Antic2
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- May 4, 2004
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Hi! Thanks for the great forum and game info guys.
I've been reading through the posts and articles on the Source engine, and have a few more questions to pose to the community and the Valve team, mainly regarding physics capabilities in the game. Also raising a few new ideas and how the game might accommodate them.
1. Simulating Rope
I know the "telephone line" wire in the game is simulated a as special kind of entity, and that the physics engine only handles "rigid" objects, but is it still possible to actually simulate real rope or cable which can be used by the player? For example:
a) Create a rope-type object by attaching lots of small, rigid sections, which can twist together and so collectively behave like a length of rope would? Could the engine handle this?
b) Make rope usable by allowing each end to be able to be "tied" (dynamically temporarily affixed) to any other part of the rope? In this way, you could create a loop, and wrap it around something to secure it.
c) Make rope carry weight? Is it possible, for instance, to attach one end of the rope to something so you can climb down it, swing on it, drag something along behind you, etc?
e) Make rope breakable by, say, shooting at it so that it snaps at the point it is shot (at one of the "break points" which lie in between each section of rope)? Also, if the rope is stressed by tension, can one make it break at a random point (ie. in between two random sections)? This would obviously create two smaller ropes from the one rope - is this possible?
f) Throwing the rope - if you tied one end to something weighty and throwable, could you conceivably throw one end of a rope over something to create a pulley, or have it snag up a wall, so you could climb up it?
2. Inertia + floatation = skiing.
a) Imagine a stretch of water containing a hungry family of Piranha and you have to get across. Could you drop a wooden plank in the water at one end, take a long run up, sprint and jump onto it - and it acquires your momentum and therefore "skis" to the other side? Since Gordon can't fall over in the game, it makes this task pretty tempting to try. Is it possible? Furthermore, is there "drag" between floating objects and the water surface which would quickly slow your ski down, like in real life?
b) Is it possible to create a kind of "rope ferry" using a rope tied to both sides of a river, a raft floating beneath, and the ability to "climb" along the rope to the other side?
b) Leading to the obvious question - if you had rope, a plank and a speed-boat type vehicle... could you have some serious fun?
3. Creative trap-laying and perhaps a new genre of game?
Being able to use rope opens up all sorts of interesting possibilities for laying traps and solving puzzles. With physics featuring more in games, I'd love to see a game which allowed creative (and perverse) thinking to lay traps for monsters and of course other players... the fun factor would be enormous, and would render simply shooting someone a rather boring alternative.
Imagine knocking over a barrel of oil in front a pursuing gang of monsters and watching them slide past you in surprise, perhaps then to fall noisily over a cliff or crunch into a wall of spikes.
I'd love some comments from Valve about how far their physics system could go to accommodate this sort of gameplay. It would almost be a new genre of game - the "First-Person Trapper"?
Andrew
I've been reading through the posts and articles on the Source engine, and have a few more questions to pose to the community and the Valve team, mainly regarding physics capabilities in the game. Also raising a few new ideas and how the game might accommodate them.
1. Simulating Rope
I know the "telephone line" wire in the game is simulated a as special kind of entity, and that the physics engine only handles "rigid" objects, but is it still possible to actually simulate real rope or cable which can be used by the player? For example:
a) Create a rope-type object by attaching lots of small, rigid sections, which can twist together and so collectively behave like a length of rope would? Could the engine handle this?
b) Make rope usable by allowing each end to be able to be "tied" (dynamically temporarily affixed) to any other part of the rope? In this way, you could create a loop, and wrap it around something to secure it.
c) Make rope carry weight? Is it possible, for instance, to attach one end of the rope to something so you can climb down it, swing on it, drag something along behind you, etc?
e) Make rope breakable by, say, shooting at it so that it snaps at the point it is shot (at one of the "break points" which lie in between each section of rope)? Also, if the rope is stressed by tension, can one make it break at a random point (ie. in between two random sections)? This would obviously create two smaller ropes from the one rope - is this possible?
f) Throwing the rope - if you tied one end to something weighty and throwable, could you conceivably throw one end of a rope over something to create a pulley, or have it snag up a wall, so you could climb up it?
2. Inertia + floatation = skiing.
a) Imagine a stretch of water containing a hungry family of Piranha and you have to get across. Could you drop a wooden plank in the water at one end, take a long run up, sprint and jump onto it - and it acquires your momentum and therefore "skis" to the other side? Since Gordon can't fall over in the game, it makes this task pretty tempting to try. Is it possible? Furthermore, is there "drag" between floating objects and the water surface which would quickly slow your ski down, like in real life?
b) Is it possible to create a kind of "rope ferry" using a rope tied to both sides of a river, a raft floating beneath, and the ability to "climb" along the rope to the other side?
b) Leading to the obvious question - if you had rope, a plank and a speed-boat type vehicle... could you have some serious fun?
3. Creative trap-laying and perhaps a new genre of game?
Being able to use rope opens up all sorts of interesting possibilities for laying traps and solving puzzles. With physics featuring more in games, I'd love to see a game which allowed creative (and perverse) thinking to lay traps for monsters and of course other players... the fun factor would be enormous, and would render simply shooting someone a rather boring alternative.
Imagine knocking over a barrel of oil in front a pursuing gang of monsters and watching them slide past you in surprise, perhaps then to fall noisily over a cliff or crunch into a wall of spikes.
I'd love some comments from Valve about how far their physics system could go to accommodate this sort of gameplay. It would almost be a new genre of game - the "First-Person Trapper"?
Andrew
