Does Gyroscope Placement Matter? Space Engineers Testing and Tutorial

[@Cyberguy42]

I already knew most of this, but I still learned something very useful: how to tell which way is 'forward' on a gyroscope.

[@Splitsie]

Since that's one of the things I learned while setting up the recording I was hoping it'd be useful for others 🙂

[@armastat]

I never knew this either, and I had it backwards by the way, lol. but one thing I had made a habit of was making sure they were all pointed in the same direction. unfortunately if some were upside down? well explanations have been received.

[@nomendubium]

@@armastat i always used to think it was the other way round 😅

[@armastat]

@@nomendubium I too went thru a period where I considered that - like thrusters - I had to have some pointing in all six directions, lol.

[@nomendubium]

@@armastat hehe sorry that was vague, i meant i always thought forward on the small grid was the one with 1 dot rather than the one with 2... so inverse pitch 😬

[@mementomori5580]

I read some time ago that you need to align the Gyroscopes with the axis to get the best effect of them... You have shown here that this is clearly not the case and there is no disputing it as you directly show it with examples and we see that there is no difference. So, thank you for putting out these Tutorials, they're really helpful and do away with some false information :)

[@Splitsie]

Glad it could clear a few things up 🙂

[@yurioorlov177]

Love the little Capacs and Splitsies that you use to point things out. its a great detail

[@Splitsie]

Thanks, I hoped they'd be useful 🙂

[@dasbratkeks3092]

Every time, if one of my friends starts with Space Engineers, I send them your tutorial videos! Best tutorials ever!

[@Splitsie]

Thanks so much 🙂

[@CHoffyC]

I wish I had friends to play this with...I wish I had friends. 😔

[@zurielwolfe]

Gyroscopes, your best friend and worst enemy, they can help you or destroy your ship. either why, thank you Splitsie for the information about the "where to place them", i did not knew that placing them near the center(or not) had that much effect on the grid and i see you are also a fan of "always end with a bang"😁

[@beaawsome2211]

Hmm yes when ship stuck use gyro...when don't work...violently shake mouse and hope clang makes your ship become rubber so it takes no damage as you launch into space.

[@chemzys]

Thanks, great tuto as always :)

[@Dagonius.]

Gyro: I worked out which side of the small gyro is "front" by taking a look at the large Gyro. As its control panel is located at the front but the small gyro doesn't have this feature, I looked for other hints: The sides of the Gyros have very similar but asymmetrical "bearing-plates" which hold the bearings for a shaft. The rounded parts of the "bearing-plates" point to the front!

[@Splitsie]

Oh yeah, I forgot about that bit. Nice extra tip 🙂

[@marksadler4457]

This may not be an interest of you, Splitsie, but I would love to see the basics of writing scripts. For example, I would love to be able to write simple scripts to control items across ships and bases that bare blocks cannot control; e.g., I want to use an oxygen tank as a depository for evacuating a hangar space and always refill from that isolated tank first and "top off" the pressurized hangar if necessary. I have lots of other "If...Then..." scenarios that scripting may answer but use of blocks cannot.

[@nomendubium]

so would splitsie (but i think he said he doesn't want to get into it cos he's not a coder) :D btw the tanks thing could be a bit fiddly (and processing intensive) since iirc the only way to do that would be to monitor the levels while toggling the stockpile action (so same as manually but automated basically 😅)

[@mattp1337]

I'm not up to speed on their capabilities, but maybe take a look at Easy Automation v2.0 or Sequencer v2 in the Workshop.

[@aikiwolfie]

For that specific example, it can be done very simply with timer blocks.

[@mattp1337]

@@aikiwolfie For most things, it's not possible. You'd need many blocks to have trigger events, which could then drive timers. For instance, if doors could trigger timers OnOpen or OnClose, or landing gear had OnProximity or OnLock. But blocks don't have those events available through the normal user interface, so accessing them through scripting is required. It hugely limits what kinds of things are possible for the average non-coding user.

[@aikiwolfie]

@@mattp1337 No, doors can't trigger timers. Buttons can though. Sensors can also trigger timers as can air vents, control seats, cockpits, remote control blocks and custom turret controllers. Timers can trigger other timers and they can even trigger themselves once triggered, creating an infinite loop. I'll grant you it's not as sophisticated as a script running in a programming block. But it's simple and it works. Especially if you just want to depressurise a hanger without blowing all the air out into space. Maybe I'll make a video showing you how to use timer blocks and control blocks to do some of this stuff. Pretty sure Splitsie already has one though. Probably.

[@MrFainall]

Thank you so much for such a great tutorial. Loved the helpful graphics showing direction of movement.

[@Splitsie]

Thanks, I was pretty happy with how those turned out 🙂

[@UthacalthingTymbrimi]

@@Splitsie Yeah, that's some nice rotoscoping my friend!

[@newfang6234]

I'm currently trying to discover a way to control "chaotic" gyro movement. Meaning a way to fly a craft using override gyros only. Once I make more progress I'll post a video on my channel. Great tutorial btw. 👌 placement is important.

[@Dagonius.]

Fang, that's exactly what I did. I currently use this override option to knock an intruder of his feat if one should ever board my ship. Also maybe it could be handy to evade incoming fire... haven't been in that situation luckily.

[@Kozaki09]

Did this with an autominer/missile years ago. No scripts, just sensors

[@suddeneevee9441]

An idea for your idea: maybe you could measure your ship's rotational speed and tell the gyro's to weakly counter it. Thus having a sort of self-restore feature.

[@redhavoc4144]

Finally the tutorial series is back, as you've said.

[@ConstyC]

eyy, got a mention lol that editing with spinny engies is a very nice touch. great tutorial overall!

[@Splitsie]

A very deserved one, that grid update thing really convinced me of something that was so wrong. Thanks again for setting me straight 🙂

[@tysanbyrd7532]

How well timed I was just starting on a heavy retrofit of an npc ship I borrowed permanently, now I know to move all atleast some of the heavy stuff to the center thanks splitsie

[@drinkthetussin88]

500+ hours on SE yet still learning from your tutorials lol. For all your Space Engineers knowledge and entertainment plus more, follow this guy.

[@Splitsie]

Thanks so much 🙂

[@ghjuyt101]

That overide info makes so much sense

[@Sim-ib1xn]

6:55 * interstellar dramatic theme starts playing *

[@Trotils]

I just want to add... from wikipedia: In physics and mechanics, torque is the rotational equivalent of linear force. It is also referred to as the moment, moment of force, rotational force or turning effect, depending on the field of study. It represents the capability of a force to produce change in the rotational motion of the body. The concept originated with the studies by Archimedes of the usage of levers, which is reflected in his famous quote: "Give me a lever and a place to stand and I will move the Earth". damn... I love to sound smart. (aka smarting out) :D

[@alanchandler7859]

Thanks Splitsie. Your guide's are the best. It's also nice to know the reason why you build the way you do. Other than Capac-isms.

[@Splitsie]

Thanks, I do like to try to put some reason into what I do, even if it's just a small piece of story 🙂

[@madjockmchamster3525]

Thanks as always Mr Splitsie (curses under his breath as he logs back into space engineers to move the gyros, not by much, on his latest build) for the super informative tips

[@ryanjames4789]

Good to know I've been placing my gyros backwards this entire time 😅. Splitsies tutorials are top notch, been playing for years now and it's all thanks to you mate.

[@Splitsie]

Thanks 😊

[@Lunger77]

Awesome. I find stuff like this so helpful. I typically try to just orientate them in the same direction and never gave much more thought to it. By this logic, I can drastically reduce the number of gyros on my large grid ships.

[@Splitsie]

I'm glad it seems like it'll be useful 🙂

[@psyc1280]

I'm sure many of you already knew but Gyroscopes are very heavy so have high integrity too, at least for small grids, this means you can use them to protect your more valuable ship components (Hydrogen tanks, Ammunition cargo, cockpit etc)

[@nikkiofthevalley]

Or just use heavy/light armor with blast door spacing so armor distortion doesn't damage components.

[@Zanzikhan]

That last bit of info was so helpful! I have a large carrier that takes forever to turn and ended up putting lots of gyros... Now I just have to centralize those gyros on the center of mass and I can also reduce weight with less gyros. :)

[@barrylopes]

Now this is useful information, thanks Splitsie 👍🏻 Amazing how Splitsie is the master of tutorials in Space Engineers but Capac still manages to frustrate him through his shenanigans 🤣

[@Splitsie]

Capac is smart enough to learn but stubborn enough to refuse to 😂

[@xzardas541]

@@Splitsie Capac goals are beyond human understanding

[@IamOutOfNames]

@@Splitsie So he has earned the name of Catpac, then?

[@ColinRichardson]

Nice, I love the R&D stuff

[@ruthlesszathras]

R&D - Research and Destroy! Print that on a t-shirt 😉

[@ZEOCMF]

Thank you for another wonderful tutorial! 👍

[@TheMrShinagami]

This may have just changed the way I build ships and rovers, Thank you and please keep up the great work.

[@daz8405]

Great tutorial, Splitsie, thank you. A thought for another tutorial - timers and sensors, as they are quite powerful when used together, so I think it may be easier for people to think of them as a strong pairing if they were taught that way in the first place.

[@Splitsie]

Yup, that's definitely something I want to do 🙂

[@TheRealAceBase]

Whilst the tutorial is really handy, the final test subjects were really aesthetically pleasing! Great stuff!

[@Splitsie]

Lol I like to have fun with colours for these 🙂

[@Sentinel_Seven]

these little videos taught me almost everything i know now about the game, taught me the key combines for 10x, 100x, 1000x, painting etc. etc. and 2,000 hours have been spent using the things these taught, so thanks splitsie, these mean a lot. I did want to recommend aswell making a Tutorial on modding? I really want to learn how to do it but have no idea where to turn

[@Splitsie]

I'm in the process of making a 'how I got started with modding SE' video at the moment as it turns out :)

[@Sentinel_Seven]

@@Splitsie well isn't that just perfect timing? can't wait to see it! i've been wanting to learn for some time now so this'll for sure give me a nudge in a good direction, thanks ahead of time =D

[@chrixthegreat]

That was actually very useful info. I never consider these things in space engineers. I knew about these concepts in real life but did not know that SE simulated them this well.

[@OmegaHermit]

Always helpful. Even knowing how gyros work I picked up a few details I hadn’t come across as of yet. Thanks Splitsie!!!

[@Splitsie]

You're very welcome 🙂

[@AuxenceF]

5:15 gyroscopes don't impart a force, they impart a torque.. but for the rest, great video!

[@miguellopez3392]

torque is force.

[@peterpan408]

@@miguellopez3392 Torque is a force applied at a distance from a fulcrum which results in angular acceleration. Think about how levers or swings work..

[@miguellopez3392]

@@peterpan408 'Torque is a force" yes that is what i just said.

[@solice55]

I'm new to the game, and this was very informative. Thanks for the clear explanation and demonstrations!

[@moussemaster102]

Wow I have never thought about this!

[@Splitsie]

Neither had I until I started hearing people talk about it and arguing over how it works so I figured I'd do some testing 🙂

[@segfaultgenerator7583]

Excellent tutorial, love the explicit detail you get into.

[@Splitsie]

Thank you :)

[@Rabenschild]

Great video, thanks for setteling the debates.

[@Splitsie]

Funniest part was that due to the grid not updating when I did my first tests I almost made the arguments far worse 😂

[@dwarvernbard9782]

Brother told me hes downloading the game today, I sent him the link for your channel and was delighted to see a new video

[@Splitsie]

Very convenient timing 🙂

[@deanlawson6880]

Great video on this topic Splits! Thanks for this. Interesting for ship design purposes.

[@evlkenevl2721]

Thumbnails like this one make vids quick to be found. Thanks for all the work you put into these.

[@Splitsie]

I might have had a bit of fun with this one once the concept came to mind 😂

[@thefatcat2790]

Cool vid! Also stan the spinny-disco-warhead-extenders

[@Bystander333]

Space Engineers master class series. Subgrid mechanics next?

[@fakshen1973]

Also, deep in the game code is a limit on the maximum rotational speed of a grid. The furthest point from your center of mass is the limiting factor. In the game world, grids with smaller absolute dimensions can rotate faster, no matter how many gyros are placed. The further a block is from center the faster it is moving (assuming the same rpm). It has to cover a greater distance in its travels verses a block near the center of mass. So the game caps the rpms to ensure those blocks don't end up glitching out due to high speeds. More gyros will help you get up to your maximum rpm faster or make it less tedious to turn using the mouse. But slamming your ship full of really heavy gyros quickly has diminishing returns.

[@Splitsie]

That doesn't surprise me and might explain some of the findings here even though it's nice to believe things are following realistic physics principles :P

[@peterpan408]

Therefore there is a maximum size of ship that can spin adequately to avoid turret fire. Also spinning in place is futile.. therefore maximizing rpm when rolling is pointless. The maximum speed you can move is 100ms-1, therefore there is an optimum rpm for evading turrets.. The maximum ship size that can hit the optimum spin rate, and control the roll at that spin rate is the maximum viable PvP ship.

[@Peoples_Republic_of_Cotati]

Sounds like for most people who are now aware of this. Have a separate group of carefully placed Gyros in the same orientation etc, and turn off all other Gyros can be useful for this control purpose. I hear that placing a gyro on the end of a set of otherwise wobbly Pistons etc can stabilize them.

[@Splitsie]

a gyro on override with all values at 0 effectively acts as a brake to all rotational movement so it can stabilise wobbly things, though I prefer to do that through use of share inertia tensor as I find it a bit more effective if used carefully

[@AsilarWindsailor]

Oh man, I have been putting on gyroscopes backwards this whole time. No wonder my vehicles didn't turn the way I expected

[@romeobollen6687]

I always like to place them close to the center of mass pointing outwards on the outside. They also do a great job soaking up damage.

[@mattp1337]

I like to put gyros on my hull exterior so they're less likely to do further damage to me if they are shot loose.

[@Splitsie]

Ah good ol' gyro minesweeper back when they were so much worse and annihilating everything when they got loose :D

[@Vahari_Bahamut]

Try doing two identical test rigs with both inner and outer gyroscopes. On one have the inner unwelded so they provide the weight but no rotational assistance. On the other do that to the outer. The one with working inner gyros will spin up faster. Unless they've changed how they work since I tried it.

[@Coleo20]

Just a small tidbit I'd like to point out, because I was struggling with a grid being extra sluggish recently and I thought my gyro placement was to blame: If you're using subgrids, and you use "share inertial tensor" on any of your rotors, pistons, or hinges, that may negatively impact your turn rate. I suspect that the distance of this sub-grid connector from the center of gravity may also have an effect, but I haven't tested that yet.

[@Splitsie]

Yeah, share inertia tensor can also do weird things with total calculated mass which may have an impact too

[@Cyberguy42]

I never thought about that before, but it makes sense: "share inertial tensor" improves the numerical stability of the physics updates by acting as through each of the subgrids has the same mass. This redistribution of mass could result in changes to a grid's moments of inertia.

[@kingwolf468]

I need that yawing demonstration for a gif…

[@mthemstandsformilk1965]

I would personally love a video on the potential problems encountered when mucking around with sub grids if you felt so inclined :)

[@Splitsie]

Hmm I'll have a think about how to approach such a thing 🙂

[@mthemstandsformilk1965]

@@Splitsie pistons in particular seem to love getting stuck in my experience. I heard something about "bud powering" or phantom forces/clang but there is almost nothing online that explains it well ☺️

[@aurumworks]

Those helpful little engineers are a great detail.

[@Splitsie]

Thanks 🙂

[@mikecdammit1990]

So my rover roll gyros I have to switch onto override are going on the bottom of my chassis 🤔 2500hrs plus and I’m still learning something new about space engineers. Cheers splitsie! 👍🏼

[@Splitsie]

I always feel happy about a tutorial when I learn something while making it and this one I did too 🙂

[@kabagaida9744]

Nice Very straight to the point with examples

[@friedec3622]

So spinning the ship using thrusters on override is preferred when your ship mass is spread out. Putting all heavy stuff in the center is asking for it to be destroyed, like full cargo and jump drive.

[@Jfk2Mr]

Nah, thrusters impart force similarly through center of mass, unless they are attached via rotors/pistons/hinges, and those come with a lot of additional considerations.

[@Splitsie]

Overrides do generate more torque than through a control seat but trying to do so is just annoying for most uses I think (except where I'm flipping something over)

[@maethorin]

Tys! Now I also know how to make a spinning station!

[@Graytail]

Very handy to know, cheers Splitsie Now I know why my main ship was an absolute slug the last time I built her

[@Splitsie]

Glad it could be helpful 🙂

[@Cevandri]

Awesome info, didn't think of weight nor mass for gyro usage

[@morganpallot4218]

Thank you splitsie. I was under the impression that the side with the single spot was forward 😆 Silly me!

[@Splitsie]

I keep thinking the same too, it feels like it should be :D

[@theepicslayer7sss101]

makes sense, you need mods to change where the thrust is applied from so i guess the same goes for the gyroscopes. using the orbital mods and the thrust position changing mods (there is like 3 on the workshop) you realize how the forces were always exacting from the center all this time! in the vanilla game you can have a 1 KM long stick with 5 engines and 1 engine on the other side and it will fly strait like no engines are misplaced!

[@Splitsie]

I think Keen made the right choice by simplifying the application of thrust. It gives us a lot more aesthetic freedom in the arrangement of our craft which in a game like se (at least for me) makes it more fun :)

[@Teddy-rv8iw]

This was definitely very helpful thanks man! Was wondering why some of my ships despite being light armor were slow to turn. I probably had incorrect gyro placement

[@MMuraseofSandvich]

I remember way back in early access when I did something funky enough with the gyros that a big ol mining ship just started spinning. I don't remember if I turned on override (I might have, it was a while ago), but I decided to delete the ship instead of trying to figure it out.

[@mattp1337]

More likely a Klang effect from subgrids intersecting, as it'd be genuinely hard to set off gyro overrides accidentally.

[@Splitsie]

Back in the early days there was no rotational braking that's in the game now. So if you bumped a ship back then it'd keep spinning forever without intervention and there were so many ways to make that happen like crazy 😂

[@raphaelprandini713]

My question is, how does a expanding or retracting piston affects the center of mass? Will the rotation increase or decrease? or the center of mass doesn't shift with pistons?

[@Splitsie]

It's variable, there are some issues related to the grid not being updated so it doesn't behave as though the mass is being redistributed in the way you might expect. It's also a problem I ran into when I first tried to do redistribution of mass using cargo containers. The grids didn't update and I came to the wrong conclusions initially, took some helping to figure out it was the grids not updating

[@Taelon0]

Ive always done my ships with most batteries and gyros near the outside with large components on the inside. might not be possibles with some designs, but keeping this in mind with future builds, i might need less gyros, then less components to power and less thrust needed. My favourite ship design kinda brute forces its movement

[@Anuwabu]

Did not actually know about the gyro's orientation I have been using overrides wrong for years it seems. But there's one very important piece about gyro placement missing to consider and it matters a lot. They're very heavy, very tough, and only secured by a single face. Placing them on a block easily destroyed will mean risking the gyro's mass and toughness turned against you if it comes loose. A dead gyro that stopped a railgun shot and saved the precious component behind it is better than a wrecking ball bouncing around inside your ship.

[@ceilyurie856]

ANd that's why I literally have "bait" zoens in my ships where a railgun, or multiple, could pass through and not change combat effectiveness.

[@brandonhowe5017]

I was always curious about the gyro's front face, even though it hasn't mattered for me so far. I personally think auto-rollers on rovers is kinda silly - I'd rather have gyros for full manual control whenever I need it rather than a derpy, might-work-might-not gyro like the ones in the Scrap Race scenario. On Playstation (and I'm sure there's a similar control toggle for PC) my right stick normally controls pitch and yaw, or when I hold L1, it swaps out yaw for roll, and keeps pitch the way it was. So basically, I find no use in a dummy gyro that might klunk and damage parts of my rover when flipping back over, or potentially fail to flip me over in an awkward place due to fix rotation, when I can just have a gyro that lets me prevent damage and flipping in the first place, or let me do precisely what I need to in order to get unstuck in every possible case. Manual gyros are also superb for allowing rovers to conquer awkward terrain. Also, if you have a rover with any vertical thrusters, be they for preventing fall damage, gliding over gaps, or ascension of vertical terrain, a manual gyro is also crazy useful, and far cheaper and less energy hungry than outfitting a rover with an omni-directional thruster setup. All that said, I do see a very niche point in auto-rollers, and that is specifically for cases like the Scrap Race scenario. It seems like that mode was meant to behave a little bit more like an arcade racing game, so of course you need to cut out the full gyro control and give the player an "oops I flipped" button. But for normal gameplay, just use your rover's gyros the same way you do on ships. Manual input, redirect your movement energy where you need it. And that way, your flip fixes and flip prevention will be faster and easier to access than frantically going through your toolbars while under the threatening pressure of losing your ride in the blink of an eye. You don't even need to worry about what way they're facing, because just like with your ships, gyros on your rover will respond to input according to what your cockpit says positive and negative yaw pitch and roll are.

[@shahbazfawbush]

But will the grid with weight far from the center eventually catch up in rotation speed with the grid with blocks near the center?

[@mattp1337]

You'd think it would, and it almost looks like the slow one is speeding up. But for the everyday purpose of turning a ship, that doesn't help any.

[@Splitsie]

There appears to be some sort of rotational braking in the game that was added to slow and stop empty grids. I'm not sure but it seems like it's applied in the examples shown but with the time frames needed to test this thoroughly I feel like it can be mostly ignored

[@76Tek6]

For your next spin on SE, how about gravity, and the machinery involved with and how it weights in the wings to foil you?

[@Splitsie]

Any particular things you're curious about with gravity and mass blocks?

[@76Tek6]

@@Splitsie how it interacts planetary and artificial, good placing and settings/orientations - more on the spherical side, and what on earth do you use your spaceballs for? (Rick Moranis need not reply)

[@SolearGnG]

Thanks. I'm one of those peeps, for who this doesn't matter, but it was interesting to see why :D

[@NoahJ2005]

Yeah perfect timing for him to upload this

[@Splitsie]

Hopefully it's helpful info 🙂

[@The-Nil-By-Mouth]

Thanks for this and the explanation of orientation. Now if I could just work out how to place projectors and take blueprints properly...

[@Splitsie]

Ah the joys of figuring out grid origins and their rotation 🫤

[@wreckervilla]

it would be neat to have an override to make the gyroscope operate in reference to the orientation of the main cockpit

[@Splitsie]

Yeah, an option for that would be quite handy

[@ververat]

Yay, start of a new tutorial series?

[@Splitsie]

Not so much a series, more of a growing collection of standalone tutorials 🙂

[@BeethoD]

@@Splitsie Isn't that the definition of series?

[@Splitsie]

A series to me implies continuation and some idea that ties them together, random topics don't feel that well tied together to me

[@TBG2005]

the tutorials are back

[@robypigus6820]

Omg i love this channel

[@solosailorsv8065]

more like Reaction Wheels in RL, but with all the servo systems and used as a complete sub-system

[@unfluffydave8798]

Great tutorial as usual, a couple of questions about gyros that wasn't covered: Does it matter if the gyro is on a subgrid? does it apply its force to the centre of mass of the subgrid or the main grid? related to this, does the gyro(s) on for example a small grid miner affect the handling of a mothership the miner is connected to via a connector or landing gear?

[@Landogarner83]

Gyros on subgrids will apply the force on the center of mass of the subgrid. But that comes only into effect if you are using override or are steering that subgrid. Like the miner example: If you just park a miner at a mothership without having overrides on. Then you steer from the mothership. In that case the gyros on the miner are not used. So the gyros on the miner do not affect the handling of the mothership except as far as the additional mass goes. If you are using overrides on the subgrid or are steering the subgrid then the gyros will try to spin the mothership around the miner ending up with "interesting" movement. Edit: As long as the miner has inertial dampeners on, its gyros might try to "brake" against the motherships turning. Further testing required.

[@Splitsie]

That's a nice and comprehensive answer and fits with my experience 🙂

[@jmatya]

@@Landogarner83 now I am hungry and want to have gyros

[@Landogarner83]

@@jmatya bon appétit

[@cybersteel8]

Fantastic, thank you for this!

[@scanerang]

If you enable the orientation cube GUI when placing blocks you can see a red, green and blue face, they correspond with right, up and back When I was writing programs I learned this relation (X, Y, Z) = (Red, Green, Blue) = (Right, Up, Back) = (Pitch, Yaw, Roll)

[@Splitsie]

Oh that's a great tip, I'll have to remember that for future tutorials. It's been so long since I had that on my HUD I totally forgot that it might have useful info like that 🙂

[@sirusgrail]

Well done great job

[@jonaszprzybycien6545]

"see this one little marker thats your back" this sentence sounds funny when said out loud

[@Splitsie]

#outofcontextSEquotes :D

[@bluelightfox]

Hmm...in my experience, the closer the gyros are to the center of mass, the more responsive input is. I'm not talking about how much force is applied, but how quickly the ship _stops rotating_ after you stop input (e.g. mouse, Q/E). Closer == less (artificial) 'input lag.' IMO this only matters for fighters, where one really wants precision, not just rotational force.

[@kirkster8000]

Great info sir 👍

[@brittinfontenot3544]

Great demo! Where can I learn how to make a mini space engineer rotate around a 2d image of a gyroscope?

[@Splitsie]

lol It wasn't even an image, you can see that both parts are fully animated ;)

[@brittinfontenot3544]

@@Splitsie DOH! Watched it on low res and didn't notice. Well done. Since I have your attention: Thanks for all your videos. You've helped my friends and I enjoy Space Engineers.

[@radamesalvarez-rivera6719]

Nice, very informative.

[@tomsterbg8130]

I remember hearing the last one from Donut Media and I tested it in Roblox. It worked as flawlessly as your test and it's a very cool think to know. I'm making a game where you rotate a labyrinth board and navigate a ball through it so reliable rotation is important so I keep the set massless, then add a bunch mass at the middle and make sure that the center of mass is as close to the bearing as possible plus the overall mass is 99% set and 1% ball because otherwise the ball will be influencing the rotation a lot.

[@Splitsie]

It's funny the places these things show up and have impacts

[@Peoples_Republic_of_Cotati]

A use for Spaceballs? Fascinating.

[@brianwoodbridge88]

Hmm interesting. Is the over ride direction thing perhaps the reason why you’ve had so many epic flips over the years? Haha either way great tutorial as usual 😊

[@Splitsie]

Sadly not, if it were I'm sure I could have avoided it 😂

[@kody.wiremane]

4:11 Those engineer ballerines really took me out :'D

[@Splitsie]

lol I had fun making those :D

[@JWH3]

I don't know if it will really be useful for anything but gyro's on subgrids with overrides can produce some weird effects.

[@jeremievigliaturo1317]

I dont understand mass blocks. I know what they are. But unless I'm making a gravity missile that appears to cost more then a thruster I don't see what else I would use one for?

[@Splitsie]

That's a good question, so good that I'm currently struggling to think up a good use for them :P

[@Kunteki]

did not know about the distribution of mass thing, or where to find the centre of gravity indicator ^^, learn something new every day :)

[@Splitsie]

I hadn't appreciated how much impact it could have until I did the testing either

[@kermitkerman8794]

great video, suprised you didn't this opertunity (?) to illustrate the importance of centre of mass e.g two identical looking ship but differante centres of mass

[@Splitsie]

As shown in the part where the gyroscopes equally spun the 3 grids regardless of gyro position the position of the com relative to gyro doesn't matter, so we can ignore that part. Moving the com will affect distribution just like in the final test and that will be the effect you see. The two grids would rotate about the com (wherever it is) but speed will be impacted by the distribution differences

[@slab-dd6vj]

very nice l did nt know about the mass distribution had an effect on their effectiveness. Could you remake a tutprial on laser antenna ? when I try them they never seem to work. what I am usually trying is laser antenna on the base to another laser antenna on a second grid (large or small) then from that grid using a regular antenna to control a third grid that is in range of the second grid, but not in range of the base

[@Splitsie]

Hmm that would be a good one to redo as a lot has changed since then

[@skunkmyrddyn]

Great video. But it leaves me wondering if there are other uses for the override settings on Gyro's than just flipping ships or setting up constant motion rigs.

[@Splitsie]

I haven't had much use for them outside of those times

[@bushpearce]

Long live Splitsie

[@niki123489]

Welcome to Physics class with Splitsie! I hope you enjoy!

[@scottsadler4215]

i think i get the topics you covered here, but is there a way to use gyroscopes correctively, for example keeping a hovering ship; on planet, level?

[@Splitsie]

To make a ship return to level, no, not without a script. At most a gyro can act as a rotational brake, slowing down movement but bit undoing movement that's already happened

[@scottsadler4215]

was affraid of that... thanks for the response tho. Could you recommend one? @@Splitsie

[@mandyspence1599]

This was very informative, thank you, and that was a really nice boom at the end! Odd question - Do you think you could make a clock that keeps semi-accurate time using gyros? Looking forwards to more tutorials and maybe some experiments on Capac?

[@Splitsie]

That's an interesting question, I think you'd probably end up with something maybe close or a little worse than a grandfather clock. Changes in simulation speed and tick rate (the rate at which physics events occur) can quickly compound and mess things up. Though in a save with few objects and a reasonably high end PC I think you'd get something that would work with human level perceptions of time

[@mandyspence1599]

@@Splitsie Thanks for the reply... Is it something you would be interested in demonstrating? I would love to see something like that, since my late grandfather used to make clocks and he always put a mouse on a long case clock... So perhaps Capac could be the mouse?

[@Okazi11a]

If I wanted to make a hover speeder like the ones in star wars, and make it so that the small grid doesn't roll forward and back, but still let me turn port and starboard, how should I orient my gyroscopes? Because I've tried messing with the pitch and it keeps me from rolling forward and back, but also prevents me from turning?

[@Splitsie]

There's no way I'm aware of to achieve what you're trying to do. There may be some scripts out there that can do something similar but I've not come across any

[@mattp1337]

Did anyone ever get to the bottom of why rotating while stationary was sometimes so sluggish in SE? I always imagined it was some mathematical quirk of their physics implementation, whether that was based on quaternions, polar co-ords or gawd-forbid trigonometry. Anyway, from my non-rigorous experiments, gyro placement didn't seem to affect that behaviour.

[@Splitsie]

I've been privy to discussions on this topic between some of the most knowledgeable people in the missing community and they hadn't been able to come to a firm conclusion 😔

[@mugsy8]

all of these things i knew.... well constructed information for the newbie though