Wooow that's old. As far as I know it's never been available for download.

Have a look at this. Realised that hidden/static objects will become normal when emitted, which opens up worlds of possibilities; this is a quick mock-up of a gun with muzzle flash and 'randomized' casing ejection. Just turn on hidden geometry to reveal the extremely simple workings beneath.
edit Sorry! Forgot to tell you; the 'A' button on the joypad fires the gun. edit

P.S. It's quite glitchy, as far as I can tell it's not my fault; sometimes things are emitted in the wrong direction/at the wrong speed

emitter_gun.skp

^_^

Thank's for that code BTM, I've modified it for my tank. It's not exactly a 'game' yet, but it's getting there

Oooooooooooohhh now that's awesome. Race ya to the first tank game!

Bug #1 seems very similar to an old one in sp2; that was fixed. In this model, it is fixed if you turn off the thruster setting. I've never found #2 to be an issue.

MALAISE, until SPIV is out copying anything with joints in, or that is connected to a joint, is a bad idea. The simulation will go crazy, and there is no workaround.

Sorry Phy but using the newton engine it's flat out impossible to have concave hulls. The staticmesh only works because it's... well, static. We're gonna have to live with using complex groups for complex shapes.

Actually, I think I've worked out a way that would work if gears could work in reverse... so if the object the gear was connected to was moved while the gear stayed still, the gear would still work.

In order for the diff to work, sketchyphysics would have to allow this example to work as if the gears were meshed.

Gear problem.skp

I need a script for a motor using the triggers (joyRY) and the a button. When the right trigger is pressed (<0.5 for me) the motor should spin, and if a is pressed with the right trigger, it should spin at twice the speed. At 0.5, the motor should be allowed to spin freely (if possible) and a should have no effect. Above 0.5 (left trigger) the motor should stop spinning completely for 2 seconds, then go into reverse at half the normal speed, again with a having no effect.

I hope this isn't too complicated

This is for a car with 'boost' that can brake and reverse using the same button.

I thought it'd be good to have a thread where people can post useful code to go in joint's controller boxes; for people (like me ) who have no experience with ruby script.

0.5-(input)
On a motor joint, this will allow reverse motion

Math.sin(frame/10.0)/3.0
Makes a servo oscillate

Time.now.sec*(1/60.0)
Similar to above, but moves every second

You can use multiple inputs as a single controller:
leftx+rightx

I tried to make an if function work, but it doesn't let you use spaces.

I didn't explain it properly... this model shows what the diff is meant for, and (hopefully) what it isn't doing.

diff.skp

Sorry, I haven't been using it long enough to notice any specific triggers. I found out that the simulation not working was a result of gear joints not being on the top level group, but the crashes seem pretty random.

Well, I didn't know until recently... it distributes power to the drive wheels, while allowing one to spin faster than the other whilst turning. Most handling problems with SP cars could be fixed with a diff. The box that the gears are housed in should rotate on the axis of the (so-far) unused motor joint, moving the middle gear with it. In real life, this would turn the side gears and so transmit the power, but with the way gears work in SP, this doesn't happen.

Here's a half-finished differential that doesn't work... I think I understand why, but will this kind of setup work in a future release?
diff.skp

Lots of pretty annoying stuff is happening... the simulation starts, but nothing moves or can be moved, and then I can't cancel it and I have to close SU. I'm also getting pretty frequent bug splats and errors when I try to close the program. All I've done is get half-way through making a differential and started playing with magnets a bit.

I'm using a 360 style wired joypad. This is what my controls do:

A=B
X=A
Y=Y
B=X

Analog triggers= joyRY
Triggers=Triggers
Left stick=joyLX,joyLY,leftx,lefty
Right stick=rightx,righty
Other=joyRX doesn't work

Will I be able to fix this with the config utility? Does anyone else have a similar problem?

Brilliant!
I'm excited about the possibilities with the joystick emulation... but are the physics components in this release? I can't find the option. Keep up the good work

Hi Chris,
There's a bunch of stuff I'd like to ask, so here's a list...

Would emitters/spawners be possible in SPIV? I don't know if you've ever heard of LittleBigPlanet, but something like the emitter in that would be useful; with a named physics component being the object that is created. That would mean things like projectile weapons would be easier to make.

With keyboard/gamepad button controls, it could be helpful to have a toggle option; press once for on, again for off.

What's going to become of bouyancy in SPIV? Will the bugs be fixed? In the Newton playground, you could spawn bouyancy fields; will we be able to make these?

And finally, this is probably crazy, but do you think a sort of "explosives" joint would be possible? For example, something that, when triggered, creates a powerful force in all directions around it for a fraction of a second, something like the magnet joint as it exists now.

I hope at least some of this is possible... thanks!

Well, I was never expecting it to be in SP3. I suppose in some cases that could be a problem, but if a joint was made just to be a switch, you wouldn't be connecting more than one object to it. In fact, I don't think I've ever connected multiple objects to one joint...