PhysX examples of static,dynamic and kinematic actors

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3 comments, last by saejox 11 years, 9 months ago
Ok,reading the documentation of PhysX made me a little dizzy.So,can someone give me some examples of some statis,dynamic and kinematic actors?

Also: suppose I have a third person game,so I'm in control of a character.When I move my character with W,A,S,D,my character is a dynamic actor or dynamic kinematic actor?

also(some real definitions of static,dynamic and kinematic actors would help a lot!).Thanks!
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Static doesn't move (e.g. a building or terrain). Dynamic can move (e.g. a cardboard box or a vehicle).

Kinematic is a dynamic actor that can ignore the rules of physics, and just does what you tell it to (e.g. a player controlled avatar or a scripted elevator). This is kind of a hack that lets your game directly control the player without worrying about dynamic objects being able to knock them around, or having them fall over due to being off balance. You're responsible for their movement, and they can knock dynamic stuff out of the way. They're used when you've got your own simpler version of physics that you want to use for an object, and you don't want the physics engine to have any control over it.
So if I make a third person shooter game,my character that I control with W,A,S,D, should be a dynamic actor or a dynamic kinematic actor?

So if I make a third person shooter game,my character that I control with W,A,S,D, should be a dynamic actor or a dynamic kinematic actor?
This is what kinematic actors were designed for, yes. However, you're then responsible for all of their movement logic, including gravity, etc...

N.B. a dynamic actor could also be used, but you face different problems in that case, such as making sure they don't fall over sideways, etc...
there is a major caveat for kinematic actors.
they do not trigger callbacks.
you will not get a callback when a "box" hit a kinematic object.
you need to use rays or sweeps to get objects around your actor.

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