I just realised it’s been ages since my last post!  This is because there hasn’t been anything new in the game to speak of over the last few weeks.  Unfortunately, progress on the project was completely halted when I discovered a serious flaw in my gear constraint implementation.

The problem is, it is only transferring rotational motion between gears, not linear motion.  This works for static constructions with rotating gears, but as soon as the gears themselves move about, it is totally (noticeably) incorrect.  If I can’t fix this, then it pretty much screws up the rest of the game as I have it planned.  So I need to try and get it sorted before proceeding with anything else.

Over the last few weeks I have been digging through Box2D and Bullet code for inspiration, and have tried a few different solutions with varying degrees of success.  I have one idea I’m pursuing at the moment that seems promising, but we’ll see, it may come to nothing.

The good news is, if I can fix this gear physics issue, it’ll fairly easily allow me to add rack and pinion gears (where linear motion is obviously crucial).

Honestly, I’ve been very demotivated by this setback.  The game wasn’t progressing as quickly as I’d like anyway, and this really hasn’t helped.  It’s been a real struggle to keep going.  Hopefully I’ll figure out a solution soon, wish me luck!