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Stick figure

Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2007 2:21 pm
by The_Fallen
Hi,

I'm currently thinking about a way to simulate a user controlled stick figure using Chipmunk.

My thoughts so far:
For normal actions like running and jumping I'd simulate it just as a box and play some standard animations. Whenever there is a collision, I'd change to a more detailed description of the stick figure (5 lines and a circle), more or less a simple rag doll system. There should also be a possibility to hold fast to another object, e.g. a spinning wheel. In that case I'd also switch to the rag doll, but with a joint to the other object. After landing on a surface an interpolated movement back to the standard animation should be implemented quite easily.

What do you think about that? I'd to use the detailed description of the stick figure with 5 lines and 1 circle all the time, but that's not really stable, it would collapse all the time.

Cheers

Re: Stick figure

Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 1:43 pm
by slembcke
I think that is the usual way of doing things. That seems to be how N does it. http://www.harveycartel.org/metanet/n.html

I agree that using simple collision shapes normally is a good idea. All the games that I've tried that try to control the character using complicated jointed bodies were very hard to control.

The tricky part is going to be transitioning back to the canned animations. I fiddled around with something similar a couple years ago and didn't really have much luck. Though I was trying to blend the physics and animation together, not switch between them. I suppose just try to keep it as simple as possible.

If you have any luck, let me know. Sounds cool.