physx ragdoll, integrated, but need some player help.

#1 I'm very interested in this as well - If a tutorial or more information can be posted under this topic; it would be greatly appreciated!

#2 Well i think ideally you would abstract that into an interface that is not PhysX specific that Torque's Player class creates and interacts with. Like a PhysicsRagdoll class.

So you would do something like this in Player::onAdd()....

if ( gPhysicsPlugin )
  mRagdoll = gPhysicsPlugin->createRagdoll( thePlayer );

The ragdoll would probably be created, but left disabled until needed.

The Player could would then wait till its time to ragdoll (death i would think), pass its transforms and velocity down to the PhysicsRagdoll object so it can set it all into motion.

if ( mRagdoll )
{
   mShapeInstance->animate();
   mRagdoll->toss( mShapeInstance, mVelocity );
}

Then down in rendering...

if ( mRagdoll && mRagdoll->isEnabled() )
   mRagdoll->getTransforms( mShapeInstance, mVelocity );
else
   mShapeInstance->animate();

With an abstraction like that you should be able to implement a Bullet or ODE or Havok physics implementation without changing a line of stock T3D code.

Now the tricky bit.

You should only create the ragdoll on the server in single player modes or only on the client in release. It should never be both on the client and server as there is no good way to syncronize them.

Physics and networking is hard... impossibly hard.

#3 Tom, thanks for the explaination,
though since GMK came out, I havent messed much more with it.
if anyone wants to try get it working properly, let me know and I'll upload the files.
its basicaly the physx sdk ragdoll, that I managed to compile within T3D without any errors.
oh, I've also got a solution for attaching the new pxCloth onto shapes, someone want to test it out?

#4 I do DeepScratch!

#5 ok,
I give this in the hope that someone with more coding skills than me can get this in, and working, into T3D.
just PLEASE post back and share how, and any fixes as to the how

pxRagdoll

its a straight drop in

#6 I was dwelling in the internals of the animation system recently (retrieving node positions from specific sequences at specific times), so I might be able to take a look at this during the weekend.

If the pxRagdoll handles itself, I can add the abstraction Tom suggested and write the code to retrieve/update the shape instance joint transforms.

#7 deepscratch, "I've also got a solution for attaching the new pxCloth onto shapes, someone want to test it out?"

I would like to see how you got the pxCloth to attatch because i am trying to do the same thing but with softBody