betajaen
26-03-2006 14:47:13
http://www.gametrailers.com/gamepage.php?id=2510
Above is a link to a lovely trailer about the game "CellFactor" released for the PC and XBox 360 next year, upon many things it uses the famous physics library we all know and love - PhysX
Kudos to the developers, it looks really nice and I'll probably get it when it comes out, but as a developer or a PhysX developer I wanted comment about it.
I've gone through the trailer a few times now, and I'm pretty certain with enough time and patience it can be replicated using Ogre and NxOgre.
I'll only go through the Physics parts as I'm not qualified or knowledgeable enough to talk about the other bits such as the shader effects.
So here we go, from start to finish:-
Breakable boxes
First few seconds two players fire-fight across bunch of cardboard boxes, the boxes move around and some break apart. It's just a few bodies (say cubeShapes with thin dimensions for each side), and joined together with a breakable hinge joint. There is probably some callbacks in there to monitor the amount of torque and force being applied to those joints if it exceeds some amounts, the joint or the entire box breaks.
Uses: Bodies, cubesShape's, Breakable hinge or fixed joints
Sudden surge of intense gravity in the middle of the scene. Like a lethal Katamari.
This is shown about 10 seconds afterwards, in the distance of the fire fight, about 20-30 cynlinders start to move towards a point above the ground. Then clump together. It's just forces, gravity may be reduced or turned off for them to move better.
A spherical trigger may be used, with encompasses the entire scene, things closer to the centre move quicker where as things far away are ignored.
Uses: Forces, Triggers.
The explosion shortly afterwards
Probably a spherical trigger (probably the same one) which applies forces outwards.
The slow-mo effect is just calling PhysX scene updates less and less.
Uses: Forces, Triggers.
Players jumping
Easy, the character controller, or their own character system. Either with a box or a capsule which is set to stay upright.
Uses: Character controller or a custom body.
Player falls to the ground when dies
Easy, ragdolls. Every physics engine does them now.
Uses: Bodies, Joints or the Ragdoll class.
Bullet traces
Either ray tracing and appling a force to each body it hits, or a short-term fast moving body.
Use: Raytracing or Bodies.
Players hand moving things like a gravity gun or causing him to jump
Just forces again, player jumping with the hand is just a super jump.
Uses: Character Controller and Forces.
Flying vehicles in the scene
Just a collection of bodies that ignore gravity. Forces are used to move it.
Uses: Bodies or the upcoming levitator prefab class.
Grenades the a missile explosion
Probably short term triggers to cause the explosions. The grenade is just another body.
Uses: Bodies or the upcoming exploder prefab class
Buggy with gun
Just a vehicle, probably uses the NxWheelShape or if the wheels can break off; motor joints and spheres/cylinders.
Uses: Vehicle Prefab or motor joints and spheres.
The rest is just eye candy and more related to Ogre which I can't comment on to well, but I'm pretty sure Ogre can do that with a little help from shaders.
Anyway, after seeing that demo I'm looking forward to this game and hopefully it should bring some more interest to Aegia and the PhysX PPU card.
Above is a link to a lovely trailer about the game "CellFactor" released for the PC and XBox 360 next year, upon many things it uses the famous physics library we all know and love - PhysX
Kudos to the developers, it looks really nice and I'll probably get it when it comes out, but as a developer or a PhysX developer I wanted comment about it.
I've gone through the trailer a few times now, and I'm pretty certain with enough time and patience it can be replicated using Ogre and NxOgre.
I'll only go through the Physics parts as I'm not qualified or knowledgeable enough to talk about the other bits such as the shader effects.
So here we go, from start to finish:-
Breakable boxes
First few seconds two players fire-fight across bunch of cardboard boxes, the boxes move around and some break apart. It's just a few bodies (say cubeShapes with thin dimensions for each side), and joined together with a breakable hinge joint. There is probably some callbacks in there to monitor the amount of torque and force being applied to those joints if it exceeds some amounts, the joint or the entire box breaks.
Uses: Bodies, cubesShape's, Breakable hinge or fixed joints
Sudden surge of intense gravity in the middle of the scene. Like a lethal Katamari.
This is shown about 10 seconds afterwards, in the distance of the fire fight, about 20-30 cynlinders start to move towards a point above the ground. Then clump together. It's just forces, gravity may be reduced or turned off for them to move better.
A spherical trigger may be used, with encompasses the entire scene, things closer to the centre move quicker where as things far away are ignored.
Uses: Forces, Triggers.
The explosion shortly afterwards
Probably a spherical trigger (probably the same one) which applies forces outwards.
The slow-mo effect is just calling PhysX scene updates less and less.
Uses: Forces, Triggers.
Players jumping
Easy, the character controller, or their own character system. Either with a box or a capsule which is set to stay upright.
Uses: Character controller or a custom body.
Player falls to the ground when dies
Easy, ragdolls. Every physics engine does them now.
Uses: Bodies, Joints or the Ragdoll class.
Bullet traces
Either ray tracing and appling a force to each body it hits, or a short-term fast moving body.
Use: Raytracing or Bodies.
Players hand moving things like a gravity gun or causing him to jump
Just forces again, player jumping with the hand is just a super jump.
Uses: Character Controller and Forces.
Flying vehicles in the scene
Just a collection of bodies that ignore gravity. Forces are used to move it.
Uses: Bodies or the upcoming levitator prefab class.
Grenades the a missile explosion
Probably short term triggers to cause the explosions. The grenade is just another body.
Uses: Bodies or the upcoming exploder prefab class
Buggy with gun
Just a vehicle, probably uses the NxWheelShape or if the wheels can break off; motor joints and spheres/cylinders.
Uses: Vehicle Prefab or motor joints and spheres.
The rest is just eye candy and more related to Ogre which I can't comment on to well, but I'm pretty sure Ogre can do that with a little help from shaders.
Anyway, after seeing that demo I'm looking forward to this game and hopefully it should bring some more interest to Aegia and the PhysX PPU card.