Getting stuck on flat terrain
by Chris Labombard · in Torque Game Engine · 11/17/2005 (10:27 am) · 6 replies
I've changed my playerdata datablock to allow the player to run at ultra fast speeds. The problem is, the player just comes to a halt as if he hit a tiny wall or something. It happens about every 3 - 5 seconds.
The terrain is entirely flat. I used a set height brush to set it all to 210.
Here are the datablock parts that matter:
Anyone have a clue what's going on here?
The terrain is entirely flat. I used a set height brush to set it all to 210.
Here are the datablock parts that matter:
drag = 0.0; maxdrag = 0.0; runForce = 100 * 90; maxForwardSpeed = 100000; maxBackwardSpeed = 100000; maxSideSpeed = 100000; minImpactSpeed = 100000; horizMaxSpeed = 100000; horizResistSpeed = 100000; horizResistFactor = 0.25;
Anyone have a clue what's going on here?
About the author
I have been a professional game programmer for over 5 years now. I've worked on virtually every platform, dozens of games and released a few of my own games, including 2 iPhone titles and a title waiting release on Big Fish Games.
#2
I think there is some kind of collision being called. Someone, I believe Josh Ritter had insane speeds in MoM and it cause players to trip on the terrain and die sometimes. I have a feeling this is something similair.
It doesn't happen at all if I jump as I run or if I am on non flat terrain.
11/17/2005 (11:52 am)
Kirby - I don't think that's it.I think there is some kind of collision being called. Someone, I believe Josh Ritter had insane speeds in MoM and it cause players to trip on the terrain and die sometimes. I have a feeling this is something similair.
It doesn't happen at all if I jump as I run or if I am on non flat terrain.
#3
11/17/2005 (11:59 am)
It's a long standing bug ever since Tribes era. It's because your collision checking range extends with your speed. I believe there are other threads and possibly something like fixes for this, though I don't have them on hand.
#4
11/18/2005 (8:03 am)
I see something similar on my program. I have a flat terrain and a slow moving character. Every little while I'll see a stutter in the movement as if it's getting stuck on the edge of a quad that is used to draw the terrain. I've just been living with it for my application.
#5
11/18/2005 (5:27 pm)
We are seeing the same behavior in our code, our speeds are not that crazy but sometimes the player just stops. Where does the code extend the collision checking range?
#6
11/18/2005 (7:30 pm)
Yes I was using this in my old game where the charecter used magic to run damn fast. what happens is he hits a bump in the terrain and "stubs his toe" running at those speeds it kills him. you can change the speed damage down but he will still stop I really don't know how to fix that but it should be possible. not: this is all a hypothosis based on studying. It also happens on interiors like roads or bridges actually more frequantly than on terrain. 
Torque Owner Kirby Webber
At that level, I'd wager you're really backlogging the rendering pipeline (changing scenes mroe rapidly than they can get rendered) as well as the netcode and physics.
Try slowing the player waaaaaaaaaaay down and see what happens.
If you really need the illusion of insane speed, you might try finding a suitable performance threshhold and then implementing motion blur or some other screen effects to make it seem faster than it actually is - a physical force value of 100K is just ridiculous IMO.
Again though, that's just a guess.