Getting started

Skidpad is a TypeScript package backed by a WebAssembly core. You never need a Rust toolchain to use it.

Install

Install @skidpad/core and, for reference vehicles, @skidpad/presets. If your bundler has trouble serving the separate .wasm file, import from @skidpad/core/compat instead; it inlines the module.

Drive a car in Node

1. Call init() once and keep the result.
2. Create a world with room for the vehicles you need.
3. Add a vehicle from a preset or your own definition. Partial definitions are fine; missing fields take the core defaults.
4. Each frame, write the input and call step(dt) with your host step.
5. Read telemetry by channel name.

The repository's examples/headless-node folder has the complete script; it is under twenty lines.

Drive a car in a Three.js or R3F scene

The sandbox in apps/sandbox is the reference integration. The pattern is:

• Keep a fixed 60 Hz accumulator in your frame loop and call step(1/60) for each accumulated step. The core substeps at 1 kHz internally.
• Read PosX, PosY, PosZ and the Quat* channels to place the body, and per wheel WheelSteer_*, SuspTravel_* and SpinAngle_* to place the wheels. The core uses ISO axes (x forward, y left, z up); map them to your renderer's convention once, in one place. The sandbox maps core (x, y, z) to three.js (x, z, −y).
• Feed inputs through @skidpad/input so keyboard, gamepad, and wheel all produce the same normalised frame.
• For sound, EngineRpm, ThrottleEffective and Gear drive the engine note, and per wheel PeakSlip_* (combined slip relative to the tire's peak: above 1 the tire is sliding), WheelContact_* and SurfaceId_* drive squeal and surface noise. TireFmax_* is each tire's friction limit. sp.telemetryLayout lists every channel with its unit, and WHEEL_ORDER the wheel suffixes.

The built-in host integrates the chassis on flat ground. To drive on real geometry, let a Rapier body be the car: see Driving a Rapier body.

Where to go next

• Vehicle definitions: the data format.
• Driving a Rapier body: the host adapter.
• Determinism contract: what is and is not guaranteed.
• Concepts: the physics, with interactive explainers.