Space Engineers

Space Engineers

DAS - Driver Assisting System
Rubezagel Nov 19, 2018 @ 11:48am
Feature/Improvement Suggestions
Like I wrote in the comment section, here are a couple of suggestions I've been thinking about:

1) I often use "S" for braking/deaccelerating (many others do, I suspect) - when I press it too long the vehicle will go in reverse instantly after coming to a stop. Would be nice if I had to press the key again to go in reverse. Alternatively/additionally it'd be cool to have seperate speed and acceleration limits for reverse gear - in fact the reverse acceleration being too high is my main problem with the "S" key behaviour.

2) It's a bit hard to describe, but personally, I find the GSA alignment correcting a bit too agressive sometimes. Especially noticable when standing still on uneven surfaces, when it tries to lift the vehicle continuously every second or so, resulting in multiple wheels above the ground. Also, suspensions seem a bit underused, and suspensions just look cool :) Not sure how to solve this... maybe with an "acceptable alignment deviation" variable?

3) Thats a big one: Skid steering, like seen on tanks or short vehicles like fork lifts and so on. Haven't found a good script for it yet. Whiplash is working on one - it works, but far from perfect thats probably why he hasn't released it on the workshop yet. It just doesn't feel/look right to me, seems to rely on minimal friction and gyro mostly. It's on his github repository: https://github.com/Whiplash141/SpaceEngineersScripts/tree/master/Public
I suspect your script (TCS) already has a lot of the framework needed for proper skid steering - like fine control over friction, wheel torque and so on. Big feaure obviously and not an easy one, but would be really amazing to see that one day.
< >
Showing 1-15 of 84 comments
Rubezagel Nov 19, 2018 @ 11:57am 
also, not really a suggestion, but maybe you can clarify - how does the camera raytracing work exactly? Does it use just one ray to get the ground curvature, or is it calculated from multiple rays? Meaning, would a higher camera position (or possibly even multiple cameras) give more accurate reading?
Wanderer_308  [developer] Nov 19, 2018 @ 2:32pm 
I don't think double S hit feature is that good. It's counter-intuitive and only will get in a way. Some people would want to maneuver, but instead they rovers will come to a halt, sometimes ppl will double press before vehicle stop, and will wait for nothing, and only after few seconds will re-press S again, or will rage-hit it multiple times. It's one heck of a rage generator. Though it's possible to make speed limit and acceleration cap separate from forward ones, that viable suggestion.

GSA already has an angle tolerance of 3 degrees. So... just leave rover at more even surface i guess. Or turn off gyros, or turn off GSA, there is the argument for it.

Skid steering (as i understand it's like tank steering, right?) will not come to DAS. First it' ill not fit in symbol limit, and i really don't want to use minifiers. Second, it's mechanics very different from normal wheeled steering. Torque on a left and right wheel distributes differently, friction should be truncated before the turn, not after, an also in a different way, and gyros input different. And I'm sure Whip will finish his script way before i ill wright new one.

As for raycasts. Script cast one ray forward-down (in a 45-degree cone) in direction of vehicle velocity, and at next game tick cast to rays sideways. From first ray and similar previous ray it calculates surface tilt, and with sideways cast surface bank. Higher camera position would do much, sure it ill hit different spots, as the cone will get bigger, but nothing significant. More cameras could be viable only with really big rovers, like large grid mobile bases. In this case, the script will choose the camera wich closer to the raycast direction.
. Nov 30, 2018 @ 6:42pm 
Awsome script. but, is there a way for you to add a path recorder for the auto drive to use.
(Similer to PAM's way of doing it).
Thank you.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1507646929&searchtext=PAM
Last edited by .; Nov 30, 2018 @ 6:43pm
Carbonschmied Dec 17, 2018 @ 10:13pm 
Hey, thank you again for this absolutely great script.
Here's some improvements I came up with:

1) it would be super nice to be able to set different speed limits via a (function or tool selection) hotkey. just like selecting gears in a gearbox. this would make maneuvering so much easier.

2) can you utilize your adaptive steering angle to realize proper incremental steering, instead of that binary steering we have now?
Wanderer_308  [developer] Dec 18, 2018 @ 11:31am 
1) You can make it yourself very easy, just add code like this
else if(args.Equals("SET_SPEED30", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase)) DAS.SuspensionSpeedLimitKPH = 30;
to the rest of the arguments list, at the bottom of the script. It will set the speed limit to 30 km/h. Or this
else if(args.Equals("INC_SPEED30", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase)) DAS.SuspensionSpeedLimitKPH += 30; else if(args.Equals("DEC_SPEED30", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase)) DAS.SuspensionSpeedLimitKPH -= 30;
to increase/decrease speed limit by 30 km/h step.
Anyone can actually change almost any variable in runtime by adding new arguments.

2) There i didn't get you meant. "incremental steering", "binary steering" what's that?
Carbonschmied Dec 19, 2018 @ 11:43pm 
Originally posted by Wanderer_308:
2) There i didn't get you meant. "incremental steering", "binary steering" what's that?

hey, thanks for the answer! can't wait to try it.
now, what I meant there was - and please correct me if I'm wrong, I didn't have time to try a controller yet - that you can only steer with 100% of the wheels steering angle. now, it would be nice to have a controller input for steering, to be able to steer more precisely. that would be super useful as I tend to squeeze my trucks through mines :D
If wheels accept controller input already, consider this question obsolete!
Carbonschmied Dec 20, 2018 @ 8:49am 
Originally posted by Wanderer_308:
1) You can make it yourself very easy, just add code like this
else if(args.Equals("SET_SPEED30", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase)) DAS.SuspensionSpeedLimitKPH = 30;
to the rest of the arguments list, at the bottom of the script. It will set the speed limit to 30 km/h. Or this
man this is so awesome, works flawlessly! Thank you so much!
Wanderer_308  [developer] Dec 20, 2018 @ 11:25am 
Originally posted by Carbonschmied:
If wheels accept controller input already, consider this question obsolete!
Yes, script support analog (controller) input for steering (AD) and throttle (WS).
7h3PuNiSh3R Jan 15, 2019 @ 7:27pm 
Bro suspension auto lvl like range rovers ;)
Eirian Jan 23, 2019 @ 1:23pm 
What would be nice is the ability to swap the Remote control destination from the click of a button instead if going to the remote control's menu and changing it manually.
ewanX3E Feb 26, 2019 @ 7:22am 
The feature I want the most is a handbrake for subgrid wheels.
YOR963 Mar 1, 2019 @ 2:55am 
Hi, i love you work :)

The survival update tweaked power consumption for wheel.
Your script put power on wheel at max level in some conditions and then grid with low power generation will glitch offline.

The power consumption become insane when it wait between waypoints (look more like a bug )

I suggest to add a setting to cap the power allowed to wheels to allow very small design to work properly.
Last edited by YOR963; Mar 1, 2019 @ 3:31am
Jakaya Mar 8, 2019 @ 7:28am 
Reverse beep for reverse mode using a sound block
Wanderer_308  [developer] Mar 8, 2019 @ 9:08am 
@ewanX3E there is such feature. Place RC or cockpit block on subgrid for that.

@YOR963 noted, will do something about that.

@Jakaya taken into consideration. If it will fit in symbol limit i'll do that.
Jakaya Mar 8, 2019 @ 11:57am 
If not ill happily add an extra programable block to have this feature maybe DAS core + DAS extra ;)
< >
Showing 1-15 of 84 comments
Per page: 1530 50