Where do I start with making a track chassis?
I came across this video but I couldn’t find the resource for it:
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Im pretty sure Roblox used a bunch of parts connected with rope constraints and made the wheels spin from what i can see.
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Interesting, I’ll have a go at that. It’s a shame there aren’t many resources on this.
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Check out my Suspension test game:
Tracked vehicle, suspension and racing tests. - Roblox
I have a tracked vehicle. Each MeshPart link is connected to the next with a HingeConstraint…
There’s an invisible wheel on top of the tracks pushing down with a PrismaticConstraint and spring so the tracks stay tensioned when the suspension compresses.
There’s also 2 PrismaticConstraints on each track that are attached to one of the treads on one end and the chassis on the other (actually 2 on each track spaced halfway around the loop of each track).
It works really well.
if you are worried about lag, then hinge constraints and collisions are not the way to go
those constraints will cause a lot of lag, i know from experience
your best bet for ones that dont lag is by using mesh deformation and manually scripting the tracks to deform to the ground, idk how to do this personally and i cannot find anything on this. ive been searching how to do this for over a year
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You can use a series of wheels on suspensions as a guide. Have the wheels react with physics to the ground, then deform the “track” so that it’s always in contact with the wheels. Don’t even actually need mesh deformation for that, you can use regular parts with their canCollide off. Meshes would definitely look better though.
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to make it smooth and performant meshes and mesh deformation will help since it will automatically keep the parts of the track connected without gaps or hard edges appearing
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Try mine out and tell me what you think.
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I’ve got a screenshot that would help but it’s on my home computer.
Actually it isn’t that difficult, there are just a few tricks:
Make a collision group for the track parts themselves so they don’t collide with each other. That way they don’t try to interact with each other.
I make each tread a MeshPart so there is only 1 component with 2 Attachments and 1 HingeConstraint each. The HingeConstraint is between it’s Attachment and the Attachment on the next tread. I don’t even really line them all up precisely around wheels and such since they’ll align themselves.
Make sure the treads actually fit to the wheels closely so they don’t try to climb off the wheels. As you see in my place I have 2 large wheels either side of the center of the tread because the MeshPart has physical tapers to either side of center so it isn’t a square block in the middle, it’s like 2 wedges.
Make the drive wheel Friction fairly high, but don’t make the tread Friction too high or steering takes a lot of HingeConstraint Torque.
Probably the most important things is to put 2 Parts (CanCollide off and Transparent) each with a HingeConstraint on it on the same axis as the tread HingeConstraint Attachments. Attach one to 1 tread, the other to the frame of your vehicle, then attach those 2 Parts together with a Prismatic Constraints so they can slide back and forth kind of like a steam locomotive. This keeps the track aligned with the vehicle so the track doesn’t jump off the wheels as easily.
You may want to do a couple of these setups to each track for added support. If you had 30 treads on one side of the vehicle then you’d set up the first Prismatic to tread #1 and the second one attached to tread #15.
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the lag starts to appear when you get a lot of them and that usually happens when you make vehicles
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I’m not really understanding this? Do you mean the wheels in the middle on either side?
Is this for every single tread?
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I have never done mesh deformation before, I’m not sure how to go about that, from what I’ve seen I don’t think this is done with tracks.
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these were created with mesh deformation
Woah these look very cool, can you link the original post they came from so I can see how they did it?
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Make your wheels like an Oreo cookie. The treads ride on the 2 large outer Parts. The gap between them on my vehicle is a channel to keep the tread centered on the wheel.
As for how many of the PrismaticConstraints to use, see the last sentences. You only need 2 of these prismatic assemblies
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they come from nowhere, its just youtube
Steel Titans is a game so im gonna assume they wont tell you how they do it
and the other one i only found on youtube
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Here’s a pic with the View Constraints button clicked.
You can see the wheels have a smaller center section that straddles the center links of the tread meshparts which keeps the tracks mostly aligned, except for high torque/twisting/player jumping in and out of the seat type movements.
The wheel hinges, track hinges, and the prismatic & spring suspension are shown. You can also see the placement of the top tensioning wheel spring, hinge, and prismatic but the wheel is transparent.
The two track alignment Prismatics are shown at the outer edge of the middle of the closest track. The top and bottom hinges and attachments are on the center top and bottom treads. The opposite ends are attached to the chassis where the center attachments are.
I also use a CollisionGroup for the treads of the tracks. This keeps them from colliding with only the other treads which helps out with lag issues.
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