Character Controller

[PJani]

few years ago i was testing recursion speed with fibonachi numbers on linux and windows. Linux 64bit was faster than 32bit and windows for some reason.

I think linux kernel is optimised for such heavy operations. Maybe newton would run faster on Windows Server versions, but this is just hintch.

If 32bit executes on 64bit processor, processor needs to switch to 32bit mode. Maybe on native 32bit processor would newton preform faster on 32bit os.

[LukasBanana]

So, now I can compile my programs using the JointLibrary.
But for now I'm trying to understand how to use the CustomPlayerController class.
I could not found any tutorial where the functions are explained.

I copied a small code from the NewtonDemo:

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dMatrix Mat(GetIdentityMatrix());

Mat.m_front = dVector (0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f);        // up direction in global Space
Mat.m_up    = dVector (1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f);        // front direction in global Space
Mat.m_right = Mat.m_front * Mat.m_up;  // strafing direction in global Space

PlayerController = new CustomPlayerController(Mat, figure->Body, 0.7f / 1.9f, 1.0f / 64.0f);


But my player just lies on the floor. Do I only have to use the SetVelocity function for the playercontroller?
"PlayerController->SetVelocity(left/right, up/down etc.)"

[LukasBanana]

Additional question:
Is it possible to set the PlayerController's UpVector so, that your player can walk around a planet (like in SuperMarioGalaxy )
So when the player is at the top of the sphere the playercontroller's upvector is (0, 1, 0) and when he is at the bottom it is (0, -1, 0)

Currently the playercontroller on how I implemented it looks very strange. An the player lies on the bottom, so the upvector must be wrong but I tried some combinations of the matrix / up, right, side vectors.

Can anyone tell me how to set the upvector correct?

Here is a small code part:

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    dMatrix Mat(GetIdentityMatrix());
   
    Mat.m_front = dVector (0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f); // up direction in global Space
    Mat.m_up    = dVector (0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f); // front direction in global Space
    Mat.m_right = dVector (1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f); // strafing direction in global Space
   
    PlayerController = new CustomPlayerController(Mat, figure->Body, 0.7f / 1.9f, 1.0f / 64.0f);
   
    PlayerController->SetMaxSlope(30.0f * 3.1416f / 180.0f);


And what does the "SetMaxSlope" function do?

[Julio Jerez]

All of that is posible, but you need to get it running on a terrain with a fix vertical gravity first.

did you get it running by setting the velocity?
if not, can you post a picture of how it looks? a youtube video would be better.

[LukasBanana]

I made a small video (AVI movie in ZIP file)
(Video is made very bad but I was just using a Java programm to capture the screen.)
In the short video I am using the arrow keys to move the capsule.
You'll see how the translation of this object looks strange.

Here is the download link:
http://www.hlc-games.de/projects/softpixelengine/movie.zip

[Julio Jerez]

Oh I see, you are making the player rigid body using a capsule alignetd to the default oreintation which in newton is the x axis.
if you look at function
NewtonBody* CreatePlayBody (NewtonWorld* world, SceneManager* scene, dFloat mass, const dMatrix& srcMatrix, const dVector& size, int matrixlId);
from the SDK demos, you can see that the capsule is rotated by 90 degree around the z axis

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...
...
   // create the collision
   dMatrix location (dRollMatrix(-3.1416f * 0.5f));
   collision = NewtonCreateCapsule (world, size.m_y, size.m_x, 0, &location[0][0]);

try that, see if it makes it better

[LukasBanana]

Ok, now it looks much better. But how can I configure the height for that when the player automatically go upper.
I know it is used for stairs but currenlty in my program the player jumps up of a cube which is a little bit to height.

[Julio Jerez]

when to create the player joint, it has parameter to set the stair high and the max ram it can climb. in function
MyPlayerController (const dMatrix& globalFrame, NewtonBody* player, dFloat stairStepFactor, dFloat cushion)

stairStepFactor is a fration of teh size of eth collision shape,

if for example the capsule high is 1.8 meter, and you make wnat the star step to be say 0.3 meter you can set
stairStepFactor = desired step / play hight = 0.3 / 1.8

if you implement the debug display for the player joint you will see how the collision shapes are set.
look in the SDK demo Character controller so you can see hwo it is implemented, it is basically rendin the collision shapes the joint uses for operation.
you sodul eb abou to extrat what you nee to make it work in you game.

[LukasBanana]

Ah ok, I can see two shapes and I think I found the functions:

GetStairStepShape and GetSensorShape

Do I only have to transform these NewtonCollision objects to the size I want?