The Beta Grid was closed for maintenance the past few days, but it’s now reopened with a “refreshed” version of the Havok 4 physics engine.

Several prior issues were addressed in this revision, but new problems have emerged that can have a significant impact on sailing. As Owen Oyen emphasizes,

“… This Havok 4 version’s “violence” magnitude in response to collisions is far more extreme than what existed before. What existed on the previous Havok 4 was certainly more violent than the Main Grid, but now it is significantly worse. An ACC running aground during a skid test will be flipped over and flung into the sky. … The reaction to boat collisions in general is far too extreme and much more so than it was. …”

I just did a few laps on the Beta Grid that I think confirm Owen’s impressions. Although I had no major problem sailing a Tetra 35 today, when I switched to a TruCor Beach Cat v1.2,  everything changed. With spd 11 wind, I normally use the far hike position to partly counterbalance the boat. When I do that on the Beta Grid, I immediately capsize. I assume that’s because the ‘hike effect’ is greatly amplified with Havok 4. If I use a more conservative position, I don’t capsize, but hiking still ‘overbalances’ the boat, and it ends up heeling in the wrong direction:

The same thing happens on all points of sail. Even the center P or S positions are enough to counterbalance the boat on a broad reach:

The “violence” described by Owen is also pretty evident in the Beach Cat. When the boat capsizes on the Main Grid, the skipper is tossed overboard. I usually end up standing on the boat or in the water just next to it. However, today on the Beta Grid, each time I capsized I was thrown into the stratosphere! The view was nice, but it got pretty tedious needing to hunt down where the boat ended up each time.

Given the number of issues with the Havok 4 implementation on the Beta Grid, I think we should bump our discussion of sailing Havok to the Forum, since it’s easier to post and manage the discussion thread there. I’ve set up a new Beta Grid Havok Discussion thread for that purpose.