Elasticity

#1 The base concept behind it is explained in the cloth sim example in Physics for Game Developers. It will get you started in simple soft-body dynamics.

*edit: Fixed screwy link

#2 But would that mean that some sort of physics engine would need to be intergrated into Torque?
I was thinking there might be a way to hard code the behavior. Just like how you can move the terain up and down during edditing, that maybe i could take an object like a trampoline and maybe move it down a little by how fast the charcter is going down on it and by other variables such as weight.
I guess what I'm really asking is: Is there a way to morph the shape of a model while it is in game?
Maybe time it so that it pushes down a little bit and pushed right back up to it original shape.

#3 You could "fake" it by making the trampoline have 3 animation states, small spring, medium spring, and large spring, and pre-render those 3 animations and hard code the resultant effects to fit within those 3 (or 5, or however many) degrees. "Real" physics would give you 100 or 1000 degrees of effect without pre-rendering the animation and effect of each degree, but then you'd have to do some heavier coding up front to make that happen.

#4 Thats a great idea josh. To be honest with you, the way I have it planed out. physics would be a little too much. the bouncing thing is what I was looking for! I need to keep control of the players landing anyway.

#5 Charlie,

Try this code to "fake" elastic physics:


acceleration = 0.75;
targetBounce = 250;
elasticStrength = 0.5;

yMove = yMove * acceleration + (targetBounce - pointOnTrampoline.yPosition) * elasticStrength;

pointOnTrampoline.yPosition += yMove;


It will give you a realistic-looking elastic effect for a point on a trampoline or whatever elastic platform you want to make.

EDIT --

I don't have any experience working with Torque script yet, but maybe someone here can tell you how exactly to implement that code for Torque.