Mixworld

Dude, Where's My Ball?

Testing went better this weekend, and we're doing another code/test session this weekend, but we have a problem that's plagued us from the beginning that we haven't quite found the proper fix for. In the Unreal Engine, there are really two types of physics: the default engine physics (PHYS_Walking, PHYS_Flying, PHYS_Falling, etc) and Karma. The default engine physics are great for a typical FPS, and Karma adds enough spice to allow you do some cool (simple) rigid body simulations. However, either are not well suited for a golf simulation. We currently use a combination of physics during ball flight to achieve the effect we want. PHYS_Falling is used for the main ball flight and works well, but you can't continue to use it after the ball slows enough to roll. At that point we switch to PHYS_Karma to allow for more accurate rolling. However, Karma does not have collision prediction like the other physics types, and therefore the ball can become lodged in or pass completely through objects if moving too fast. Since we're dealing with a small object (golf ball), we run into this quite frequently. Our attempts and coding checks to see if we've "fallen through" the ground have proven imperfect and sometimes visibly erratic.

If we could fix that problem, our gameplay would be reaching a very solid point.