So I want to make a very simple wheeled contraption – think a cart or a wagon – and I feel like wheel colliders seem like overkill. My solution was to simulate the wheels using 4 cylinders with capsule colliders, attaching them to a large, cubic rigidbody, then essentially “dragging” the whole object using AddForce.
This… sort of works. The object moves, but it also twists and bounces in a way I don’t want. I set the physics material for the wheels to have 0 friction, but even with no obstacles it keeps freaking out. Is there any way to make this setup of mine work? Is there another way of doing this I haven’t thought of? Or will I have to use wheel colliders?
Since you are moving your object the way you are, the wheels you have attached serve no purpose other than visual aid. I would remove the colliders and physics from the wheels. If you want the wheels to spin you will need to set up a script that will control their rotation based off the velocity of your vehicles rigidbody.
If you think about it this way…you are moving a box around and the “wheels” attached visually convey the idea that this is a vehicle
Since you no longer have physical wheels, you will need to suspend your vehicle above ground so that, again, it is visually appealing. Casting a ray from the vehicle towards the terrain and offsetting the vehicle body position will achieve that.