translated from a Dutch article 31 mei 2012. http://tweakers.net/...ics-engine.html
The starting developer studio BeamNG has a physics engine in development that promises to be different than other engines. De engine simulates on micro level, where normal engines use macro level.
The softbody engine from BeamNG, who is currently being used for simmulating gravity with vehicles, was announced monday. The cry engine is used because of its C++ api. Although the engine has been tested with the Cry engine, there is (for now) no agreement on working together with Crytek.
"A car is normally being simulated as a whole, that also moves and rotates as a whole object". These engines are not suited for realistic impact behaviour and friction that occurs when wheels touch the ground. This is allways faked(Burnout paradise, GTA etc). The beamNG engine handles every part of the car separately. The system uses an optimized and subtle version of what car industries use to test out car crashes.
Another advantage of this technique is that you do not need to have a separate simmulation for every car. Using the beam engine, the design of the car also determines its behaviour. So if somebody would design a car or a plane, then it will also act as a plane or car.