New parts

Since the last update that introduced the new part pairing system, I’ve been creating new types of parts that take advantage of this, including new connectors (ball and socket, CV joint, etc.) and specialised suspension parts.  These new parts allow for fully independent suspension with steering and front / rear / four wheel drive (even four wheel steering if you want!)  I’ve also added other new parts with new behaviours – a stepper motor and hydraulic actuators whose linear movement can be controlled by the player.

I’m keeping these new parts under wraps for now, but I can show some others that I’ve also added which are variations of existing parts – a new large spring damper, new gear sizes, new motors of different sizes, and more wheel variations.  I got tired of the old motor and wheel models so I spent some time brushing up on my 3D modelling skills and made some new ones!  I’m pretty happy how they turned out although they still need tweaking and UV mapping at some point.  I plan on adding many more variations for wheels, seats, lights etc.

Note that no additional parts are in the demo, but I have updated all the existing demo parts with their new versions.

Part alignment

I’ve also been working on how parts align together during construction, so that this system works better with the new parts I added.  This was mainly to prevent axles penetrating through parts, and to make the alignment behaviour a bit more intuitive.  Some parts (such as motors) are now slightly more restrictive in how they can attach to other parts.  On the other hand, the spring damper barrel and piston parts are now less restrictive in that they can now be attached together at several different alignment points, which allows for different “default” spring extensions when the construction is frozen.

Other changes

I’ve changed the underlying physics implementation of rotary attachments (hinges) to be in line with all the other jointed attachments.  Among other things, this allowed me to add a configurable torque value to the servo motor part behaviour.  Finally, a bunch of other things have been tweaked, including new UI elements, SFX and so on.

Another demo build is out, here’s what’s in it!

Part behaviour controls

Rather than only being able to control motors, servos etc. with the directional keys (i.e. WASD), you can now assign your own keys in the part behaviour dialog (highlight the part, hold shift & press E).  This opens up all sorts of possibilities as you can now control multiple motors at once using separate sets of keys.  There is also the option to have the motor only accept control input when the player is sitting in a seat that is part of the same construction as the motor.  This is handy, say, for when switching between vehicles that are set up to use the same key assignments.

Motor and servo improvements

The motor now has a “brake” option that stops the motor from spinning when it is switched on but not activated.  This ability to “hold in place” the drive train attached to the motor is useful for lifts, cranes, and many other things.  The fork lift truck I recently posted a video on makes use of this feature to hold the forks in place when you’re not moving them up or down.

Rather than snapping immediately to its required angle, the servo motor now transitions smoothly at a fixed speed.  I’ve added an RPM setting that allows this speed to be adjusted to suit the purpose you’re using the servo for.

Save / load of constructions

An individual construction can now be saved out by highlighting it, bringing up the construction menu (by holding shift & Q), and clicking the save button.  This brings up another window that shows any currently saved constructions, lets you choose a name to save under and so on.  The constructions get saved into the SavedConstructions folder under wherever you’re running the game from.

To spawn a construction you previously saved, in the builder tool mode, hold Q to bring up the builder tool GUI and click the Constructions tab.  There you’ll find all your saved constructions, just click on one to spawn it.  Also, I’ve included some built-in example constructions for you to experiment with!