Search Unity

  1. Megacity Metro Demo now available. Download now.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Unity support for visionOS is now available. Learn more in our blog post.
    Dismiss Notice

How To Build a Boulder (A La Indiana Jones)

Discussion in 'Getting Started' started by Marcello-Ferrara, Feb 21, 2015.

  1. Marcello-Ferrara

    Marcello-Ferrara

    Joined:
    Jun 19, 2014
    Posts:
    1
    I'm a noob, so I'd thought to ask forum gods if you could provide some assistance.

    My task is simple but difficult (for me): I want to create a sphere that behaves like the boulder from the film Raiders of the Lost Ark. The boulder will roll down a ramp, chasing the player. For a gaming analogue, think of the boulders in Sen's Fortress from Dark Souls.

    Will anyone come to my rescue?
     
  2. Nanako

    Nanako

    Joined:
    Sep 24, 2014
    Posts:
    1,047
    have you tried creating a sphere?
     
  3. bigSadFace

    bigSadFace

    Joined:
    Aug 18, 2014
    Posts:
    116
    Yup + some standard physics with a slope, you should be good to go!
     
  4. Nanako

    Nanako

    Joined:
    Sep 24, 2014
    Posts:
    1,047
    and if you want it to go more slowly, make it heavier, add some friction, and reduce the bounciness
     
  5. hippocoder

    hippocoder

    Digital Ape

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2010
    Posts:
    29,723
    Sens fortress boulders in dark souls are simply objects that have an animation and move along it, for accurate timing and consistency. If this is not an issue, use physics.
     
    Nanako likes this.
  6. Nanako

    Nanako

    Joined:
    Sep 24, 2014
    Posts:
    1,047
    fwiw, i consider this a very lazy method and hate games using it. but then i'm a physics fetishist anyway

    imo, physics is best, sometimes more troublesome to make it work, but more awesome when you do
     
    hippocoder likes this.
  7. hippocoder

    hippocoder

    Digital Ape

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2010
    Posts:
    29,723
    I agree with what you're saying but it's done very frequently in AAA games because having a repeatable result and lighter performance is important, especially if emergent physics aren't desired. For example collapsing structures in uncharted, or god of war series' destruction. Those are light on bandwidth and the player might get otherwise stuck in a place they can't recover from.

    In sens fortress, it's a timed route where you sprint from door to door. While they did use havok for that game, they also needed to animate the ball dropping into the firing mechanism, and the firing mechanism is able to be aimed by the player by pulling a lever. This means that even a deterministic physics engine might be thrown off by other code, ie engine animation code and so forth.

    So in my view, physics that affect gameplay must do so when it won't lead to a situation the player cannot recover from, and if there's sufficient performance available.
     
    Kiwasi, Nanako and Ryiah like this.
  8. orb

    orb

    Joined:
    Nov 24, 2010
    Posts:
    3,037
    You can tell when it's Havok, because everything dead behaves like Chinese hopping vampires.