Help with applyTorque

[AndyDLP]

Hi,

I am trying to build a car / buggy at the moment and I would like to do it without thrusters, or wheels because they tend to sink. So I was looking around the E2 Wiki and I saw applyTorque, I read the description and did'nt really understand what it meant so I tried to use it and this is what I came up with:

@name applyTorque Test
@inputs Forwards Backwards Wheel:entity Plate:entity
@outputs 
@persist 
@trigger all

W = Wheel
P = Plate

V = W:forward()

if (Forwards) {applyTorque(V)}

This doesnt work at all, it gives me the error "No such function: applyTorque(Vector)", and yes I have updated wire and restarted gmod.

Can anyone help me get the hang of this?

P.S. My setup is this:

1 PHX plate with elastic/rope suspension & the offroad prop wheel from PHX axis'd to the centre. If there is anything else ive missed feel free to point it out

[Fizyk]

First, it's E:applyTorque(V), which means, that you need some entity to apply torque to. For example, entity():applyTorque(V), or in your case W:applyTorque(V).

Second, torque vector's direction means the axis, about which the entity will be rotated. So if you want your car to go forward, you would want your wheels to rotate about left-right axis (assuming the wheel symmetry axis is left-right), so V should be either vec(0,1,0) or vec(0,-1,0) (applyTorque uses local coordinates).

Which one you should use depends on the direction that you want the wheels to rotate. To go forward, you would want W:applyTorque(vec(0,1,0)). Also, you might want to multiply vec(0,1,0) by some number or W:inertia() to apply more torque, because onl vec(0,1,0) might be too weak to move your car.

[AndyDLP]

Ok thanks for clearing that up for me :-) now ill go see if I can get it to work
thanks again :P

[nescalona]

This raises a good question: for consistency with applyForce(V) and applyOffsetForce(V,V), shouldn't we create applyTorque(V) and applyAngForce(A) functions, which always act on entity()? Or would it be better to leave these out, since applyForce(V) and applyOffsetForce(V,V) are redundant and arguably shouldn't have been there in the first place?

Also, B:applyTorque(V) is missing.

[AndyDLP]

Awesome it works fine now thanks :P

BTW here is my current test code if you want to pick holes in it ^^

@name DuneBuggyTorque
@inputs W:entity Move
@outputs 
@persist 
@trigger all

interval(100)

if (Move == 1) {
W:applyTorque(vec(0,1,0)*W:inertia()+150000)
}

if (Move == -1) {
W:applyTorque(vec(0,-1,0)*W:inertia()-150000)
}

Ok so this works fine but I have one small problem, my car goes about 20 MPH, if I increase the number that I + / - then it totally spazzes and jumps in the air and make my car flip. I would rather not use thrusters but does anyone know of another way to manipulate this to make it go faster? (20 MPH sucks :P )

[Syranide]

This raises a good question: for consistency with applyForce(V) and applyOffsetForce(V,V), shouldn't we create applyTorque(V) and applyAngForce(A) functions, which always act on entity()? Or would it be better to leave these out, since applyForce(V) and applyOffsetForce(V,V) are redundant and arguably shouldn't have been there in the first place?

Also, B:applyTorque(V) is missing.

I'd say the bold, shouldn't have been there in the first place.

[Fizyk]

Multiply it by a number instead of adding a number, like:
W:applyTorque(vec(0,1,0)*W:inertia()*100)
To be honest, I'm surprised that adding a number to a vector didn't throw an error.

[AndyDLP]

When I multiply the vector it just does nothing or completely spazzes out and jumps in the air, thats why I used + & -
Is that an error in the lua or something?

[Fizyk]

You are probably trying to rotate it about a wrong axis. Try changing vec(0,1,0) to vec(1,0,0) and vec(0,0,1), one of these should work. And don't add, multiply Adding is wrong.

[AndyDLP]

ok thanks a lot :P