not just uphill, but downhill aswell, where only engine braking would be allowed.
There would be speedlimits all along the track, and I would provide some kind of "black box" which would keep track of the speed, and add to final score if need be.
I haven't decided whether the trailer should be prebuild in the scene and be hooked on along the track. Or it will be the contestants job to create one themselves.

The final score would be based on time and added penalties from driving too fast, or not bringing the truck to a full stop etc.

I have been thinking about the rules and I think this would result in an exciting and close contest!

The rules would be something like this:

General:

- Vehicle must resemble a semi truck.
- Total weight of vehicle must be atleast 4 tons (spawned geomes does NOT count toward this number)
- There will be a size rectriction for the vehicle in the scene
- Vehicle can have 2 or 3 wheels, with the front wheel not allowed to do any propulsion
- Must have some kind of suspension
- Must display everything necessary to drive your vehicle (tacho + speedometer and gear indicator atleast)

Engine

- Must be of the type: spawn, collision or spring
- Must be attached to vehicle using hinges
- Must weight at max 500 kg (spawned geomes DOES count towards this number)
- Will have size retriction
- Must have a max power output of max 300 hp
- Torque at max power must be atleast 60% of the engines max torque (this is to prevent insane torque at low rpm)
- Only the flywheel is allowed inertiamultiplier (max 10)
- Must be able to do engine braking without using a braking hinge (this might be removed if too complicated)

Transmission:

- Must be manual
- Must weight at max 1000 kg and be roughly the be the size of the engine (Just no giant gearboxes please!)
- Must only convert speed and torque (No power may be added)
- May have a maximum of 8 foward moving gears with fixed gearratios (No CVT)
- Must be able to stall engine completely with any gear but neutral selected
- Size of gears may be changed using script, as long as the mass for every geome stays the same
- +inf brakes and friction is allowed

Other

- all scripting is allowed as long as it doesn't abuse the rules or break some kind of law of physics (Use common sense here!)
- "soft clutch" is ONLY allowed when bringing the truck from a stand still into motion in 1st gear (the clutch must be either fully engaged or disenged, at any other time)
- max braking torque on each wheel, will be given by some equation using number of wheels and their diameter as variables.

Everything is subject to be changed, and all ideas are welcome.
The scene isn't made yet, and will not be untill enough people shows interest (atleast 2-3).
I am very confident that I can make the scene if it comes to that, and I will be willing to join the contest myself.

I really hope the community isn't as dead as it could seem like.
Leave a comment of what you think, and if you could be interested!

[faytree]

Sounds interesting!
For solid and fair power testing, I suggest you to use s_noonan's dynometer. Since his dynometer is the most accurate

Axle Torque HP RPM Plotter

s_noonan

Rating:
Filesize: 71.02 kB
Comments: 3
Ratings: 2

[The Linkage]

Seems pretty nice but I doubt you'll get much participation if you don't tell anyone at Algobox. As for the contest itself i'd revise the engine section, 500 kg is too much for a 300 hp engine. maybe lower that to 300 and add a limit of 6 or 8 pistons, or leave the weight as is and make it 4 stroke engines only (for spring engines you'd have to use length but they're still op af)
Not sure if you should let spring engines in the contest but a lot of people only know how to do those

Besides i don't get why you don't wanna allow fwd in the contest, I'd put the gearbox upon the drive wheel anyways to get more normal. Whatever your decision is there should be a limit for wheel friction coef or a function for friction coef depending on the truck wheels' normal at 100% throttle (cause spawn engines sometimes thrust downwards)
The engine brake thing seems horrible but leave it like that for now. maybe friction on the piston? I tried a lot of times and the only way to make a decent engine brake is with low rpm engines (which would go nicely with the truck theme though it'd stall every damm second) cause high angvel ones tend to blow the pistons real fast

120 Hz would be enough especially if there'll be 8 piston engines

Are auto gearboxes allowed? Maybe auto-manual selectable? i'be got a single box phunlet for auto-manual select + ignition

Variable throttle maybe? I'm not 100% sure on this one

Hope this gets done someday

[pnvv]

*Cracks knuckles*

Here we go

[sPetersen]

Waw nice to see such fast response!

500 kg is too much for a 300 hp engine. maybe lower that to 300 and add a limit of 6 or 8 pistons, or leave the weight as is and make it 4 stroke engines only (for spring engines you'd have to use length but they're still op af)

The weight limit i don't see a reason to change, since this isn't about making a powerful engine, but rather to distribute the power right through out the rev range. Also truck engines tends to be heavy.

Piston limit i do agree on! And 8 seems right (Will be added)

I will keep the spring engines for now (maybe add some kind of handicap), allowing more people to join. We can all agree, that creating a spawn/collision powered engine is much more satisfying anyway!

Besides i don't get why you don't wanna allow fwd in the contest, I'd put the gearbox upon the drive wheel anyways to get more normal. Whatever your decision is there should be a limit for wheel friction coef or a function for friction coef depending on the truck wheels' normal at 100% throttle (cause spawn engines sometimes thrust downwards)

Why no fwd? Not seen often (if ever) on semi trucks.

I will add a wheel friction limit, but I am not expecting wheel slip to take place, considering the low hp/weight in the contest.

Perpendicular thrust is only going to give higher friction force, and again I don't believe this is giving any benefits.

Are auto gearboxes allowed? Maybe auto-manual selectable?

Yes! But stated time must be done in manual mode.

The engine brake thing seems horrible

I agree! Seems to be nearly impossible to be done well. Braking hinge will instead be allowed for engine braking. Also the variable throttle seems nice. (Will be added)!

I have decided I will make the trailer myself. You would have to drive some without any trailor, and later attach it using some kind of "kingpin/fifth wheel" hitching device.
This would work by spawning some kind of hinge/fixjoint, but I currently have alot of problems with geomID's -.-! (might need some help on this one)

[The Linkage]

I've got a couple of ideas on the trailer attaching system. If i have time i'll try those. one is using glue together and the other is storing the geomIDs at the first frame with axles that delete thrmselves and then using onClick to pair them

Seems pretty solid at this point. still, make some kind of ad in algobox with the link here

[Kilinich]

So key thing is engine with brake capability and realistic power curve.
I think only few people from community could do that...

[DrAgon]

Maybe if you provide a starting-scene with elements wich can be assembled to the truck , so this way we can go right away.
Power controlling and surface of wheels and ground are then all set to the same value automatically.