---

Hiho everyone,

what I thought to do within this entry is to show some kind of "Wind-Force-Channel" (I hope you know what I mean, it is this kind of building used to test aerodynamics for cars, planes etc.) and its (the wind-forces) impact on the objects within it!


Videos:
22.07. Preview-Submission-Video 'Car-Test':

Showing all the "smokers" active, everyone has 500 particles, so you end up with 4500 particles at the same time, some of them colliding with the car! You can choose to have from 1 up to 9 emitters! (Hardware scalability?)

22.07. Preview-Submission-Video 'Tower-Test':

Showing the tower from the start of the "stability test" until it's collapsing! (Note: The turbine-wheels look a bit strange in the video, but in the demo they produce nice "turning" effects, they are spinning so fast that you don't know which direction they are turning really! )

Pictures:
20.07. Preview-Submission-Pictures:

1. 'Car-Test':




http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k307/TriStarPhantom/WiCh---PreviewSub-2---DP-Compo__-14.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k307/TriStarPhantom/WiCh---PreviewSub-2---DP-Compo__-12.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k307/TriStarPhantom/WiCh---PreviewSub-2---DP-Compo__-11.jpg


2. 'Tower-Test':
Before any wind blows through the Wind-Channel:


Light wind blows:

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k307/TriStarPhantom/WiCh---PreviewSub-2---DP-Compo__-9.jpg

Medium wind blows:

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k307/TriStarPhantom/WiCh---PreviewSub-2---DP-Compo__-1.jpg

Strong wind blows:


Tower collapsing:







http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k307/TriStarPhantom/WiCh---PreviewSub-2---DP-Compo__-4.jpg


(Old pictures
Shows my Windchannel in action (more or less, still needs finetuneing -> difficult, many parameters to tweak):
1. View from the "smokers":
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k307/TriStarPhantom/WiCh_in_Action__Smokers_View___V-1.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k307/TriStarPhantom/WiCh_in_Action__Smokers_View_2___V_.jpg

What texture-scale looks best (besides the long-scaled texture above)?:
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k307/TriStarPhantom/WiCh_in_Action__Smokers_View_3___V_.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k307/TriStarPhantom/WiCh_in_Action__Smokers_View_4___V_.jpg

2. View towards the cars wind-spoiler:
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k307/TriStarPhantom/WiCh_in_Action__BackSpoiler_View-1.jpg

3. View towards the cars wind-spoiler (back):
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k307/TriStarPhantom/WiCh_in_Action__BackSpoiler2_Vie-1.jpg



Shows first try of my "Feasibility Study", if it can be done:
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k307/TriStarPhantom/ForceAirChannel__V__0_1.jpg


Three views of my Wind-Channel(-Object), where the "aerodynamic-tests" will take place:

1. Shows the Top-View of my Wind-Channel how it is shaped in total (some parts like the 180° curves possibly get removed later on for performance reasons and they are not seen anyway):
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k307/TriStarPhantom/WindChannel-Object--TopView___V__0_.jpg

2. Side-View of the turbine dragging the air into the channel:
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k307/TriStarPhantom/WindChannel-Object-TurbineSideView_.jpg

3. Front-View of the turbine sucking the air out of the channel:
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k307/TriStarPhantom/WindChannel-Object-TurbineFront___V.jpg

Note: As far as I know, only one turbine is enough to construct a Wind-Channel, but I think two can't hurt, looks more powerful!


Real-World-Wind-Channel-Pictures for reference:
(To see both pictures, press on "ZURÜCK" and/or "WEITER"!)
http://www.spiegel.de/auto/aktuell/0,1518,grossbild-306144-273650,00.html
1. picture from "Audi" shows their new Turbine for their Wind-Channel
2. picture from "Audi" shows a car in their Wind-Channel


It would be nice, if you can tell me, what do you think about the texture (it should look a bit like metal, but is a bit darker, so you can see the particles better!)! Cause I'm unsure about the scaling/nr of plates to use!



Things that I have put on hold due to problems:
1. Softbody-tyres (I was unable to join them with my rims!)
2. Metal-Cloth chassis (I was unable to make "phy make cloth from object" or "phy make cloth from limb"! It always crashed my demo!)
3. Other shaders which use more cameras! (When other cams are used in the scene my turbine-wheels disappear!)



The drivers/versions I use actually:
OS: Vista 64Bit (DB-Pro works fine even without WinXP-SP2-Compat-Mode, just the DB-Pro-Debugger doesn't work, it crashes!)
PhysX-Sys.-Softw.: 08.08.18 (PhysX-SDK 2.8.1.1)
Graphics-Driver: 177.92

DB-Pro: 1.70 Beta2
DP: 1.05


My System:
CPU: Athlon 64 X2 4800+
GPU: GeForce-6800 128 MB
RAM: 2 GB DDR-400



For any input or additional ideas I'm thankful!

Hoozer

---

Nice idea, can't wait to see more of this Hoozer.

---

Nice idea - you really need a cool car object and make your own surrounding graphics.

Rick

---

Irrelevant post now! (I accidentally have edited in the false post and my original here was lost! )

---

OK, well hopefully we can learn from your work and improve DP in process.

---

@ RickV: Is there a more detailed information about the forcefield-comands?:

+ Code Snippet

phy create force field forceField_ID            REM creates a ForceField
phy set force field coordinates forceField_ID, Force_Type  REM sets the ForceFieldType (0=spherical / 1=cylindrical / 2=torodial)
phy set force field constant forceField_ID, x_Force#, y_Force#, z_Force#             REM sets the ForceDirection
phy set force field rigid body forceField_ID, RigidBody_ID             REM connects a rigidbody to the force
phy build force field forceField_ID            REM builds the ForceField
phy add force field sphere forceField_ID, mode???, x_Pos#, y_Pos#, z_Pos#, FieldRadius#
phy add force field box forceField_ID, mode???, x_Pos#, y_Pos#, z_Pos#, x_Size#, y_Size#, z_Size#
phy add force field capsule forceField_ID, mode???, x_Pos#, y_Pos#, z_Pos#, Field_Height#, FieldRadius#

REM mode??? = unknown meaning, not idea what this is for!

The PhysX-SDK says for the shapes:

Common:
name: Optional name field.
pose: The shape's pose relative to the force field's frame.
userData: Optional user data pointer; will be copied to NxForceFieldShape::userData.
Sphere:
radius: Radius of the sphere.
Capsule:
height: Height of the capsule (length of cylindrical segment).
radius: Radius of the capsule.
Box:
dimensions: Center-to-corner vector defining the size of the box.
Convex:
meshData: Pointer to the NxConvexMesh to be used for the convex shape.

My questions are:
1. Are my assumptions regarding the commands right?
2. What are the parameters for the ForceFieldShapes doing exactly?
3. Are all ForceFieldShapes supported from DP actually?
4. Are there other ForceFieldCommands that I didn't mentioned here? (If so, please give some explanations for them!)
5. Is it possible to define the force-behaviour to your own needs? (The PhysX-SDK mentioned something that way called "ForceField-Kernels"!?)


Thanks for your help!

Hoozer

---

Email mike@thegamecreators.com who will be able to answer your questions on Monday and post them here. Mike implemented the commands and created the documentation. In the meantime you will find the section on force fields in the PhysX SDK useful as DarkPHYSICS is mostly a wrapper for their SDK, so what is true of their functions is true of our commands.

---

@ LeeB.: Thanks for the info! I will do that!

Hoozer

---

it seems to be well started. It seems to use force field by a way lots (from which I am) of users didn't tough of. Good luck with your entry!

---

@ sett: Thanks, my problem in the main-part is, I'm full of ideas, but to put them into something running fine is a (more troubling) thing!
I had also ideas for fluids, but the fluids in the DP-demo runs/looks like a bunch of spheres (like others also mentioned this) and not correctly building a connected surface! So I thought I should give this idea a try!

---

I had a go at trying to get the deferred shading from EVOLVED's site working without the DarkShader commands but I just can't get it to work. It needs them to render the light/cube maps.

You should try using Evolved's SoftShadows shader. Thats the one i've used in my demo. The only problem is that it only has 1 light which may be a problem if you need more.

EDIT:
I love that turbine model by the way. Looks awesome.

---

@ DBking: Thanks for the ultra fast response! Bad to hear that, cause I thought after the long time since it first showed up, he might have tweaked it to perfection! Well, I will see what I can place into my scene, without killing everything! I tend to use objects with too high-polygon-counts and shaders (if I can get them running) that are too complex for my purpose!
The Turbine took my some time to handle it out! First I thought I should just take some primitives, but that isn't that aerodynamic right?


Hoozer

---

Haha hell no.

---

Hiho everyone,

some BIG problems have occured which might hinder me from continueing this entry!

Problem:
Some of my 3D-models cause the particles to disappear! (Man, this sounds stupid, but it is reality!)
When you look at them from some angles or distances they just vanish and as soon as you move to another distance or angle they are displyed again!

I already send a "problem"-demo to Mike, cause I found out that "set object smoothing Obj-ID, SmoothValue" had an impact on it, BUT in this problem-demo I found a way to prevent this bug. Unfortunately this work-around doesn't work in my entry-demo, cause the "disappearing" already happens when I load an other 3D-model! (No smoothing active.)

Well, time will tell, if I find a solution for this desaster!

Update:
Seems like my car-model caused the problem (never worked with model in DB-Pro before, a shame I know!)! I splited it up into seperate parts and now it works somehow?! (As long as it works, I don't waste time for the reasons!)


Update-2:
I found out that my car-model in it's "planed"-version, looked fine in the scene, BUT caused the particles to disappear. Now that I tried to "play with limbs, gluing objects, etc." all these methods ended up in a unsatisfying way (Limbs: transprerancey couldn't be set for the windows! "Glued objects": wasn't simulated (treated together) with the main-car-object!)!
The (partial) breakthrough was achieved when I turned on the option "Optimize Mesh" within the Panda-3D-X-Exporter for 3D-S-Max! Now the car look (mostly) the way it should (some parts/normals of the model are messedup somehow) AND the particles don't diappear anymore! I give the "visible particles" a higher priority here! (See picture 4. and 5.!)


Update-3:
I thought to do a bit for optic of my entry, but what would I expect else than problems?
Problem: My "Wind-Channel"-object won't texture somehow! Even a simple texture won't get applied! i'm sure I have exported texture-coords etc. from 3DS-Max, but when I try to "texture object" I see nothing is textured at all! (I never used objects in my last entry and was too afraid to use DP for a long time! So this is my first try in useing non-promitive-3D-objects!)

Update-4:
"Texutreing-resistent" 3D-objects were caused by textureing the object BEFORE the "set object smoothing"-command (it was put as close as possible to the main-loop, cause it prevented the "particles-disappearing" in some cases!)! Now I texture my objects right after this and all works fine! Sometimes the details metter!
Car-Model seems possible to be used in it's original "best-mode"! I found a work-around for most cases of the "disappearing-praticles"-problem!

Update-5:
Added a Parallax-Mapping-Effect, but I'm unsure about which texture to use (what scaling it might look best), cause it shold look "aerodynamic" and still a bit like metal. So I don't know what size the plates should have! It would be nice, if someone tells me what he thinks about it!

Update-6 (20.07. Preview-Submission):
I hope the line for the file-size "Max Zipped Size" -> 5Megs from
http://physxcomp.thegamecreators.com/details.html
is correct! If only the media-directory would be allowed to be '5Megs', then I have a problem! (Car-Model it-self has 5.7 Megs!)
Zipped up, I have a size of 4.x MB total! (Exe, Media, Author.txt, Source)!
So I hope I'm still in, otherwise I would have to change this into an 'Über-Demo'! (What I really don't want to!)

Update-7 (22.07.):
Found a way to "fix" my "too-big"-car-model-problem!
Now exporting as the "Binary with compression"-method instead of "Text"-method! (Used the "Text"-method for compatibility reasons, but that precaution was unnecessary, cause my demo also works fine with the compressed models!)

Result:
(car-model only) before 5.7 MBs --> now 533 kb
(complete Media-Folder) before 6.5 MBs --> now 1.14 MBs

So far I would say that my "size"-problem for the "final"-submission should be fixed at the moment!


Hoozer

---

Just thought it would be worth a new post to tell you all that I have added two small videos showing my two actual tests that can be done with my actual demo (Preview-Submission-Version).

If some of you have other nice ideas how to create an interesting or funny test or any other idea, so feel free and tell me! Maybe I'm able to implement some more things!

Hoozer