Comments on CHRONO example car_controllable_4springs.r3d
A complex mechanism...
  What to do: load the file, select the 'controls' object in the select window, open its panel (you will see three Chrono sliders), then press the play button on the animation timeline and drive the car.
Best enjoyed if anim is in 'loop' mode, so you can drive as much as you want...

This example demonstrates how you can control parts of mechanisms during the simulation (namely, you will control the steer, the throttle and the brake with three sliders). Therefore, you can also drive simulated vehicles.

This simulated car is somewhat simple (brakes act only on forward wheels, etc.) but already includes nice suspension effects. You can also test what happens if you modify the stiffness of the springs, or if you change the position of the center of mass, and so on.

In this example, off-road unevenness is simulated: few steps are modeled by means of cube objects. You can try driving the car over these steps and see that the car will bounce as with real suspensions.

Interesting note: the two cylinder links which simulate the McPherson anterior sunspensions feature upper and lower limits on the Z axis, so that the nose of the car cannot dive too much (otherwise the springs, which are somewhat soft, would allow too high vertical excursion), as happens in real car with elastic bumpers.

Old computers may simulate it slowly, but on fast computers you will get a realtime simulation even with OpenGL effects turned on.
br> Unlike the other car_controllable.r3d example, this one simulates also the rear suspensions.


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