There are a few more parameters to tweak, and some collision problems fixed related to vehicles on meshes not in the origin.
http://www.continuousphysics.com/ftp/pub/test/index.php?dir=blender/&file=blender-2.42preview2.zip
PS: I haven’t had the time to start using the models/tracks that everyone provided yet.
Erwin
nice work erwin the collisions work great now, even for small ridges. (Useful for when you want a car to react to an apex on a track).
One suggestion would be to include a left/right rotation constraint for the front wheels. This is easy enough to do with property logic bricks though.
Is there a way to get the car to skid when turning at high speeds, or will this be included later.
Keep up the great work erwin, looking forward to 2.42.
Great work Erwin, thanks for your hard work!
Two things (reported before, but never responded?):
Sumo physics no longer works in your builds. Not sure this is important at this stage, but don’t want to loose this for 2.42, mostly because of #2.
Objects still won’t slide. Is this a bug you are working on or just a limitation of bullet physics? Perhaps this will answer this question:
Is there a way to get the car to skid when turning at high speeds, or will this be included later.
posted above.
Thanks!
Sumo physics still works. There are some features unique to Bullet, like rigidbody for box, convex, cylinder, cone etc, constraints, and vehicle simulation. Sumo doesn’t handle these new features. These new features are one of the reasons for using Bullet physics.
Bullet objects do slide, try a box with low friction material (<0.02).
Perhaps you refer to non-rotating ‘dynamic’ objects? That is what I refer to as ‘character control’. This will be a new feature after the initial work on vehicles are done.
See this topic too:
https://blenderartists.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=562978&highlight=#562978
Thanks,
Erwin
Sorry Erwin, not trying to start an argument, but I have reported these bugs numerous times and they still exist:
- Sumo physics still works.
Sorry, but when I use Sumo physics in your build, my objects vibrate and then fall through the “ground”. This does not happen with 2.41 but does happen with your build.
- Bullet objects do slide, try a box with low friction material (<0.02).
Again, this doesn’t work. Not with 2.41 or your last two builds. I have tried numerous friction, mass, gravity etc etc and still does not work. FYI, I’m testing using a simple box sliding on a single, flat plane.
I also tried Icoxo’s “work-around” and this worked for new models only, not for existing models.
If you want sample .blends please let me know. As I said in my first post, I have reported these bugs numerous times and never got a reply.
Not trying to criticize your work, I think you’re doing a great job! I would just like to see these fixed since my current project (a ship simulator) would be -sooo- much better with Bullet physics!
Thanks!
I checked my .blend showing the friction bug and now it’s the same on both the x and y axis 
But a few things
1). The bug with objects using LinV and not really falling is still there
2). There’s still no easy way of making objects using image textures using the new material option sensitive to light without using multiply or turning on the alpha button in the texture buttons. When using mix or any other blend mode it becomes insensitive to light. With the alpha button on none of the other blend modes work.
3). When setting the alpha button in the uv panel it becomes insensitive to light.
If you know of a GLSL vertex shader that can allow me to light an object no matter what the material settings are based on property please tell me what the code is because I know nothing about GLSL. I know it can be done because the sebulba shader lights it without the material having alpha or multiply on, but it’s per-pixel and you need to type in the object which is incredibly tedious when you would have many many objects using it.
4). objects still can’t ride and rotate on moving and rotating non-dynamic objects and IPO in bullet is still broken.
The vehicle in itself is pretty good but one thing I noticed is that when you stop pressing the key that moves it foward, it takes an incredible distance for the car to stop.
Great new Stuff Erwin. Wel done. This is exactly what i need for my Chevy. A nice soft Damping. Cool! 
But the Wheel-Flipping is kidding me to death! I try to use one Mesh (Alt+D Copies) for all 4 Wheels. But the Wheels always flip inside. Even if i use a single mesh for each Wheel and rotate the Mesh in Edit-Mode. ??? No Way! That drives me crazy! Is this a Bug, or do i something wrong?
Doc
Its a bit wierd you have to change the back left wheel to affect the front right wheel. So yeah probably a bug.
Got it! It works with a seperate Mesh for each Wheel. Here’s what i did:
The two back Wheels are equal orianted as the Vehicle. The two front Wheels are rotated with 180° on the Z-Axis. If necessary, Rotations can be fixed in Edit-Mode now.
Doc
I’m happy you report bugs, there are tons of them. Unfortunately time is limited, so its a matter of priorities to fix them or add new bugs/features 
Bullet sliding works for me. Can you check this file and let me know if this doesn’t work?
[quote]1) Sumo physics still works.
Sorry, but when I use Sumo physics in your build, my objects vibrate and then fall through the “ground”. This does not happen with 2.41 but does happen with your build.
[/quote]
I haven’t touched or tried Sumo really, so I’m curious what broke.
Please mail me a small file that works with 2.41 and doesn’t with 2.42:
blenderbugs at erwincoumans.com
Thanks again, and sorry for not replying to your report earlier. I’m just lack of time, and randomly visit this forum.
Erwin
Ok, here is an other one. The Wheels are no more fix on their Axis. They moving forward and backward while driving. To have a better View on this FX, place a Camera nearby the Vehicle and make it Parent.
Doc
Bullet sliding works for me too, make sure the friction is low enough (like 0.050)
Yes, yes, yes, I know, I know 
As I have reported over and over again, I have tried many friction settings including many at 0.050 and below…
Bullet sliding works for me. Can you check this file and let me know if this doesn’t work?
Erwin: Yes, your test file works for me.
I emailed you two sample files that show the problems I’ve described.
Several problems can occur.
First of all, Bullet objects might auto-deactivate after a while.
So you need to disable deactivation for now (I will add some button to disable deactivation on a per-object basis, as well as activation on certain actions, like setPosition etc.)
Also, only the friction in the materials panel is used. This is hidden I admit, I didn’t do the Blender user interface 
See here:
I don’t know what happened to Sumo, perhaps a Visual Studio 2005 compiler issue?
Having button based deactivation may be the best thing to do for objects. But don’t forget to have a way to disable deactivation like when a deactivated dynamic body is in a situation that would require it to be active again.
The vehicle support is getting pretty realistic. Do UV’s no longer work without setting use blender materials?
Thanks for the tips Erwin.
Some feedback:
First of all, Bullet objects might auto-deactivate after a while.
So you need to disable deactivation for now (I will add some button to disable deactivation on a per-object basis, as well as activation on certain actions, like setPosition etc.)
Yes, I beleive I’m seeing this. After a few moments, it seems to stop working. I’m not familliar with how you “disable deactivation”. Where is this?
Also, only the friction in the materials panel is used. This is hidden I admit, I didn’t do the Blender user interface
Ok, I found it. Only thing is, that it only works when friction is set to “0.000”. I am unable to set it to less than 0.01 even though it appears in the numeric display? So the only settings I’ve found are no friction or too much friction?
Are the other controls (damping, etc) in the Logic section now obsolute?
Also, In one of my unfinished game demos I still had a case where I had 20 FPS in sumo but 9 FPS in bullet with all frames enabled. In others it’s almost identical
hey, very nice suspension system, bullet will definatly pay off in the long run
lol, hope to see car physics like in carmageddon.
good work
