Okay, I have a couple of questions about setting up a car in ODE (who doesn't).
I've got the car handling alright-ish, I can work on that, but I need guidance in a couple of areas:
1) The front two wheels, used to steer the car. When one of these wheels strikes an obstruction directly, or the car lands heavily on the front two wheels, they tend to turn in odd directions. To clarify, I understand why they turn the way they do, physically speaking it's accurate. The wheel is striking a wall or road at a certain angle and friction makes it turn on it's hinge. However, since each wheel reacts individually this way, they usually aren't pointing the same way, and it's very easy to knock the car off course this way. The wheels always right themselves again after the impact, but during the impact it's, well, not very car-like.
2) On a similar note, the back wheels will also turn independantly. For example, during a tight turn to the right, the right side wheels may both lift off the ground ever so slightly. This allows the rear right wheel to spin much faster than the left. The two wheels aren't connected, so this makes sense: the one touching the ground is pushing the car, and turns normally, the one just above the ground is spinning freely because there's nothing to stop it. Real cars, of course, have axles connecting the wheels. Any reccommendations on simulating this behaviour in ODE?
I'm using the [K]ODE vehicle setup was a base. Or rather, I started with that. The joints setup is basically still the same as that, though.
I've got the car handling alright-ish, I can work on that, but I need guidance in a couple of areas:
1) The front two wheels, used to steer the car. When one of these wheels strikes an obstruction directly, or the car lands heavily on the front two wheels, they tend to turn in odd directions. To clarify, I understand why they turn the way they do, physically speaking it's accurate. The wheel is striking a wall or road at a certain angle and friction makes it turn on it's hinge. However, since each wheel reacts individually this way, they usually aren't pointing the same way, and it's very easy to knock the car off course this way. The wheels always right themselves again after the impact, but during the impact it's, well, not very car-like.
2) On a similar note, the back wheels will also turn independantly. For example, during a tight turn to the right, the right side wheels may both lift off the ground ever so slightly. This allows the rear right wheel to spin much faster than the left. The two wheels aren't connected, so this makes sense: the one touching the ground is pushing the car, and turns normally, the one just above the ground is spinning freely because there's nothing to stop it. Real cars, of course, have axles connecting the wheels. Any reccommendations on simulating this behaviour in ODE?
I'm using the [K]ODE vehicle setup was a base. Or rather, I started with that. The joints setup is basically still the same as that, though.