Algodoo

SUGGESTION: Don't make scenes that are at the extreme zoomed out (100 M) level because then users who play your scenes cannot zoom out any further. It's best to make your scenes at 1 or 10 Meter resolution. People will appreciate that!

Thanks

s_noonan -- Thanks!

S.A. -- Lots of people have complained about the rounded or non-sharp polygon edges. If you search through the forum, you will find a few posts concerning that issue, with a couple of suggestions for improving it, but as far as I recall, there really isn't much that can be done to make nice sharp corners as expected. It's just the way it was done.

Of course it's free! No one is going to pay you for it!

Okay, kidding aside.... The energy that's needed to make the two circles rotate is generated by the instability that occurs when two geometries with the same collision layers activated are touching each other. The harder they are forced to come together, the more unstable they become. Because of the fact that the circles are attached to the background through axles (aka, hinges), the instability in the system will manifest itself as motion. If you were to apply the brake on the axle that's attached to the small red circle, you will then see the circles "shake" back and forth. You can also plot it to see the actual waveform of the unstable system.

This is an issue that has plagued Algodoo users for many years. In some cases, entire scenes have "exploded" when the condition becomes extreme. There are ways to mitigate the effect, or to prevent it from happening.

Sorry, I hate to be the one to break the news to you, but you did not invent a "free energy engine" device!

You can find literally thousands of attempts at making "free energy" devices on YouTube, but NONE of them actually work. Yup, you read that correctly, NONE (zero, nada, none, zilch, nil) of them work!

Very interesting scene, but I'm not quite certain if the dynamics are correct because it just doesn't "feel" right for some reason. Maybe it's because it doesn't behave like a real bicycle (when the bike reaches the point where it would crash to the ground, instead, it bounces back upright as if a giant spring were pushing on it!). Also, the scene allows the user to input extremely large and unnatural numbers. Therefore I suggest that you put limits (+ and -) on them.

Until now, I hadn't put much thought into bicycle dynamics, but your scene has got me thinking about it, and it caused me to do some research. I found THIS very interesting paper on bicycle dynamics.

Thanks for sparking my interest in this fascinating subject!


EDIT: I see you've added limits.

S.A. -- So, basically your "fix" is to take boxes (rectangles) and group them together to form the desired shape (such as your simulated "Star of David" in your recent scene). Is that correct?

A lot of the kids had figured out how to get around the trial time limit and were using Algodoo way beyond the trial period. So, I don't think that Algoryx was making much money on Algodoo anyways. I've even seen a couple cases where users were passing registration serial numbers to each other in scene comments! Talk about gutsy!

I'm thankful that Algoryx is keeping Algobox alive even though they are no longer supporting Algodoo. I don't know how long they will continue to do that, but I hope it will be for at least a few more years!

Thanks!

S.A. - How did you solve the problem of the rounded corners?

Make sure that you SAVE the scene on your computer, and then upload the latest version of the scene to Algobox. I don't know what else could cause that problem. Sorry, if that does not help.

Yes, I saw what you did in the scene (the previous one too) but I don't think that qualifies as a true hexagon. I would call it a simulated hexagon because you made it by overlapping and grouping a number of boxes. For some scenes, that may be okay to do, but I think most users who want crisp, sharp polygons want the true shapes, not simulated shapes that only appear to be correct.

I recall reading in the forum a few months ago that someone discovered a console variable that had some effect on the sharpness of polygon corners, but I do not recall what it was. It may have only had an effect on polygon textures. I'll see if I can find it.

Algodoo angles are in Radian units, and the range is from -pi to +pi rads. So, if you want to work in degrees, you have to do the conversion.

Wow! Those horses look real. Good job!

S.A. quote: "
We should establish a science-group for algodoo - for fundamental research in improving geometries, precision and modular objects (and mechanics)."


I started using Algodoo back in June of 2012, and that was about the time when most of the very active members began to lose interest in it. Before that timeframe, people were very actively experimenting with it, improving it, and sharing its "secrets" with each other. I would like to see that kind of interest and activity return here, because, in my opinion, Algodoo is still a very worthwhile educational tool that is worthy of keeping alive and growing. It will become obsolete in a couple of years as technology improves, and as other programs come onto the market which will be much more powerful than Algodoo (a 3D version, for example). Until that time comes, I will continue to use it and promote it.

Africa is not a country!

Confessionals? Have you lost your mind?

This is cool! Nice job!

You can spawn any object this way:
1. Select the object you want to spawn.
2. While the object is highlighted, press Ctrl-C keys (copy).
3. Go into script menu of the spawn generator object (in this case it's the circle that gets bumped by the box).
4. In the onCollide script area: (e)=>{add script here} place your cursor between the curly brackets (where I wrote "add script here") and press Ctrl-V (Paste). If there is other script already in that spot, delete it first.

That's it! Each time the box collides with the circle, another object will spawn in the original x/y position. You can make the objects spawn in different positions, but that requires that you modify the pos x and y positions.

Oh.

I see how you got the corners to be so pointy. Very clever!

Now comes the criticism: The only thing that I don't like about this scene is having to enter data in the form of text. Either a rotary dial or up/down arrows would be much more convenient ways to enter values, don't ya think?

Other than that minor detail, the scene is clever and interesting! Nice job!

Now you need to take off your "design hat" and put on your "debugging hat"!

edwedu - APPARENTLY, YOU ARE NOT RECEIVING MY WARNINGS, AND SO I WILL USE THIS COMMENT TO EXPLAIN SOME THINGS.

WE DO NOT ALLOW "MESSAGE" TYPE SCENES ON ALGOBOX IN WHICH MEMBERS COMMUNICATE WITH OTHER MEMBERS CONCERNING ANNOUNCEMENTS, VOTING, QUESTIONS, AND SIMILAR THINGS THAT SHOULD ONLY BE POSTED IN THE ALGODOO FORUM. THAT'S WHY YOUR SCENE WAS DELETED. WE DO NOT WANT ALGOBOX TURNING INTO A FORUM.

I WILL LEAVE THIS SCENE UP LONG ENOUGH FOR YOU TO READ THIS COMMENT AND RESPOND TO IT. THEN IT WILL BE DELETED, AND I SUGGEST THAT YOU DO NOT UPLOAD IT AGAIN. IF YOU DO, THEN YOU WILL RISK GETTING BANNED FROM USING THIS WEBSITE.

THANKS FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING AND COOPERATION.

Xray (Algodoo Administrator)

Alien_RG - I tried using that technique, but I had some trouble with it when adding more than 4 or 5 OR's to the line of script. I may have made a syntax error at the time, but I didn't bother looking into it any further, and ended up doing it the way that it was done. I will research this some more, and if I can get that method of stringing OR's together to work, then I will change the script.

Thanks for your suggestion!

This is rally cool, faytree! GOOD JOB!

I have just a few suggestions:
1. Disable the clouds. They serve no useful purpose in this type of scene.
2. Use "keysIsDown" instead of collide for decoding keyboard keys.
3. Use other keys besides "Shift-A" and "Shift-Z" because those key combinations are kind of awkward to do. Why not use something simple and more sensible such as the UP and DOWN arrow keys?

You don't need to make any of those changes, if you don't want to, of course. They are only suggestions, and you may want to do something different.

In any case, I like the scene, and it works very well.

Lester12345 - What are you talking about? You make no sense!

Oh, I read that wrong! I read it as Up = "Shift A" instead of "Up Shift" = A! HA HA HA HA!

keysIsDown triggers only once with each keypress when the code is located in onKey. Also, I think using keysIsDown is easier than adding an axle and an extra collide box for each key. That's the OLD way of decoding keys in Algodoo!

S.A. -- Sure, there are a few 3D physics simulator programs out there, and I believe that Algoryx has one too, but I don't know much about it such as cost and target audience.

Right! (Algobox is such an educational website, and some people think that it's only for making marble races! )

Does anyone know what BFDI stands for? (Please do not post any profane (dirty) words). Thanks!

Your plane does not fly.

I love horses, and I would love to own one.