Floodnik wrote:
What about a base vehicle which you could build bricks on so they will drive together with the base? Is it hard to make?


With the default Torque physics engine it would be disappointing.

You guys have an engine license as far as I know, you could just replace the physics engine.
They've already made improvements on it, though I'm sure they could implement Bullet or PhysX if they really wanted to.
Brick Physics would have to be done on a client side basis to avoid lag, so they wouldn't be true physics. Although, we are looking to implement something like that.
Brick physics would be nice but I would prioritize reliable vehicle physics over it.

Unless you want to pull a second life and have rotating bricks in physics power vehicles.
DShiznit wrote:
They've already made improvements on it, though I'm sure they could implement Bullet or PhysX if they really wanted to.


These unfortunately are NOT network friendly libraries. We've identified an algorithm which we think could improve collision handling significantly (which is where the real issues are), but the math for it is a little over my head at this point. I've asked Kerm to read the paper when he gets a chance and we'll evaluate it from there.

I fully plan on exposing the RigidShape class for making physics objects but I don't plan on doing ALL brick physics.
gah, no multicore support, no phyx support, what's the point of having a modern machine
If you're going to do physics, do it right. Physics, by definition, is the transfer of energy between objects. If energy can't be transferred beyond bricks, it isn't physics.
DShiznit wrote:
If you're going to do physics, do it right. Physics, by definition, is the transfer of energy between objects. If energy can't be transferred beyond bricks, it isn't physics.


actually, by definition, it's the study of the physical world. Wink but I'm not going to quibble.

Ben Garney has done a fair job of describing how he implemented the brick physics for Blockland Retail. I have no interest in trying to recreate that on my hobby project, and don't particularly feel like dealing with accusations of theft. If someone else buys an engine license and is a competent enough coder to implement something like that in their spare time, then I'd probably be happy to have it, but I'm more interested in putting effort where it counts. Being able to build without lag from a huge parts library, script extensibility, and a fun vehicle system (buildable, more accurate physics, and trailer hitches) are the areas where I am interested in putting time and effort into the engine. If I get those working perfectly I might be more inclined to play with flashy special effects (today my dad suggested an option for rendering for red/green 3d glasses in game), but until then, those are the areas I'm going to be focused on.

[edit]
To be clear, I will do my best to make rigidshapes script friendly and get them using the same physics code as vehicles, but I'm not making the entire brick system do that, or there won't be any possibility of a lag fix.
They would only need to become rigidshapes on death, which would occur if enough force is applied to knock it loose as well...
I suggest implementing only collision detection from Bullet. Have it run only serverside and it should be fine on a modern connection.
  
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