Changing gravity on an object depending on, say, altitude - c#

I am using unity and trying to figure out gravity for 2D objects. Am I able to change something's gravity depending on its position in a world or space or will the gravity remain the same for the whole world?
Meaning if I have an object at a specific gravity at altitude zero and then once the object gets to 1000 meters the gravity changes.

Just a very quick answer,
Learn about Physics2D.gravity. Put a few objects in a scene (balls, whatever) and let the scene run, notice they fall. Try varying gravity and notice the acceleration is different.
Master all of that before proceeding to step 2!
Now the bad news!
"Ordinary gravity" in Unity is very easy as you can see. Unfortunately if you want to do individual gravity on different objects, it's pretty advanced!
Basically turn off the "overall gravity" from (1) which Unity gives your easily for free. Then you have to manually add gravity to every object (you want it on!)
Basically you do something like this ...
public float gravity;
void FixedUpdate () {
rigidbody2D.AddForce(Vector3.down * 9 * rigidbody2D.mass);
}
Unfortunately you have a lot to learn about the run loop, physics (ie, actual real world physics!), game objects, rigidbodies and C# in general.
Master all of that before proceeding to step 3!!
Finally you want gravity to vary by altitude (for certain objects). Basically then just do something like this:
For example, gravity weakens as you go up .. a' is your altitude
public float gravity;
void FixedUpdate () {
f = (1000.0 - a) / 1000.0
rigidbody2D.AddForce(Vector3.down * 9 * f * rigidbody2D.mass);
}
A lot to learn!

Related

C#/Unity Camera Follow Jitter due to Time.deltaTime

Game: In a simple 2D Portrait Game made in Unity, I have a GameObject (Player) that has a fixed location and which is moving upwards. The Camera follows the Player and animated Obstacles are spawning from time to time moving left to right. The attached Screenshot shows the Scene.
The Problem:
The Movement is not smooth, as it seems like the Player is jittering. I think I already identified one of the causes: Big variation of Time.deltaTime. Average value is 0.0167, but I had variations. Minimum was 0.00177, maximum value was 0.2249519.
Settings:
Target Framerate is 60. I use Unity 2019.4.2f1 and as build target an iPhone X with iOS 14.2.
Scripts
public class Player: MonoBehaviour
{
float speed = 5f;
void Update()
{
transform.Translate(0,speed*Time.deltaTime,0);
}
}
public class CamFollow : MonoBehaviour
{
public Transform Player;
private Vector3 FollowVector;
void LateUpdate()
{
FollowVector = Player.position - new Vector3(0, -4.0f, 10);
transform.position = Vector3.Lerp(transform.position, FollowVector, Time.deltaTime * 4f);
}
}
Note: I need to use Lerp, because the Player may lower or increase the speed for one second, then the camera gently moves to the new position, before changing back. For the Obstacles I don't have a Script. They are moving, by using the Animation Component. For the Obstacles I only loop a change of the x value of the position.
My alternative solutions:
1. Changing the value for Time.deltaTime to a constant value of 0.01666667f:
void Update()
{
transform.Translate(0,speed*0.01666667f,0);
}
This makes the Player Object jitter a lot in the Unity Editor but only a little on the device
2. Using Fixed Update both for the Camera Follow and the Player Movement
This makes the movement and camera follow perfectly smooth, but the animated objects jitter a lot. I know Unity wants to adress the deltaTime issue in one of the next updates. But there should be a solution for my problem, so did anybody have a similiar problem, which could be solved? I prefer the 2nd alternative, because the movement looked really smooth and nice, so can I somehow make the animation part of "fixedUpdate"?
The variation in the 'deltaTime' is to be expected.
The variation is large on the PC because you are running on a complex computer with a complex operating system and lots of other applications running simultaneously, each with a multitude of threads, which every once in a while want to do some work. Thus, the scheduler of the operating system cannot guarantee that you are going to get a time slice at the precise moment that you want it in order to render your next frame.
The variation is smaller on the mobile device because it is a much simpler machine with a lot less going on, so the scheduler is able to give you time slices close to the precise intervals that you are asking.
You are already taking this variation into account when you do
transform.Translate( 0, speed * Time.deltaTime, 0 );
This is a fundamental technique in game development: the frame rate is never constant, so the distance by which you must move an object on each frame depends on the precise amount of time elapsed between this frame and the previous frame.
So, that part is fine.
Your problem lies in
transform.position = Vector3.Lerp( transform.position, FollowVector, Time.deltaTime * 4f );
Here you are passing Time.deltaTime * 4f for parameter t of Vector3.Lerp(). I have no idea what you are trying to accomplish, but the number you need to pass there needs to be a gradual transition between 0 and 1, and instead you are passing a randomly varying number of seconds multiplied by some magic constant 4. This does not look correct.
A couple of options that I can think of:
Always use 0.5 for t so that the camera always rushes to the right position and then slows down as it gets closer to it.
Calculate a separate speed vector for the camera, then move the camera using a translation just as you do for the player.

Unity player collision with horizontal small colliders

I know the title isnt very explanatory, but here's my problem:
I have a player (merely a cube with a rigidbody, a collider and a movement script), and I have a floor made of small 1 by 1 by 1 cubes (cubes with box colliders).
For some reason unknown to me, when my player cube falls and tries to collide horizontally with the floor, he just phases through... But want him to get blocked by the cubes just like it does vertically. Any help would be greatly appreciated ;)
heres how the scene looks like
heres a cube object
heres the player object
Here's a gif of the player going through the floor
Here's my c# player movement script (I know its very bad, but I prefer to put this here just in case its linked to my problem) :
void ApplyMovement()
{
transform.position += new Vector3(Input.GetAxis("Horizontal"), 0, Input.GetAxis("Vertical"));
}
If you need any more info to help me just tell me, I'll provide it as fast as I can.
The value of
new Vector3(Input.GetAxis("Horizontal"), 0, Input.GetAxis("Vertical"))
is framerate-dependent. This means the faster the framerate the faster your object will move. This is usually not what you want. Instead use Time.deltaTime
// Adjust the speed in the inspector
public float speedMultiplicator = 1;
//...
new Vector3(Input.GetAxis("Horizontal"), 0, Input.GetAxis("Vertical")) * speedMultiplicator * Time.deltaTime
to get a framerate-independent movement. Also see the example in Input.GetAxis.
When dealing with RigidBody never change the transform.position (and rotation) directly!
If you would want to make the RigidBody jump to a certain position rather use
rigidBody.position = transform.position + ...;
However what you want is a smooth movement in order to keep the collision detection intact. So you should use RigidBody.MovePosition instead
rigidBody.MovePosition(transform.position + ...);
You don't have to deal with force etc.
Also add a RigidBody component to the floor objects. Even ifnthe object is not moving this improves the collision detection (at the cost of performance in the Physics engine ofcourse). And since the objects are not supposed to move set
isKinematic -> true
use Gravity -> false
you can also set freeze position and freeze rotation.
On both floor and player objects set Collision Detection -> Continous Dynamic. This improves the collision detection and looks for collisions also between frames.
Be aware, however, that dynamic detection is quite expensive so use it only if there is still trouble with too fast objects.
On the player you might want to also use interpolate as well.
Finally
Note that continuous collision detection is intended as a safety net to catch collisions in cases where objects would otherwise pass through each other, but will not deliver physically accurate collision results, so you might still consider decreasing the fixed Time step value in the TimeManager inspector
to make the simulation more precise, if you run into problems with fast moving objects.
For more information see the RigidBody manual and the Colliders manual
I recreated the scenario you described on my end. I put your "ApplyMovement" code in "Update". I was basically able to reproduce your results.
It seems to me that the issue might be Freezing Position X/Z on the Player. I think since you are doing that, you're telling the Rigidbody component that it is not allowed to modify the X/Z positions of the objects as part of it's collision resolution and physics simulation. When I turn those two off, I get results that are (I think) closer to what you're looking for.
One note: your "ApplyMovement" code is frame-locked, meaning your player will move at different speeds at different frame rates. To solve this, you'd need to multiply your Input.GetAxis values by Time.deltaTime.
Also, if your player moves too fast, it'll still be able to pass through collisions and cause odd behavior, so be sure to limit the max movement rate of the player to some reasonable value.
You should be applying a force to the Rigidbody of the character instead of directly manipulating the transform.position (this is preventing the physics engine from resolving the collisions). You're also freezing the X and Z position on the Rigidbody; you don't want that because it entirely prevents the Rigidbody from manipulating those values.
Instead of transform.postion += ... first get a reference to the Rigidbody somewhere in your script (best done in an Awake() method):
private Rigidbody _body;
private void Awake() {
_body = GetComponent<Rigidbody>();
}
Then make sure the vector built from your inputs is being applied to the object's "movement," not its position:
Vector3 inputVector = new Vector3(Input.GetAxis("Horizontal"), 0, Input.GetAxis("Vertical"));
// You can multiply this vector by a float to adjust "speed"
_body.ApplyForce(inputVector, ForceMode.VelocityChange);
Finally, you should read up on the different ForceMode options and decide which one fits your preferences: https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/ForceMode.html
Don't forget this should happen in a FixedUpdate(), not an Update() (all physics operations should be done in FixedUpdate())
As a side note, there is also the possibility your rigidbodies still up moving too quickly and passing through each-other. Even when you're using forces and velocities, this is possible so if your run into this case down the line, investigate Collision Detection Modes. TLDR; they're settings for performance vs accuracy trade-offs.

Unity 2D launch gameObject at a specific angle without affecting speed

I am working on a game where i need to shoot the ball at an angle and power defined by 2 sliders (1 angle slider, 1 power slider). I currently have this code to control the launching of the ball:
public void shoot()
{
float angle = angleSlider.GetComponent<Slider>().value;
float power = powerSlider.GetComponent<Slider>().value;
gameObject.SetActive(false);
ball.GetComponent<Rigidbody2D>().simulated = true;
Vector2 releaseVector = Quaternion.AngleAxis(angle, transform.up) * transform.forward;
ball.GetComponent<Rigidbody2D>().velocity = releaseVector * (power/3);
}
with this current code it works almost perfect apart from one thing. When the angle is like between 30 and 60, the ball is launched well but if i set it to 0 degrees the ball would barely move and on the contrary if i set it to 90 degrees, the ball launches with much more power. How can i set a constant speed for all degrees so that the speed is only affected by the power slider only please? Thanks.
Typically, you shouldn't set the velocity of a rigidbody directly. Per the Unity docs...
In most cases you should not modify the velocity directly, as this can result in unrealistic behaviour.
Instead, you usually want to impart a physical impulse to the ball using an API like AddForce or AddRelativeForce
That is easy.. You have to normalize the releaseVector.
ball.GetComponent<Rigidbody2D>().velocity = releaseVector.normalized * (power/3);
Then adjust the power to what you want. That way you will have the direction u wanted and speed depends on the power value.
If you want to know what normalize do, you can find more information here;
https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Vector3.Normalize.html

Rigidbodies going inside each other in Unity

How do I solve this problem?
Details:As you can see from the game view, the gems are dropping from the right-top of the screen. When they fall down fast and hit each other with the similar rotation, they go into each other.
That gem doesnt look too bad to me. collissions can also go through objects if they are very fast.
Interpolation and continous mesh detection both increase the physics performance.
I'd recommend that you write 3 lines that increase physics performance when an object is going fast and switches it to normal when it is going slow. you can do a proximity test every frame to check for fast objects (physics velocity variable) to know what objects they approach, and make physics maximum for both fast and approached objects.
I'd use the same as you wrote, using the rigidbody velocity is perfect, except:
private void Update ()
{
var vel = rgd.velocity;
speed = vel.sqrMagnitude;//uses 5-20 times less processor power
if (speed >= 4) // it's the same
Magnitude uses square-root maths which is one of the most expensive ops on a processor. Being a hawk about instances of every frame square root and divisions is what all advanced programmers do to streamline their code.
If you had to find the velocity of objects which aren't using physics, then you'd have to delete their current position from the last frame position every frame, to find their velocity vector which would be the same as rigidbody.velocity using posA posB variables to recall the last frame... i.e. for objects without a rigidbody.
Here is the code I wrote, and I used this on my object.
bool fast;
Rigidbody rgd;
float speed;
private void Start ()
{
rgd = gameObject.GetComponent<Rigidbody>();
}
private void Update ()
{
var vel = rgd.velocity;
speed = vel.magnitude;
if (speed >= 2)
{
rgd.collisionDetectionMode = CollisionDetectionMode.ContinuousDynamic;
}
else
{
rgd.collisionDetectionMode = CollisionDetectionMode.Discrete;
}
}

Unity 2D scripted friction equation

I am working on the friction for a square object for after it is done being pushed by the player. The block's movements are controlled purely through script using transform.Translate(velocity) each frame and only a boxcollider2D. I am speculating that because i am controlling the block's movements each frame manually is the reason i can't seem to get the boxcolliders2D's physics material 2D friction to work.
Basically, I am trying to recreate the built in physics similar to rigidbodies by using transform.translate, or use the built in physics if possible. So far, i've landed on something like this
newVelocity.x -= ( 1 / (newVelocity.x * newVelocity.x));
In an attempt to reduce the velocity.x each frame until it hits 0 and shorts out. Obviously, this falls apart when the velocity.x becomes a decimal number. I'm stumped on what i should be doing to achieve a friction similar to rigid bodies where it slows down a little at first and then much faster towards the end as it stops. Any and all help appreciated, thanks in advance!
You could compare the signs of the velocity before and after calculating the change in velocity, and set the velocity to zero when the sign changes, like so:
newVelocity.x -= ( 1 / (newVelocity.x * newVelocity.x));
if(Mathf.Sign(previousVelocity.x) != Mathf.Sign(newVelocity.x)) {
newVelocity.x = 0f;
}
One thing, though, is that normal friction is not calculated using the above equation, it's calculated as follows:
newVelocity.x -= frictionCoefficient*Time.fixedDeltaTime;
And with this, you wouldn't need to compare the velocity to the previous velocity as you can just say if the velocity is low, it's zero. You could still compare the previous velocity sign stuff if you wanted to though, but this is probably more efficient
if(newVelocity.x < 0.01f) {
newVelocty.x = 0f;
}

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