Realism

I have compared cars after the crash in BeamNG with cars after crash tests and I have to say that they are pretty damn similar. Is it just random or is there more behind it? I don't know much about mechanics in this game so it would be nice if somebody could explain this to me.

 

Ill try to explain it as best as i can,

The car you see while playing the game is what's known as a mesh. This is made in a 3d modeling programme and consists of lots of shapes laid over one another to create the shape of a car.

Beneath that and invisible in game is what's known as a J-Beam. This is in laymans terms a 3D dot to dot that fits perfectly to the cars mesh. here is a picture of one:

The green lines connect all the dots together and form the "J-Beam"

The J-Beam works by "grabbing" nearby parts of the mesh and pulling them around as it gets deformed in a collision.

When the car hits a static object such as a wall, the physics engine (.Drive) works out which beams to snap and what dots to move to make the collision look realistic to your eyes by also moving the mesh based on its decision.


I hope that makes sense, its pretty hard to explain without over-complicating it.

 

So basically when we compare two cars (one from the game the other one irl) they look similar after a crash because the shapes are the same/similar? Am I understanding it correctly?

 

I love it when devs clarify things