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Hi - Looking for some advice on controllers with collision and gravity in a large rugged terrain environment. I want my up and down keys controlling forward and backward motion and my mouse to control viewing and gun sighting.

I've tried a few alternative techniques - using phy make box character controller ... with phy move character controller for my upkey and downkey which works well with a simple mouse control but I've found my characher can fly if I point ny mouse upwards and move forward with my upkey! The phy set gravity isn't taking effect properly. The charcter control example in the dark physics demo is the same approach to code, and has the same problem - I've managed to get on the roof and outside of the map on this demo! Changing the overall phy set gravity to > -9.8 seems to have no effect on this.

I then tried the phy make rigid body dynamic box approach but due to my rugged terrain, my box rotated into space, so I tried adding phy set rigid body linear velocity to -y to simulate gravity, and then use the same control for forward backward motion with the up and down keys - this works fine until I get to a bump in the map but then my box spins out. I also now have no mouse control and I'm not sure how this can be resolved. i have tried different combinations and don't seem to have got it right. there isnt alot of literature on dark physics so im learning as i go along. is there a convention that works well for my bumpmap .dbo terrains? and why doesn't phy set gravity work for me? is there another way to make my gravity work without breaking the controller code?

I'd really appreciate some pointers in the right direction here - is Dark Physics able to deliver the functionality I want or am I better off taking a dbpro approach to collision and gravity?

Cheers Mindy
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The Problem with DP is that in its current state it is kinda "busted", if you know what I mean. Anyways the best solution to this problem is to not even use the character control. But if you must then you must. Anyways, this is what I do. I use the DP for its rigid body simulation. Its really the only part that is not "busted". Get ahold of sparky's collision if you dont already have it. Use that for you object intersects, and ground heights and your gravity can be controlled through Dark Basic + Sparkys. Keep in mind though that since your using two collision systems that you have to put an object into each's respective data collection. So it takes up more memory but its not to bad, most modern computers can handle this anyways. The point here is if you havent already done so, determine a minimum system spec and then you can program around that spec and then you will know what kinda power a computer needs. Its best to just use a reasonable spec. I basically program for a computer like this. shader 2.0, xp, and 128 mb v-ram. processor speed should be decent on a pc with those specs anyways. Well good luck.

Ah thanks David - I've been pulling my hair out all week thinking it was me being dense - it's kinda a relief to know dp is broken if inconvenient, I don't think I could have carried on any longer without some feedback, I was very close to throwing the pc out of the window.

Cheers for the info on collision and gravity - I'll get on with looking at Sparky's collision (Thanks Sparky too!!)

Thanks for the tips on memory too - I'm not sure how to program around a certain spec though, can you clarify this please. My computer spec is better than the spec you mentioned so it should be ok.

Programing for a certian spec pc is identical to programing for a console. You know it has a certain amount of ram a certian processor and memory and video power. So you can only use textures that are in this limit. Perhaps you can only display 10,000 polys with high res textures but, if you lower your texture sizes then you can display more polys. Since you are like me and dont have a game studio to back you up. What I like to do is define a standard that is pleasing to me, while at the same time having my game "PLAYABLE" on as many different systems as possible. So even though my PC can handle "X" amount of stuff at the same time and still be very playable. The reality is that I want other people to play my game, this is the whole point. (isnt it).LOL. So what I do is think about what kinda computer's do most people have, then I think what kinda computer's do "Gamers" have. Ultimatly its up to you to decide what kinda computer will be able to play your game, by the resources you use, aka. physics, graphics, texture sizes, shaders, and polys.

What I have done in the past is make a menu that the user can select from different options low/med/high textures, display resolutions. terrain detail. Shaders on/off.

This will make more code for your game, but in the end its really the best way to ensure that your game will run on low end comps, while rewarding those who have computers that can handle your game at the max settings.

I know my PC has cost me thouands of dollars, and I know that most people can't afford to spend as much as I can. And those are the people that will purchase your game and when it dont run right, they will ask. And you will have to explain why it wont run on their pc. Cause it isnt as high a spec as someone who spent 2G's they got the best buy special. for 499. So chew on that. Good luck.