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Experimental Tracked FPU Wydra 1.1

The baby tank

Tags:
  1. Agent_Y
    My entry for the MFD off-road modding challenge, and an attempt at making physically accurate tracks, moderately succesful, somewhat proof of concept.
    1.png

    The tracked variant of the FPU Wydra is equipped with a 10x2 continuous tracks drivetrain and a pressured body. It offers faster turning and higher water speed at the cost of higher weight and lower acceleration.

    It comes with 3 configurations: the lightweight Base model similar to the 8x8 variant, upgraded Police model with custom accessories and a polish police livery, and the high end 'Czołg' variant styled to resemble a tank.
    base_tracks_agenty.jpg police_tracks_agenty.jpg tank_tracks_agenty.jpg

    The mod comes with a set of tracked axlehubs, an alternative 8x8 body with adjustable air pressure intended to be used with the tracks to allow better movement in water, and 2 skins: Polish police livery and tank style camo which covers parts of the vehicle that are normally not paintable.

    My goal was to make the tracks physically accurate, using collisions between components instead of a 'cheaty' slidenodes and rails system. The track nodes are pushed forward by colliding with gear-like surfaces of the sprocket, the shape is preserved by the roadwheels, and the freely rotating idlers on the back guarantee smooth rotation. Angled surfaces have been added on the idler and sprocket entry points, which make the track nodes slide inside of the caps that prevent them from sliding off the gears. Additionally on the bottom of roadwheels there are extra collision surfaces to prevent the tracks from sliding out when turning, they simulate the geometry restrictions that would keep the tracks on the wheels in real life. Realistically, the upper part has no such supports, it is somewhat floppy which I tried to reduce using precompression and this is the best result I got.
    2.png
    The friction between the gears and the tracks has been minimized, and to compensate the tracks have an increased groundmodel friction. The overall friction properties of the tracks are similar to the normal 8x8 tires of the Wydra. However the tracked version is much faster at turning, especially in place.

    This experimental system has some issues that I sadly can't fix:​
    • The speedometer is not accurate, but it's pretty random. Sometimes it shows too high speed, sometimes too low, sometimes refreshing the UI can completely change the margin of error. It is impossible to fix because it's a game bug. Fixed for update 1.1
    • Crashing into anything, even at low speed, can cause the tracks to fold in on themselves or get stuck in the idler or sprocket, rendering the vehicle undrivable. If you crash into other cars or try to drive over them you will get stuck in them. It is not made for stuff like this.
    • The tracks are heavier than they would be in real life, but this is the lowest stable weight I could reach for them. As a result you need more torque to move them which means lower acceleration.
    • It can't really glide over mud or snow like a real tracked vehicle. I'm not sure if that is even possible in BeamNG.
    • INCREASING TENSION MAKES THINGS MUCH WORSE, the current value seems to be the optimal compromise.
    Credits:
    BeamNG - the Wydra parts I edited, Sunburst police parts for police version, D-Series camo skin as a base for my one
    Thomatoes50 - Blender Jbeam exporter tool, which allowed me to jbeam the tracks in a reasonable time
    atv_123 - We both tried to make a tracks mod in the past and he shared some tricks with me to make things easier
    Me - everything else in the mod

    I hope you will have fun with this small and not very useful proof of concept mod!
    ​

Recent Updates

  1. I wish I could have done this from the start Feb 10, 2023

Recent Reviews

  1. Derpitron
    Derpitron
    5/5,
    Version: 1.1
    Excellent and clever mod!

    I would love to see a technical writeup about how you created this, and what techniques you used
    Apr 14, 2023
    1. Agent_Y
      Author's Response
      Why not, I can do it here now.
      I started by creating the new axle layout in Blender, and during the process I modified the Wydra wheels so they resemble tank roadwheels and sprockets more. I modelled a piece of a track from scratch in a way that it can be assembled like puzzle, reused the tire textures for it. Then I modelled a rough shape of the tracks outline around the axle layout from a modified cube, and used that as reference to get a more accurate shape using a curve. Then using the array and curve modifiers I created a Jbeam layout for the tracks, using flat planes the size of the track piece I made. I joined the resulting meshes together and merged the vertices by distance, then triangulated the result. I duplicated it, flipped on the X axis, deleted faces and merged with the old one in order to have crossing beams in both directions. I used the Blender to Jbeam exporter twice for this structure, once per each track, with naming changes. I did some necessary node and beam settings for the tracks to work correctly. To prevent flopping I added precompression on spawn. Both track layouts are originally in the middle of the vehicle but in Jbeam they are moved to the correct places, the position is also affected by the track offset variable. After I got it in game I initially just used normal wheels for all the roadwheels, sprockets and idlers, but it didn't provide anywhere near enough grip between the sprockets and tracks or stability. So I went back to Blender and modelled custom paddle-like structures for the sprockets in a way that they push the nodes of the tracks without clipping, then I used the coordinates of the resulting mesh vertices as a reference to create Jbeam structures for the sprockets. I used the normal wheels as reference when setting up the structure, and used rotators to make it act like wheels. I also added an outer layer of collision as a cap to prevent the tracks from sliding out, and some angled collision triangles to help the tracks position themselves properly. Due to these changes I had to reduce the friction of the tracks and compensate by giving them more ground grip. Then I spent a long time adjusting the node and beam values of the tracks for stability. I ended up reusing the sprocket structure for the idler to prevent the tracks from folding in on themselves, I also had to reduce the size of the wheels among other things. Meanwhile I also used the track pieces I modelled as props to make the tracks visible in game, I used a workflow technique I learned from another person who made tracks in the past to speed up the process. Finally to prevent the tracks from constantly sliding out when turning, I added collision caps to simulate the wheels holding the tracks in place at the bottom, I had to significantly reduce the weight of the wheels because of the added weight of the caps. During all of this I also battled against game bugs that got fixed in the following hotfix, and had to do a lot of finetuning of the track values to get decent acceleration and top speed out of the vehicle. There's a lot more stuff I forgot most likely. Idk what more to say, this is already long.
  2. Mr. Green 2
    Mr. Green 2
    3/5,
    Version: 1.1
    Good mod, would love to see more like it in the future
    Mar 15, 2023
  3. Ksawery
    Ksawery
    4/5,
    Version: 1.1
    These need some work but it surely is an innovation in BeamNG we needed, I'm waiting for more work from you
    Feb 21, 2023
    1. Agent_Y
      Author's Response
      I don't think I will be working on this mod anymore
  4. Miata lover
    Miata lover
    5/5,
    Version: 1.1
    Very nice
    Feb 12, 2023
  5. bussin.buses
    bussin.buses
    5/5,
    Version: 1.1
    police
    Feb 10, 2023
  6. locualo
    locualo
    5/5,
    Version: 1.1
    instant subscribe
    Feb 10, 2023
  7. sweepwer
    sweepwer
    5/5,
    Version: 1.0
    10/10 love it i just with we could have something similar on other cars , that would be sick imo
    Feb 7, 2023
  8. AndySchwarzenegger
    AndySchwarzenegger
    5/5,
    Version: 1.0
    Awesome!
    Jan 28, 2023
  9. leoB132
    leoB132
    5/5,
    Version: 1.0
    This is very well done, the only thing i can think that might help alot but can also can cause other issues issues is having the tracks on rails, this would mean that they couldnt fall of and they would be supported in the places it needs to be
    Jan 21, 2023
    1. Agent_Y
      Author's Response
      The entire point was to do it without rails lol
  10. Peter Medz
    Peter Medz
    4/5,
    Version: 1.0
    A really good mod that has huge potential. Keep up the amazing work. I've read the comments here and maybe you could increase the track link length. I think the links are too short and they can't properly wrap around the wheel. Increasing the length of each link would make the ride rough, but might help the clipping issue. Still keep it up I can't wait to see when its fully finished :)
    Jan 20, 2023
    1. Agent_Y
      Author's Response
      Do you think I haven't tried increasing the length, it makes the tracks more floppy so they fall off even more, and the current length is well fit for the sprockets, the reason it appears to not fit is just due to some physics engine limitations I think
Read all 28 reviews...
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