Not quite powered by Newton... yet... I used a force constrained to the car. I have to key the "power" in short bursts so it doesn't fly off like a rocket. Forces aren't limited to ground travel. This "car" is very basic at the moment. It has spherical wheels but could easily have regular round wheels. I could even add in key framed steering. Hard to know when to key the steering since you would have to simulate it before where it would go. However it's not as bad as it sounds. Just simulate in "chunks".

Click to view attachment

I honestly believe I can create a "vehicle" of some kind that is entirely powered by Newton and not using a force. It would use a static object that rotates to control the motion of newton physics that would push the vehicle forward. Probably a tank with treads would be easier. A static with action object would have a looping rotation. This object would turn "gizmos" on a newton dynamic object causing wheels to turn pushing the vehicle forward. I have to test this but I'm almost sure this could work. Then you could have the static object keyed to slow down or speed up. Another static object can be used to steer the vehicle. The brain boggles. I soooooo wish HA:MR was still in the works. Could you imagine the possibilities?

-vern

Nice test Vern ,I like the wheels looks like a modern type thing ,a moon bugy or something

I just built a "hamster wheel" for it. Holy cow! Funny as heck. Get him going really fast to get started then turn off the power and see how many times it goes around before he falls. Especially fun to watch from the POV camera. At this point the resolution of the newton "hulls" start to show up. The collision hulls are "polygon" based so there are no "round" surfaces especially on the inside of a cylinder. It tends to be a bumpy ride if the cylinder doesn't have bunches of patches.

On the topic of the hamster wheel... that might be a way to make a "self propelled" vehicle. Just put something in there... get it spinning around. Set it so it has no damping and no friction and no elasticity.

-vern

remember the old hotwheels tracks?
perhaps something along that line?
BTW I liked the camera restrained to car. Nice work!
Gene

now that Id like to see
Funny I used to think you were mad now I know for sure

Go Vern Go!!!!

Sweet... what would happen if you put a 'rudder' in the middle of the force, like a ship...would that provide steerage?

Wow! You are definitely an inspiration to us all with all this newton madness
Keep on "rolling"!

Photoman

Yes actually it would! Newton is amazing. The force pushing the car controls the motion of the center of the newton chain, the body of the car. The way a force effects newton is by pushing the center of mass of the dynamic object towards the center of the force. Since forward motion is controlled by the first object in the chain or the parent of the chain I could steer it by adding a different parent above the body that could be rotated or shifted to change it's center causing the force to push it in a different direction. I did some experimenting with rotating the force at various keys. Trouble is the front wheels are "locked" in a forward position. There is no steering. Just like real physics a car won't "turn" if the wheels stay straight. It sort of slides and drags slowing it down. In wire frame mode I can see that the wheels pretty much rotate in one direction... not totally. There is 1 degree of twist. If you set the twist of a newton chain object to 0 it's equal to 100%. I wish there was a way to set that value to 0. One degree isn't much but it still has an effect and if each joint in the chain has 1 degree it adds up.

I originally had the car up higher with a "springy suspension". But the combined 1 degree rotations caused it to settle too far. Then I added cross bars on the axels to keep them from moving too much... then it got too complex so I went with a simple single axle across through toruses under the car. I need to make that connection swivel so it can turn. I probably don't need those "hooks" for the axles anyway since it it chained under the car. It keeps it from meandering off in all directions though.

-vern

This keeps getting better by the post...great stuff...I started on a newton.cloth paper airplane about a week ago but it needed too much tweaking to post this is a lot more interesting