Newbie questions

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Discordia
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Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2008 9:30 pm

Newbie questions

Post by Discordia »

Hey All

I have a couple of questions regarding Bullet and Physics simulation in games.

1. When you simulate characters as rag-dolls, how does that integrate with keyframe animation or Skeletal animation? How do you simulate balance, walking, jumping?

2. Can you register callbacks that are triggered when a certain object collides with another, to do custom collision response, like say deform a mesh or something? I didn't find anything on this in the user manual, or did I miss it?

Thanks

Discordia
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Erwin Coumans
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Re: Newbie questions

Post by Erwin Coumans »

Discordia wrote:Hey All

I have a couple of questions regarding Bullet and Physics simulation in games.

1. When you simulate characters as rag-dolls, how does that integrate with keyframe animation or Skeletal animation? How do you simulate balance, walking, jumping?
This is not an easy newbie topic. Some basic methods rely on blending between rigid body and animation. More complicated methods use PD controllers or dynamic control using motors. Balancing using ragdolls etc is a research topic. Instead, most games use a single capsule or other simplified shape that encloses the ragdoll/character to perform walking, jumping etc.
2. Can you register callbacks that are triggered when a certain object collides with another, to do custom collision response, like say deform a mesh or something? I didn't find anything on this in the user manual, or did I miss it?
There are various methods, and a tutorial/demo will be added in upcoming Bullet versions. One method is traversing all contact points after the simulation step, see CollisionInterfaceDemo.

Hope this helps,
Erwin
Discordia
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2008 9:30 pm

Re: Newbie questions

Post by Discordia »

Erwin Coumans wrote:
Discordia wrote:Hey All

I have a couple of questions regarding Bullet and Physics simulation in games.

1. When you simulate characters as rag-dolls, how does that integrate with keyframe animation or Skeletal animation? How do you simulate balance, walking, jumping?
This is not an easy newbie topic. Some basic methods rely on blending between rigid body and animation. More complicated methods use PD controllers or dynamic control using motors. Balancing using ragdolls etc is a research topic. Instead, most games use a single capsule or other simplified shape that encloses the ragdoll/character to perform walking, jumping etc.
Thats basically what I had guessed, thanks.
Erwin Coumans wrote: Hope this helps,
Erwin
It does, thanks.

Discordia
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