4 HN users recommended this demo4 months2023–2025score 4.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
HN points to it as a standout example of physics-based sound synthesis and engine simulation.
AngeTheGreat describes building a physically realistic internal combustion engine simulator in C++, drawing on fluid dynamics, physics and chemistry. It generates procedural audio for engines such as a V8.
“AngeTheGreat's incredible video series showing his engine simulator- absolutely worth checking out” (HN, 2025)
> Interestingly, while the engine has the most moving parts in real life, in code, it's the simplest piece of the entire car simulation. Because at its core, the engine is just a torque calculator. It's concerned with producing a single output: rotational torque, from a set of inputs. It is essentially a blackbox. This just reminded me of AngeTheGreat's incredible video series showing his engine simulator- absolutely worth checking out, considering it's optimized enough to run in real-time! The fact that he's simulating it well enough to generate realistic sound is absolutely mind-blowing. [this video]
Or combine it with that engine noise generator that uses a full physical simulation: [this video] That would be pretty sweet! I’m guessing with the ECU sensors you could do away with much of the sim parts.
Full physical engine simulation that generates engine noise
You might find this software interesting: [this video] I don't know if any of the state of the art flight/driving simulators are doing this kind of engine noise synthesis already, but they should be.
Love physics based audio! Using the GPU is a great idea. Another physical audio simulation I like is the engine sound simulator made by AngeTheGreat: [this video]
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