Gary,
chunky wrote:adding a constant force actually modifies that persistent gravity vector
That's true that it was just quickly written example code, but I am still confused
Adding a constant force does modify the persistent gravity vector, and that's kind of the point, isn't it? I mean, gravity is a constant force, and you're just adding more to it, as I see it.
chunky wrote:the force would need a mass divisor [multiplier?] before adding it to the gravity
Also, isn't the mass of the object being taken into account in the btRigidBody::integrateVelocities() method? I don't understand why you would need a mass divisor/multiplier additional to that.
Finally, I was thinking about the vector of applied constant forces you mention, and it seems to me that more than just a vector of forces would be necessary in a lot of cases. For example, imagine a character wearing a rocket pack on a (constantly and uniformly
) windy day. One could have typical gravity, the wind force, and the rocket force all affecting the character at the same time. If the rocket is only on for three seconds, at the end of that three seconds, how would you know which force to remove from the accumulator if you don't know the value of the force when it was added? Personally I would prefer a force and a pointer to the object that added it, which then presents problems if that object is "nature" as with the wind, which might not have an applicator, such as a rocket pack. I'll admit that this is a pretty specific example, but unless you're removing forces below/above some threshold, I think the need to know where a force came from would come up pretty often. But then again, this is me thinking in gameplay terms, which I'm not terribly good at
Please feel free to explain any of this as you might to a 3rd grader
- Alex