a crazy physics demo for MTM2
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Cuboids is a unique physics demo that will take multiple restarts and some aimless driving to truly appreciate. It's not a track for racing, in fact the terrain itself doesn't matter at all, it's all about triggering the motion of clusters of models (about 120 total, in clusters of 20) and watching the chaos that follows.
After you trigger them by driving near they will roll and roll for minutes at a time. Trigger a bunch or trigger a few, then watch them or chase them for amusement. You can follow a single cuboid around for many minutes as it rolls within the confines of the hills, cruising around like a skateboarder, swooping along, jumping, etc. You can bump one and watch it roll uphill, or observe whole herds of these strange, heavy .BIN beasts as they stampede around and smash into you. A 3D video card is required. If you only use software rendering the models will fly away instantly, but if you have 3D they will stay to play. The first time you start the track you'll have to trigger the clusters manually, but if you end the race and restart it the game retains a memory of the objects in motion and launches them automatically. Restart the game itself to truly reset everything. I recommend using a stock truck and no computer trucks at first. However, the number of trucks on screen determines the velocity of the rolling objects, if you try a fleet of trucks the cuboids will roll downhill then uphill and launch airborne like cannonballs, which is a sight definitely worth seeing after a restart. Try to dislodge all of the cuboids with one truck then restart the race with three to seven computer trucks and watch the fireworks. Nearly every cuboid will go into motion at once and will move with such velocity they will fly everywhere and pound your truck with great force, like you've wandered into an asteroid field. Transporting yourself with Gold Mode at restart can lend you a unique perspective on this chaos while multiple restarts will probably be needed to appreciate it. I must note that I've only used stock trucks, it could be that custom trucks with more vertices could affect the physics, and are also very likely to cause 'too many vertices' errors due to the number of models on the screen. Bear all of this in mind and experiment! Due to the way the math and physics will vary with differing conditions (video cards, processors, on screen stuff, game engine memory issues, etc) there is no guarantee that everyone will see the same effects. It will be a pity if you can't see what I've seen. ![]() The secret to all of this is in the weight of the models relative to their size. The key factors are: very heavy weight, shape (square collision properties along the rolling axis), and overall size (small items get to rolling with ease, big items may not get rolling at all). The weight determines how fast the model will roll once it's under it's own power. At 120,000 pounds (120 in Traxx 1.5) a 3x3 cube will roll at a speed that you can actually keep up with in a truck. If you bump that up to like 300 it tends to roll quickly into the distance. Too light and it won't get to shifting it's weight into a roll at all, too heavy and you can't budge it at all. It's strange how the game will keep track of these models as they travel all around the terrain, in fact I could say more about various technical quirks that were observed but I'll end it here. When I first made this (four years ago) Malibu350 and I tossed a few ideas back and forth about how this effect could be exploited for fun, but I'll leave that to your imagination. It comes highly recommended by Mal. :o)
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- Jasper Ridge | (navigation challenge) |
- Trailblazer | (mini-game experiment) |
- Cuboids | (crazy physics demo) |