Rag-Doll Physics

[WILL]

You know I've heard a lot recently about rag-doll physics in a lot of games coming out on the new current and next gen systems.

What is this rag-doll physics all about and what are some techniques that you can use it for?

[tux]

its nothing special really. its just a load of rigid bodies joined together to make a skeleton shape.

ragdoll on its own is only usefull for death scenes (realistic falling etc). you can add animation to the bones but that becomes complex.

[JSoftware]

they're also very usefull if oyu want to throw around with something or drag bodies or things in ropes or such

[Traveler]

here's a quick sample I found on google. (Flash, 2D) Might be fun to experiment a bit with it.

[Sly]

Rag doll uses certain aspects of physics simulations to give semi-realistic animation to jointed objects at run-time. Very useful for situations where a pre-scripted hand-animated sequence will not work because you don't know where things will happen, what objects will be around the character, what they will hit, how fast they will hit it, etc. It is primarily used to depict characters dying, falling off ledges, getting thrown through the air, etc but it can also be used to simulate chains, bells or other swinging items that need to move realistically, but the movement cannot be determined ahead of time.

Rag Doll Kung Fu is a game made by an artist from Lionhead Studios in his spare time. It utilizes rag doll to give comical animation to the characters. The website has videos showing off the gameplay. Also, take a look at any Half-Life 2 or Battlefield 2 trailers.

[simfactor]

Visit these sites, they might give you a glimpse of what rag-doll physics is:

http://www.ode.org
http://www.newtondynamics.com
http://www.tokamakphysics.com

All those engines can be integrated into Pascal or Delphi quite easily. There is a Delphi VCL for ODE http://www.cambrianlabs.com/Mattias/...DE/Default.asp

I am going to create a simpe mini golf game using one of those physics engine to handle ball's movement and collision.

[NecroDOME]

Question: witch is beter: Ode, Newton or Tokamak? I Only used newton so I don't have any experince with Ode and Tokamak...

[Traveler]

This thread is about one year old...

[Firlefanz]

The question of NecroDome is also interesting for me, I am just thinking about using a physics engine for my game, I only need some basic stuff like collision detection and maybe push or throw some stuff around, if it is included pathfinding.

I am searching for an easy way...

Thanks,
Firle

[savage]

The question of NecroDome is also interesting for me, I am just thinking about using a physics engine for my game, I only need some basic stuff like collision detection and maybe push or throw some stuff around, if it is included pathfinding.

I am searching for an easy way...

Thanks,
Firle

I don't know of any physics engine that include pathfinding as that is more of an AI operation. There are Pascal demos for both ODE and Newton so you might want to play with some of those and see which one best suits your needs.