using wheel and car collection with REACTOR [3ds max 6]

[Ilkejav mk5]

I'm an intermediate modeler but a real noob in animation and rigging. I like to model vehicles but I need to animate them to be fully satisfied. only thing is I have no clue about how to make the Wheel Collection/car collection/toy car collection work... i've tried to understand and to find tutiorials about it without results. can anybody give me a rough walkthrough on how to create a basic four wheeled vehicle and how to make it roll around on uneven terrain?

I have another question... I tried to make a cloth collection animation that's supposed to last for more that 100 frames (sorta like 900 frames). I render the animation but right after the 100th frame, everything freezes an the cloth becomes rigid.

Please concentrate on answering question 1, that's the one i mostly need enlightenement on.

[Henry_B]

well, cant help wid question 1 but here's the solution for question 2:
go to the utilities menu tab then click reactor and on the preview and animation rollout just set the start frame and the end frame that should be on 100 thats why your cloth stops animating at 100, just change the end frame to 900 or the frame you need

[Ilkejav mk5]

wow, thanks a lot man, I can finally finish that animation I started...

[Neomax]

well, you can use Carwheel Const. to simulate a wheeled car ...
First of all, make all the parts of the car (chassis and wheelz) Rigid Bodies,by adding into RBCollection. Assign an appropriate mass values for all of them,then create the CarWheel const. in that,select the wheel as a child and the car body as Parent space.
then change the suspension and rotation directions.make the rotation axis face the body(i.e. perpendicular to the wheel) and supension perpendicular to that.
After all this is done,don't forget to add a Constraint Solver in the scene,add Carwheel in the CSolver. just try this out and let me know hows it happening...

[Ilkejav mk5]

thanks, Neomax, I'll try that right now and see what I get...

[Ilkejav mk5]

ok neomax, I followed your steps, and at least i got results... the only thing is when I play the animation the car doesn't seem to want to go forward, if i tweak the setting around, either the car starts to spin on itself uncontrollably and just flies away in a rather hilarious fashion, or it tries to move from side to side...

i've taken a screenshot for you to see if something's wrong in the axis' position

[Neomax]

dude, the settings you've made seem to be ok...but if its moving side to side then you need to try some things...
1st: change the direction of wheel rotation,make it aligned to child sapce or perpendicular to the wheel,but facing the car body.
2nd: keep changing the gain speed value,
3rd: make sure,all the objects are rigid bodies having some mass values....keep a box below them, as a ground object.
(even i am doing R&D on this!)
this is what i can tell you at the moment,do it on Trial n Error basis,keep changig the attributes,until you get a proper simulation.

[Neomax]

actually,i am a Character Modeler and Animator,so not so much into all this,but i know few things about it,so thought i can help you....

NEO:max:

[Ilkejav mk5]

allright, thanks a lot, I,ll keep trying until I get results... anyway watching that car do some amazing sh*t is highly entertaining... so, you,re a character animator? cool, i thought you could give me some tips on my latest caracter...http://forums.3dtotal.com/showthread.php?t=31038

[Neomax]

You are always welcome!
i follow one principle,HELP EVER HURT NEVER...n tht is what im doing!
i'd deffinitely like to give my inputs for your character.

NEO:max:

[HiFlier58]

ey, i am having a problem with this simple test rig i did. everything works, car moves fine and all except i want to put a ragdoll ontop of the car but when i do, the car wont move:(. like in the actual simulation process, i have the dummy start above the car, the car starts to move, then when the dummy lands on the car, and consiquently stays there, the car just stops moving compleatly. then if i use right click to take the dummy off the car, it starts moving again. each body part of the dummy weighs 10kg, so i tried the same thing, replacing the dummy with a brick weighing 10kg, ,and the car moved. the problem is though, that if i decrease the dummy's weight, then the physics seem increadibly unrealistic. please ne1 help, if you mildly understand what i have just typed.......thx....

[Ilkejav mk5]

allright, sorry I warn you that I can't help you with this one but what kind of reactor collection are you using, Toy car or Wheel collection? If it works, could you give me the settings you are using? I've been able to get the toy car to work but it really goes slow and as soon as there's a slope it's just too darn weak to climb it... and then my wheel collection car is really screwed up. for some reason it just won't go forward.

[Neomax]

i donno why,but all these Reactor car-wheel things work with me...