Introducing Aerodynamic Forces [Studio Beta]

Neat, another thing I can break- I mean use in my builds to add more realism. Does this affect how your character moves around though?

Messing with it on cars, downforce is definitely a thing, but the effect feels less than in real life. That being said, I was able to get a car to go from ~160 studs per second around a wide radius turn to ~180, and with better optimizing the wings more might be possible, so that is a plus.

One more important thing, though, is that cars feel better with downforce. It is a bit hard to describe, like before when you added more friction to tires to make more grip the car would get more snappy, where as adding downforce adds a bit more grip but without the snappiness. It also makes easier to balance a car between the front and rear, makes braking/acceleration a bit better due to the added drag, and sideforce appears to be a thing, although I still have no idea how much of an effect it actually has.

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Such a great innovation! But may I ask, can we make stuff such as ships that are movable by the wind? Or do the turbines of the windmill move because of the wind?

Holy moly, time to make Kerbal Space Program!

Playing around with this feature and its making Roblox Studio feel like a game in itself lol, Never thought planes and sailboats would be this easy to make!


Iā€™m not too sure if the water creates drag on the sail boats hull or if it is still effected by the wind? I noticed when I was swimming in the water strong wind still was dragging me across the map.

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As some posts have mentioned, these really work really badly on things like cars. The higher the air density, the slower and weirder a car handles (at least, a car made using the endorsed roblox chassis), to the point of even losing all horizontal momentum when falling. I thought this would help make car physics feel more realistic, predictable and aerodynamic, but for now, cars and this arenā€™t the best combo for the project Iā€™m working on.

I am having way too much fun with this. Canā€™t wait to see where it goes.

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Was messing around with this on some of my full-scale models.
My 737-800 model for example weighs about 38000 RMUs (just below the real-life OEW assuming RMU ā†” kg).

If 1 stud is 28cm, as noted here

then the dimensions of my model also come pretty close, within ~1.5m.

When setting workspace.AirDensity to a more reasonable metric value (1.225, assuming kg/mĀ³), I was able to get somewhat reasonable responses. Couldnā€™t really go too deep into my tests since the computations donā€™t seem to recognize control surface movements via Motor6D.

Steady, fixed pitch, U = 159 sps (87 kt?), Ī± = 5Ā°


Might be just one giant fluke on my end since I didnā€™t really touch workspace.Gravity, but was surprised that this random test kind of worked out.

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so we will be able to do this soon but e cant even change the direction of the waves on water in roblox studio yet???

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I have been waiting for this since I first saw a mention of it a bit ago and I am so glad this is finally out. nice update, I hope it goes smoothly. :slight_smile:

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For my parts, it seems to be enabled by default
I hope this doesnā€™t cause performance issues for people that forget to turn it off

Whoa this is cool
Can you attach the file? I want to know how to make something life this to take advantage of constraints

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Here is the example: HeliTest.rbxm (8.3 KB)

Custom shaders are something the Rendering team have to worry about, not the Physics team. Everyone is good at different things, realistically one team working on a feature wonā€™t slow down the progress on another feature being worked on by another team.

(Itā€™s also worth mentioning the multitude of problems there would be when trying to implement custom shaders, like closed-source compilers, forward-compatibility, etc. Iā€™ll just put a link to the full explanation: Post-processing effects - #33 by zeuxcg)


I hate to bring up something unrelated, but all this talk about fluid has made me wonder why Terrain water doesnā€™t awake sleeping parts. But this update seems pretty cool regardless!

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Holy dang man, Iā€™m SO excited to mess around with this. LAUNCH SOME STUFF LIKE CRAZY, YOU WANT IT? Itā€™s yours, my friend. Starts unanchoring objects randomly cranks the wind speed up :slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile: :flight_departure: :airplane: :airplane: :parachute:

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Please just add a ā€œatmosphereā€ object for air density instead of graphical effects so i can make planets with proper atmospheres.

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Will air pressure or temperature ever be simulated? Air pressure is essential for modeling complex aerodynamics and aerodynamic interactions between objects.

This updates awesome, but definitely takes some getting used to! Iā€™m trying to make a rudimentary propeller-driven plane, using 2 flat rectangle parts at an angle in the front to move my plane!

It does actually get up to speed, but no matter what I do I canā€™t seem to get it to have any lift serious lift, even with a biplane setup and two 36x0.2x8 wings at a 10 degree angle to increase their contact with wind.

Anything I can do to help increase lift, stability, and make this really work?

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AWSOME!, this seems to have no effect on union parts though, transparent blocks in the wings are needed.
i have the wright flyer flying around on a tether, no controls installed yet so it only goes around a few laps, i ploped on a vector force constraint for now to get it propelled.

Edit: It was a issue with the way my wings where set up, something about the wing sections being laid out was actually counteracting the aerodynamics on itself, making it just fall right down onto the ground as if no fluid physics where taking effect (at least that is my theory). Making the wings into just one part each fixed the issues. Being someone that is newly experimenting with this, I assumed it may have to do with them being unions, as some past new/beta updates also started out as not being compatible with unions as well, sorry guys! :confused:
Anyway, with that out of the way, giving the plane two motorized props, we have take off, vary impressed that it worked with how thin the blades are, these fluid physics are actually quite sensitive!
I did notice that once the plane lifts off the ground, the speed of the plane drops dramatically, you can fly along at a shockingly slow speed without crashing into the ground, I can see where that can be useful for other things then planes though.
Anyway, this update is a total blast! Something I never asked for, but wish I did! Thanks roblox!

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Hey! Thanks for trying the beta and your flyer looks amazing. Could you dm me a repro for the aero not working on unions parts?

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Iā€™m going to do a quick test to be sure its not something i did on my end then get back to you.
Edit: yeah the results where quite clear lol, ill dm you.