Rigid Chips v1.2

I got this link from the Make Blog
entry of Make Magazine fame. Not much in the way of support buzz on the download link site, perhaps because the originators of this great simulator are Japanese.

What we have here is a scripting language that compiles to rigid body constructs that move in a virtual world according to physical constraints, such as gravity, wind resistance and wheel torque that can be toggled on and off as the viewer sees fit. The screen capture above is the default rigid chips vehicle. Without even reading anything, I learned quickly how to control the vehicle using the arrow keys. To give you an idea of how modular this system is, here is the text code that describes this vehicle and the operating environment in which it is immersed:

//BasicCar
Val
{
Brake(default=0,min=0,max=80,step=80)
HBrake(default=0,min=0,max=100,step=100)
Handle(default=0,min=-20,max=20,step=5)
Engine(default=0,min=-2500,max=2500,step=2500)
}
Key
{
0:Engine(step=-500)
1:Engine(step=500)
2:Handle(step=-0.5)
3:Handle(step=0.5)
7:Brake(step=30),HBrake(step=20)
8:HBrake(step=20)
}
Body {
Core(){
N:Chip(){
N:Rudder(angle=Handle){
W:Frame(){
W:Wheel(angle=90,brake=Brake){
}
}
E:Frame(){
E:Wheel(angle=90,brake=Brake){
}
}
}
}

---------------------0(you get the idea)0----------

From that I guess you can imagine there are some pretty wild vehicles, including a four wheel drive truck and a bike that steers using a balancing stick figure. There's also an airplane with a jet pack controlled by the A and Z keys.

Rigid Chips appears to be a great learning tool suited for an engineering class, but it's a whole lot of fun to play with too. Pressing the '1' key suspends gravity, which makes your collection of chips behave solely on the basis of wind and centripetal forces of its spinning wheels, or from the jet pack included with some of the vehicles.

F8 through F12 control a dizzying array of viewpoints. What a fun tool!

RigidChips is for Windows computers and requires Direct X version 8.0 or later.

Translated from the source's Wiki:

In Rigid Chips, various objects can be freely produced by combining parts, and setting the script to them.
Moreover, it is also possible to do various play by using the produced object by setting the script (Without using it according to circumstances). The multi play can be also possible, and it play by the network by two or more people.

Hoping to find more scripts and racetracks, I did find a Rigid Chips "laboratory" site, but you need to view it (assuming you can't read Japanese) as a Google translation, here. The site where apparently a networking version of the RigidChips environment can be downloaded is here.

It's a little frustrating wading through the translated pages, but there does appear to be a lot more models out there than the default scripts that come with the 1.2 release. Possibly I'm not using the right build, but there definitely are different track layouts. Put everything in the /data directory and have fun!

Mike