Show HN: MockMechanics is now open source

[felipereigosa]

Hey guys, a couple of years ago I posted about MockMechanics, a visual programming language/sandbox building game that I've been working on and there was a very positive response [0]. Since then I've been implementing most of the things I promised in my first youtube video [1] and making it ready for an open source release and I'm happy to say it's ready [2]. I've also been building new things and showing them in the youtube channel. It's written in clojure and you can use it to create all sorts of machines, games, musical instruments, etc using little to no code at all. You've seen the piano, the tetris game, the clock the combination safe and so on but since then I've built a 3d printer, a robotic hand, a bubble sorting algorithm, a 7 segment display, a ball cannon, a paint program and more, you can see all these things in the youtube channel [3]. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24934722

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrwxbQj5mj0

[2] https://github.com/felipereigosa/mock-mechanics

[3] https://www.youtube.com/c/MockMechanics

Channel trailer with some of the new machines - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQiA42ReNYE

[an_aparallel]

Hi Felipe,

Thank you so much for your effort on this - this looks like an absolute god send for people looking to build intuition while carrying out self directed learning.

Does the software have capacity to simulate electric circuits as well? For example - if one were to design an alternate synth keybed with aluminium bars and springs, could you convert the pressure from springs (or similar mechanism) to voltage (and see the voltage on a scope?) i can see things like garage door, and a bunch of things that look like IC chips in your videos. So it looks like it is possible? But i'm not entirely sure.

i guess im asking how realistic it would be to prototype something like a modular synth controller in this software?

EDIT:the website you mentioned is newly created - will you be uploading user manual to the Docs section soon? :)

[justtosaythanks]

Huge gift, Felipe! great work. You should be incredibly proud of your work - most of us never do anything this amazing! Looking forward to learning tons from this.

[eggy]

Amazing! Did you implement your own vector lib?

I have been studying Geometric Algebra, and I wondered how hard would it be to try and duplicate your vector lib in GA. I am also a beginner with Clojure, but not Lisp, and this is something I can get interested in to learn Clojure. Thank you so much!

[indit]

This is really great. Is MockMechanics parametric, i.e. we can control the object size and movement using script?

[nikajon_es]

This looks really cool! I can't wait to start playing around with it! I love your video.

[mdaniel]

Whoa, congratulations and thank you for releasing the source. That video is absolutely stunning!

[samsaga2]

The biggest let I have seen in my life:

  (let [[track-name wagon-name] (if (= (get-in world [:parts part-1-name :type]) :track)
                                  [part-1-name part-2-name]
                                  [part-2-name part-1-name])
        track (get-in world [:parts track-name])
        wagon (get-in world [:parts wagon-name])
        track-position (get-part-position world track-name)
        wagon-position (get-part-position world wagon-name)
        layer (apply min (:visible-layers world))
        color-1 (new Color 10 10 10)
        gear (create-part :gear color-1 layer (:info world))
        gear-name (gen-keyword :gear)
        track-plane (get-track-plane track)
        axis (vector/normalize (get-track-direction track))
        offset (vector/multiply
                 axis
                 (point-plane-distance wagon-position track-plane))
        gear-transform (combine-transforms
                         (:transform track)
                         (make-transform offset [1 0 0 0]))
        wagon-parent-name (get-parent-part world wagon-name)
        wagon-parent (get-in world [:parts wagon-parent-name])
        wagon-parent-direction (get-track-direction wagon-parent)
        gear-position (get-transform-position gear-transform)
        point (point-line-projection gear-position [wagon-position wagon-parent-direction])
        to-wagon (vector/normalize (vector/subtract point gear-position))
        d (point-plane-distance
            wagon-position
            (line->plane [track-position to-wagon]))
        color-2 (new Color 128 128 128)
        rack (create-part :rack color-2 layer (:info world))
        rack-name (gen-keyword :rack)
        gear-position (get-transform-position gear-transform)
        h-distance (point-line-distance
                     (get-part-position world wagon-parent-name)
                     [gear-position to-wagon])
        wagon-parent-length (second (:scale wagon-parent))
        parallel-offset (- (/ wagon-parent-length 2) h-distance)
        parallel-offset (vector/multiply
                          (vector/normalize wagon-parent-direction) parallel-offset)
        perpendicular-offset (vector/multiply to-wagon -0.125)
        wagon-rotation (get-rotation-component (:transform wagon))
        rack-angle (vector/angle (apply-transform wagon-rotation [-1 0 0])
                                 (vector/multiply to-wagon -1) wagon-parent-direction)
        rack-transform (combine-transforms
                         (make-transform [0 0 0] [0 1 0 rack-angle])
                         (combine-transforms
                           (:transform wagon)
                           (make-transform (vector/add parallel-offset perpendicular-offset)
                                           [1 0 0 0])))
        tooth-height 0.09
        radius (- d 0.175 tooth-height)
        scale-1 [(* radius 2) 0.2 (* radius 2)]
        rack-length (+ wagon-parent-length 0.0)
        scale-2 [0.1 rack-length 0.2]
        w (set-value-0-transform world track-name)
        p1 (get-in w [:parts track-name])
        track-1-rotation (get-rotation-component (:transform p1))
        track-1-x (apply-transform track-1-rotation [1 0 0])
        angle-offset (- (vector/angle track-1-x to-wagon axis))
        sign (- (vector/dot-product to-wagon
                                    (vector/cross-product
                                      wagon-parent-direction
                                      (get-track-direction track))))]