[Issue 38] The Secrets of Tanki: Unlocked

[Fen-Harel 1,176]

 

Greetings, readers, and welcome to the most comprehensive look into the Tankiverse ever written. After hours of theorizing and calculating, GoldRock and I have managed to crack every single one of the secrets of Tanki's programming, making some remarkable discoveries along the way.

How do forces like gravity in Tanki work? What happens when corpses disappear and tankers re-spawn? What do tanks actually shoot? You'll find all the answers here, and discover just how Tanki's physics actually work along the way. Oh, and we also happen to be able to tell you the causes behind every bug and glitch imaginable. So, what are you waiting for? Read on!

The Forces

We started our analysis of the game's physics with gravity, leading to our discovery of how the game environment is structured. 

 

Gravity

First, we checked how objects behave during free fall. In Tanki, we found that after 2 seconds, falling tanks reach their downwards 'terminal velocity' (maximum speed). Using this fact and a bit of maths, we arrived at a strange conclusion...
 

 

Friction

If we observe tanks going uphill and downhill, we expect to see a change in acceleration as they drive across the ground as a result of friction. However, in Tanki this doesn't seem to apply - which makes it seem like there's no friction at all.

 

We investigated a little using a good ol' physics equation: F = μN, which is Force of Friction = Amount of Friction x Perpendicular Force. The Force of Friction is observed to be 0 since tanks aren't slowed down by the ground, and the tank must be exerting a Perpendicular Force on the ground since it has a mass and we've determined gravity exists. Therefore, the Amount of Friction must be 0. In other words, there definitely is no friction in Tanki! 

Coincidentially, this means that there must be no air in Tanki - otherwise, tanks would experience a friction force as they drive around maps. This conveniently supports the assumption we made back when we were looking into gravity in Tanki, where we assumed there isn't any air resistance in the game.
 

Impact force

Moving on to the next force, we seemed to have hit an inexplicable paradox. We took two tanks equipped with Railgun and placed one of them X metres away from a wall, and the other Y metres away from a wall, where X was significantly greater than Y. In other words, the first tank was much further from the wall than the second. Both tanks fired a shot at the same time (t0). However, they hit the wall after exactly the same time (t1), which seemed to be literally no time at all; meaning that somehow, the shots crossed different distances in the same time period.

So, X/t1 and Y/t1 (i.e. the distances divided by the time taken for the shots to hit the wall once fired) must be exactly the same despite X being greater than Y... which proves that the shots took 0 time to reach the wall once fired, and so must travel at an infinite velocity. Bullets must travel instantly to the target. However, in our universe, light is the fastest thing there is (with a velocity of roughly 300,000km/s); but in Tanki this speed limit doesn't seem to apply, hence the bullets are able to travel at an infinite velocity and cross distances instantly.

This will be explored further in the article, but at this stage we've found that both bullets and light in Tanki share certain properties. Bullets, like Tanki light, don't seem to have any mass whatsoever. Which brings us to our next force...

 

Understanding stuff 

Objects including tanks and props Tanki are made up of matter, and we'll refer to these normal objects as "Somethings". What's the point of doing that? Because we soon discovered it's possible for other objects in the Tankiverse to have physical properties without any matter at all. In other words, Tanki makes use of impossible objects made out of nothing, which we imaginatively called... "Nothings". 

 

Matter and anti-matter

Matter in Tanki is simply everything your tank physically interacts with. This includes certain trees, fences, buildings, ramps, platforms other tanks and so on. Somethings always interact with other Somethings - a tank can't just magically go through a wall, for example, since both objects have matter. Anti-matter is just the complement of matter which we discovered when investigating gravity, providing a mirrored invisible version of all matter in Tanki. It may seem strange, but, like everything else, it's a product of the game's programming.

 

Basically, as a by-product of the game's programming, there must be anti-matter for all matter in Tanki. This is what the theoretical Tankiverse could look like if we were able to escape the Skybox:

 

 

Pretty neat, huh?

 

Understanding non-stuff

Here's where it gets really interesting. According to the properties objects in the game share, most of Tanki is actually made up of "Nothings". These are objects without any matter, which can somehow have physical characteristics and other properties.

 

All of the following objects are made out of exactly the same thing - nothing at all!

 

Light

The first example we came across of "Nothing" is light in Tanki. Through checking its properties, we found that it's nothing (hehe) like the light in our universe. Since light travels instantly in Tanki i.e. it travels with a practically infinite velocity, it can be said that light isn't made of waves like in our universe. It's actually pseudo-light that only looks like the light we see in the real world (i.e. it has visible properties), but in fact it's made out of nothing at all. What's particularly interesting is that we've found that there are other things in Tanki which are only 'pseudo' versions of real world stuff.

 

Sound

Sound are vibrations we detect in the air. But we know there's no actual air in Tanki, yet we can still hear sounds... so like the pseudo-light, sound in Tanki must be pseudo-sound i.e. made up of nothing at all instead of vibrations, yet still having all the properties of sound in the real world. However, as anyone on the battlefield knows, sounds get quieter the further away from the action we are, until we can't really hear them at all. This means that unlike light, sound in Tanki has a range - for example, light in Tanki will travel instantly until it hits something, while sound will slowly fade to 0 across distance.

 

The Skybox

The big area surrounding the map is another example of nothing taking on visual characteristics. It has no particles, but you can still see it. In effect, this means maps in Tanki have an invisible barrier around them made out of nothing at all, since it can also interact with players and stop them from going beyond the Skybox (as any experimenting Spectator-mode user knows). 

 

 

Bullets

Yet another example of an object in Tanki that's actually made out of nothing. Bullets travel instantly across the map, they have a visible characteristic, an audible one (sound) and they have a range. For example, you can see a Smoky bullet explosion once it hits a Something, you can also hear it and the shot has its range. The important thing to note here is that this Nothing actually interacts with Somethings - in this case, it causes damage to tanks.

 

The foliage

Foliage such as the 2-dimensional bushes in Forest for example are another type of Nothing. Tanks can freely move through them and bullets pass without any interference. Unlike bullets however, foliage doesn't interact with Somethings such as tanks; it only has visual characteristics. Although, in theory, the foliage could be programmed to interact with Somethings and stop them from moving through.

 

However, none of the 'Nothings' listed here can actually interact with one another. This means that bullets must always freely pass through foliage, because Nothing cannot interact with another form of Nothing.

 

Drop boxes

Moving on to the next form of Nothing - drop boxes. Ever wondered why a gold box doesn't crush a tank? I mean, it weighs practically 12 tonnes based on the volume and density of crystals inside it. But the reason is actually quite simple... it actually doesn't weigh anything at all, it has no mass. It's a Nothing. All drop boxes are, this is why they go through tanks yet can still interact with them. They're effectively Nothings that interact with Somethings.

 

Flags, capture points and mines

In practical gameplay, Nothings do most of the interaction. Along with the previously mentioned bullets - flags, capture points and mines are also Nothings. Capture points are simple, they're visual Nothings that can interact with Somethings limited by range. Flags also interact with Somethings (tanks), but this interaction can be manually stopped by dropping the flag, showing that Nothings can change their interaction with Somethings. Similar thing happens with mines; as a Nothing, teammates can go over them and mines don't interact with them, but once an opponent gets within a certain range they interact.

 

 

This also explains the 'DM mine glitch' in CTF games, where a planted mine is strangely green in colour. Mines are Nothings with visual properties, and when the glitch takes place, the mine has simply taken on the wrong visual properties likely due to bugs in the game programming. Also, just like all other Nothings, flags and mines cannot interact with each other, which is why you can put multiple mines one on top of the other.
 

 

Ghost tanks

Tanks can also become Nothings under certain conditions. For example if a tank is re-spawning, it's essentially Nothing. It has no matter or mass whatsoever and follows all the rules that other Nothings do, it can move through some Somethings (tank) but cannot go through other ones (fences, buildings). It also cannot interact with other Nothings, which is why a "ghost" tank cannot pick up supply boxes, why bullets and mines don't damage it, why it can't pick up a flag or why it doesn't self destruct if it falls off a map in situations of lag.

Also, if you're lagging out, your tank takes on the properties of a ghost tank (i.e. it loses its matter and becomes a Nothing) whilst still looking like a normal tank, which explains why lagging people cannot pick up supply boxes just like "ghost" tanks, or why they can't deal damage. The interaction between Nothings and Somethings is what makes the entire game work.

 

 

The Natural Laws of Tanki

Finally, after over 3 hours of solid discussion and research and some ground-breaking discoveries, we concluded the following Laws of Tanki are applicable to the entire Tankiverse. Enjoy!

 

Somethings and Nothings
Somethings are objects in Tanki which are made out of matter and have mass. Nothings are objects in the game which have no matter or mass whatsoever. However, they can be programmed to have certain properties and characteristics.

 

(Hint: understanding this law is crucial to understanding a lot of the previous section!)

 

Interaction between Somethings

The interaction between Somethings must always happen.

For example, a tank will always interact with a wall or a bridge. This also applies to anti-matter interacting with matter via gravity. 

 

Interaction between Nothings and Somethings

Nothings can either interact or not interact with Somethings based on its programmed characteristics.

Bullets, for example, interact with tanks (Somethings) - whilst the foliage doesn't.

 

Interaction between Nothings

Nothings can never interact with other Nothings.

 

This is why a lagging tank simply passes through supply boxes without collecting them, or why you can place multiple mines on the same space.

 

The Manipulation of Nothings

We've stated that Nothings can be given certain properties and characteristics and we've given some examples, but we haven't summarised all of them. So, here's a summary of the four different properties Nothings can be programmed to have in the Tankiverse:

- Appearance: The developers can give Nothings visible characteristics.
- Sound: The developers can Nothings audible characteristics.
- Interaction with something: The developers can allow Nothings to interact with solid objects and tanks.
- Range: The developers can change the above properties over range, and limit their maximum range of effect. For example, the devs have programmed Railgun to sound quieter from further away, and players can't capture control points if they're too far away. 

 

However, sometimes the range of a CP can be increased far beyond its normal property. It's a glitch, yes, but consistent with Tanki's reality. Most likely as a result of lag, this CP failed to stop interacting with the player below even when beyond its range:

 

 

Which leads perfectly into the final section of this article...

 

Testing the theory
In the end, we decided to test out the laws on slightly odd events. Applying the laws to certain bugs and glitches in Tanki, we observed that they consistently conform to what we predicted.

 

Problems and their Solutions

Here, we apply Tanki's laws to extreme situations to see if they can help us explain things in a naturalistic way. In every instance, the strange and confusing events actually made sense when our laws were applied. All of these glitches still follow the laws. Even though it seems like they're inconsistent with them, on closer inspection we find that they fit perfectly with what we've discovered.

 

 

The classic Skybox glitch is simply nothing taking on a different visual, probably due to a failure of the normal visual to load properly. As strange as it may seem, it can be naturally explained in the Tankiverse.

 

 

 

This visual glitch can also happen with Somethings, such as the ground and walls. But how can something become invisible? It's obvious when we remember that light in Tanki doesn't function like our own. Applying the interaction between Nothings and Somethings, we conclude that light doesn't have to interact with Something in order to be viewed by a player, unlike in the real world where light must interact with every object it touches.

 

This is how Somethings can become invisible or change their visual properties - if their visuals fail to load properly, light in Tanki ignores the object. The Tankiverse must be a fun place to live in, huh?

 

 

 

Another example of something becoming invisible using the above method.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnkXshez07I

Here we see what happens when two Nothings collide. The current in-game turrets have recently been updated to interact with bullets, and so are now likely Nothings surrounded by an invisible layer of matter - in other words, turrets now consist of an invisible Something created around a Nothing with the turret visual. However, Hammer at the time was a Nothing without anything surrounding it, which is why it couldn't interact with Vulcan's bullets.

 

---

This is where you, the readers, come in. We challenge you to ask any questions you have about the game's workings which seem unanswerable. First try to answer them yourself using these laws. However, if you don't think it can be done, pose the questions you have to us and feel free to try to disprove what we observed in the process - maybe find a way to improve upon it.

 

Remember that basic observation might not always give you all the answers, and you will have to think outside of the box to figure everything out around you. After all, the Tankiverse is Nothing like our world.

 

Edited August 14, 2015 by Shedinja

[viduranga-x 305]

what is this image is this part of article?

http://s21.postimg.org/szfvchphz/Thank_You_For_Finding_Me.png

[GoldRock 6,165]

An amusing excerpt from our discussion whilst developing this article...

 

 

 

 

The mindreading skills though xD

[Scientist 4,224]

Nothings can never interact with other Nothings.

Wise words to live by :wub:

[kostas604 106]

What about thunder's bullets? They are nothings but when they interact with something they become a temporary something that affect every something in it's range.

[GoldRock 6,165]

What about thunder's bullets? They are nothings but when they interact with something they become a temporary something that affect every something in it's range.

Glad to see that at least one reader's grasped the stuff we came up with xD

 

Well, the answer to that dilemma is that upon impact, the Thunder shot actually remains a Nothing. It's just that its range of interaction with Somethings is programmed in to be greater than 0, unlike other shots such as a Railgun shot which only interacts with the Something it hits directly. This allows the Thunder shot to interact with and damage multiple tanks.

 

How do we know the Thunder shot's still a Nothing upon impact? Because you can actually drive your tank through the explosion without physically colliding with or being stopped by it, like Nothings such as drop boxes/foliage and unlike what would happen if you drove into Something with solid matter such as a wall. So whilst both Somethings and Nothings can interact with your tank, Nothings don't act as physical barriers since they don't have any matter whereas Somethings do.

[buddersword 26]

Is a Railgun Shot something or nothing because it sometimes get through your teamates without doing anything to them and sometimes stoping or pushing them , ( I know how the shot goes through them , and how it stops or pushes them e.g. How it's used in parkour, . So my " sometimes " is for an example ) I want to know why it behaves like that ?

Edited August 14, 2015 by buddersword

[GHOST68INVINCIBLE 152]

Well done Einsteins :D.Also can somethings react with other simethings?

[r_Your-Daddy3 605]

You made my physics !

[fahim_the_boss 1,519]

Woah!! :o

[Penguin40 1,714]

Nice. (Good thing you guys didn't steal my article about how would Tanki work in real life. It's upcoming anyhow. Don't steal it now!)

[Lankbouv 6,347]

TL;DR

 

TB;DR

[muhammad-raafay 3]

I can't understand some of it

Still interesting ;-)

[E.Leclerc 1,887]

Very interesting to read!  :)

[Real_Uchiha_Sasuke 189]

So firing of freeze is something but at max range its nthing?

Bcz those fire practicaly hit you but doesnt damage you

[Real_Uchiha_Sasuke 189]

Is a Railgun Shot something or nothing because it sometimes get through your teamates without doing anything to them and sometimes stoping or pushing them , ( I know how the shot goes through them , and how it stops or pushes them e.g. How it's used in parkour, . So my " sometimes " is for an example ) I want to know why it behaves like that ?

In a CTF i will say it like that

My friends / teammate are nothing agaisnt my shots but others are something.

An eg would be

Consider water flowing through a  smooth surface ( fire flowing through from an area where nthing is in its way ) and suddenly it starts flowing through a rought surface ( which are ur teammates ) and finally its hits a wall ( that is your opp. ) 

Means your opp. are walls which u have to hit and Your teammates are leaves which are moved from your fire ( thats why u can miss when your team railgunner fire moves through  you to hit you ) B)

[ll.DonT.Even.Try.ll 513]

So you mean... Tanki is made of Nothing?

[Barra 1,445]

Wow guys this is awesome... you gave so much effort for this.

[momy950666 960]

nice

[anshi_bringitup 16]

Being a student of science and avid reader and a Tank Online Lover I loved this topic a lot.

Nice work guys I except more from now ;)

.

+I haven't played tankib for 3 weeks since I love studying and I have no time whatsoever. :) ENJOY

[Indra_Otsutsuki 329]

Somethings and Nothing...halarious :lol:

[AN_602 280]

Amazing work- just the kind of posts that i like. Thumbs up!  ^_^ It reminds me of one time when i used Firebird, but the images of its lame did not work, and the flame was made essentially of a chain of spinning placeholder rectangles. It seemed like it was due to a loading error, and it seems to be just like the visual glitches that you've described above.

 

Once again, well done for the excellent research! :)

[7919zola 252]

Phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal! 

 

The two of you deserve to earn a Nobel Prize in Physics for your irrefutable research and investigation into TO mechanics. I'll try to put in a good word for your article with my colleagues in the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.  ;)

 

Cheers! 

[Baby_Sam 614]

Based on your analysis that there is no friction, we have to assume that tanks move as if in space. So when two tanks try to push each other face to face, the one with the higher weight (read mass) * acceleration (power) wins even if it has very light weight.

 

In real life, if a tank is very light, a bigger tank can push it regardless of the power of the two tanks because the light tank can't gather enough lateral force to push the bigger tank.

 

Is that right?

[GoldRock 6,165]

Thanks for the feedback! On holiday at the moment, but Fen's a noob and thinks that all answers are provided in the article and that you guys should have read it properly despite the fact we encouraged questions at the end (rolls eyes) As a result, I'll answer all of the ones posed in brief myself.

 

Is a Railgun Shot something or nothing because it sometimes get through your teamates without doing anything to them and sometimes stoping or pushing them , ( I know how the shot goes through them , and how it stops or pushes them e.g. How it's used in parkour, . So my " sometimes " is for an example ) I want to know why it behaves like that ?

 

A Railgun shot is always a Nothing, it just interacts with different Somethings (e.g. tanks) in different ways. So in your scenario, sometimes Railgun shots go right through both teammates and opponents without having any effect because they fail to interact with the tanks, often due to a badly-aimed shot or one made at an awkward angle. When they do interact, they have an impact effect on both teammates and opponents, but are only programmed to damage opponents - unless Friendly Fire is on, but even then it's still harder to damage teammates due to the auto-aim mechanism only applying to opponents.

 

Also can somethings react with other simethings?

Yes, they definitely can. In fact, Somethings must always interact with other Somethings since both have matter, and so basically can't avoid some sort of collision interaction if they touch.

 

So firing of freeze is something but at max range its nthing?

Bcz those fire practicaly hit you but doesnt damage you

Like all other shots, the Freeze fire is a Nothing with no matter, which is able to interact with Somethings such as tanks. What's programmed in for weapons like Firebird and Freeze is a 'range' parameter, which reduces the interaction of the weapons with tanks over distance (see 'The Manipulation of Nothings' section).

 

So you mean... Tanki is made of Nothing?

Yep, whilst some of the game is made out of stuff, a lot of features in the game are made out of nothing whatsoever. Weird but interesting xD

 

Based on your analysis that there is no friction, we have to assume that tanks move as if in space. So when two tanks try to push each other face to face, the one with the higher weight (read mass) * acceleration (power) wins even if it has very light weight.

 

In real life, if a tank is very light, a bigger tank can push it regardless of the power of the two tanks because the light tank can't gather enough lateral force to push the bigger tank.

 

Is that right?

As for the first part I highlighted, technically the tanks don't quite move as if in space because a form of gravity with effects similar to that on Earth still applies in Tanki, although I get why you made that comparison. Also, I think the second highlighted bit would more accurately say 'lateral force' as you later put it rather than 'weight', although Fen's the equation expert. Apart from those minor technicalities, what you've said is spot on, that's a well-made point there.

Edited August 22, 2015 by GoldRock