SnowyHype's Notes/ Guide on Making Engines with AngeTheGreat's Engine Simulator

With information from multiple creators, including (but not limited to) JCKF

Where Do I Start Using The Simulator?

First and foremost, thank you very much for reading this and a special thank you for using the simulator
Please before demanding support, read the faq.

Adding on to this, nobody is required to help you. Help is all voluntary.

Download New Engines

Finding Cam and Crank Orders

Firing order is the order of which cylinders fire at what time.

Example for firing order 1-4-2-3:

Lobe 1 to go 1st. 1 - 1 = 0
Lobe 2 to go 3rd. 3 - 1 = 2
Lobe 3 to go 4th. 4 - 1 = 3
Lobe 4 to go 2nd. 2 - 1 = 1

Finding Firing Intervals

Take 1 cycle (720°), and divide it by the amount of cylinders.

Example for a 10 cylinder engine:

720 / 10 = 72
72 = 72° Firing interval

Your firing interval should be set as the angles between Cam Lobes, Rod Journals, and Ignition Firing.

Finding Crank TDC (Top Dead Center)

What the heck is a TDC? Many people find them selves asking this, others asking why the heck this is needed? Well in the simulator, TDC effects everything related to timing your engine correctly. Crank TDC is the number of degrees you have to rotate your crank in order to bring piston number 1 to Top Dead Center of its compression stroke.

You can calculate it by finding the difference between the crank's spawn angle at -90°, and cylinder number 1's bank angle.

Example for an inline engine with your bank angle at 0°:

Say cylinder #1 spawns facing all the way to the right, that means that your cylinder 1 is at 0° or any interval of 360° (... 360 , 720, ...) In that case, your bank is at 0° and that puts your cylinder 1 crank angle at -90°. That leaves 90° inbetween the two values. which should be your TDC value.

Bank angle = 0
Cylinder 1 spawn angle = -90

0 - -90 = 90

What is a main.mr??

main.mr is the file that the engine sim looks at to load engines into the simulator. The original file looks something like this,

import "engine_sim.mr"
import "themes/default.mr"
import "engines/kohler/kohler_ch750.mr"

use_default_theme()
set_engine(
    kohler_ch750()
)

But the original file runs an engine that wasn't built to move a 6000lb pickup. Changing the engine can be a little tricky, but here are some tricks to understanding main.mr!

First, lets break it down. In main.mr, you see a couple import lines. These lines import important files such as the engine sim library, the loaded theme, and an engine folder and file. Importing another engine it isn't very hard.

In depth explanation:

main.mr can be found in the assets folder.

Say your engine is found in: assets > engines > mycustomfolder You'd have to import your engine as shown here: import "engines/mycustomfolder/mycustomengine.mr

But wait thats not all! Unless mycustomengine.mr has a public node containing the action to set your engine you'll have to put a little more effort into this file.

If your custom engine file has a public node containing the set_engine action, you just need to put mycustomnode() under everything.

Here's an example of this:

import "engine_sim.mr"
import "themes/default.mr"
import "engines/mycustomfolder/mycustomengine.mr"

use_default_theme()
mycustomnode()

If your engine file does not have a public node containing the set_engine action, you'll need to add that into your main.mr file and find the correct node name for the engine node.

Here's an example of this:

import "engine_sim.mr"
import "themes/default.mr"
import "engines/mycustomfolder/mycustomengine.mr"

use_default_theme()
set_engine(mycustomenginenode())

If your engine file has a vehicle or a transmission node within it, it can be enabled by either adding it into mycustomnode() or by adding it into main.mr just like you did your engine but instead with, set_transmission and set_vehicle.

Here's an example of what mycustomnode should look like

public node main {
    set_engine(i4())
    set_vehicle(a_vehicle())
    set_transmission(a_transmission())
}

main is the node name
i4 is the engine node name
a_vehicle is the vehicle node name
a_transmission is the transmission node name\

The Simulator Crashes Every Time I Open It!! Help?!

No need to worry, this just means that you made a code error.

An error is made up of a couple different parts, to read an error you need to understand what those different parts mean.

Heres a quick example of what an error looks like:

main(3): error IO0010: Could not open file
main(7): error R0010: Undefined node type

In this error you see main(3) and main(7). This indicates the file and what line of said file is giving you trouble.
Next you see error IO0010: and error R0010. This indicates which error your code threw.
Lastly you see Could not open file and Undefined node type. This translates that error code into english.

Please refer to the wiki to get more information on the different error types.