Physics objects working before you save, but not after? | Forums

[rlmergeuser]

Hey guys.

I was doing work on a new track that was pretty concept and I just had a lot of physics stuff at the start.

You were flipper'd onto a vertical ramp that had a force rotation that would rotate it to the horizontal position while you rode up it.

Then there was a bunch of other stuff, but after I saved and didn't work on the track for a while, I came back to it today and now the force rotation doesn't have enough torque to lift the ramp and the rider. Once I fall off because it is too steep without the force rotation, it springs into action as it used to.

Has this happened to anyone else before and how did you fix it?

[jook13]

I had a lot of issues with force rotational hinge and too much weight. I had the thing working perfectly, did a bunch of stuff later on in the track. After adding more objects later on in the level, it made the first rotational hinge wig out. I couldnt get it to work out properly because everytime I added an object somewhere else, it would slightly affect this contraption I made. I just deleated that section of level and built something simpler and more fun to ride.

[rlmergeuser]

everything you add seems to alter the properties of everything else (physics) in the level. things that work 99% of the time get jacked up when you drop a couple more objects somewhere, that's just another anomaly of the editor. keep building the rest of the track and do all the adjustments and fine tuning @ the end when everything is mostly set. any time you alter something anywhere in a level, be prepared to go through the same hours you put into a physics build to get it working properly again.

[Euphoric Fusion]

I had this with my Retail Therapy track. There were only 2 physics related objects on the track.
One was right at the start. It used a force rotation hinge and worked perfectly until I added another physics object as the fatality at the end.
It took and age of going back and forth tweaking them both to get them to work ok but it still never ended up perfect.
I remember saying something to Sebbbi at the time but can't remember what his response was.

[rlmergeuser]

This is a *****, i found that your physics object at the start will stay the exact same once you dont glue anything together, or have physics enabled on anything, or use any effects for the rest of the track which is abit unrealistic so like the lads said your better off waiting until your track is finished to tweak it. You almost have to go through a process of saving the track with the physics object not actually working properly in the editor and saving it a 100 times moving it slightly to see if it works properly when you play the track out of the editor.

[rlmergeuser]

When you load up the game check the in game camera angle. If it can see a physics obstacle in the background to the right it will be thinking about that aswell. My best advice is to make sure every major physics obstacle i.e stuff that has force rotation and triggered stuff is completely within the sight of the game camera (not custom camera) and any other similar physics section is not seen.

checkpoints can also play a part in the way physics work, as physics obstacles can work fine until you fault then try from a checkpoint nearby. Place your checkpoint as close to the physics obstacle as you can to reduce these weird occurences.

basically in a nut shell the more stuff you add in a level the more the game camera sees. For instance you have room complexity nearly full in one section, the game camera sees this but because it is angled it also sees part of the next section which you have max complexity in. Either moving things along or reducing obstacles around a physics section will get the best results. If you look at some of ironwarlords obstacles the major ones have very little deco around them and they are spaced apart.

oh and obstacles that have physics on all the time and are not triggered are the most stable as they will work as soon as the game camera gets near, which for trials works well as you need to interact with it using the riders weight to push the obstacle. We can generally predict how something will fall or move but there are so many factors when it comes to physics, that it becomes a grab a beer and trial and error day.

Final tip: If you are going to make a physics track try to avoid having the whole level completely horizontal. Have some areas that go up then down otherwise you will have very little luck with physics.
hope this helps

[rlmergeuser]

Thanks a bunch for the tips guys.