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PhysX and Destruction
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XtremGamr Offline
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Post: #1
PhysX and Destruction
Hi,

As you may had already seen in games like Unreal Tournament 3, specially in the Extreme PhysX mod pack, and in others like Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter there is a heavy use of destructible environments, bascially the fact of breaking walls and objects.

I wonder if using the World Editor or directly in the code I can achieve the destruction of any rigid body, or if it is not possible with rigid bodies, with any type of object, without using a modeling/animation tool to create the effect.

Thanks for your help, if possible tips would be very appreciated.
02-17-2009 02:16 AM
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Esenthel Offline
Administrator

Post: #2
Re: PhysX and Destruction
Hi,

I haven't played the games that you've mentioned (I've played UT3 but the normal version) so I don't know exactly how do those effects look.

But normally I can say that you can make destructable environments in the code.

For example have 3 objects, combine their actors with joints, set the joints to be breakable.

With the joints the 3 objects will look as one solid object, but as soon as you apply forces on them which will exceed the joint limit, the joint will break, and the objects will be separated.
02-17-2009 03:19 PM
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XtremGamr Offline
Member

Post: #3
Re: PhysX and Destruction
Esenthel Wrote:Hi,

I haven't played the games that you've mentioned (I've played UT3 but the normal version) so I don't know exactly how do those effects look.

But normally I can say that you can make destructable environments in the code.

For example have 3 objects, combine their actors with joints, set the joints to be breakable.

With the joints the 3 objects will look as one solid object, but as soon as you apply forces on them which will exceed the joint limit, the joint will break, and the objects will be separated.

Hi thanks for your answer, but for example can't I have 1 actor and let PhysX determine the way it should brake? More or less what Havok Destruction does. BTW very nice engine wink
02-18-2009 12:53 AM
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Esenthel Offline
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Post: #4
Re: PhysX and Destruction
Thanks smile

From what I know, 1 actor cannot be broken. It has to be done using multiple actors.
02-18-2009 11:27 AM
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XtremGamr Offline
Member

Post: #5
Re: PhysX and Destruction
Well, so I guess that my wall won't break that realistically, but I may drive some looks away with a nice bump map wink. Nevertheless thanks for your help smile.
02-19-2009 01:19 AM
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Esenthel Offline
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Post: #6
Re: PhysX and Destruction
you can create a wall using multiple box actors (like bricks)

Or for more complex algorithms - you may want to render the wall as one Mesh, but split it into multiple Meshes (Actors) as soon as it got broken, it's just an idea.
02-19-2009 01:24 AM
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XtremGamr Offline
Member

Post: #7
Re: PhysX and Destruction
I think using bricks as actors will be the choice. Nevertheless I was playing around and using the World loading tutorial and a .wrld file I found, I tried to make a test level. I got a free sckyscrapper which I configured using the mesh editor, obtaining the .gfx, .mtrl, and .mesh files, and of course I updated the .obj. I moved the files to the tutorial Data folder and I executed the program. I only got the terrain rendered but the skyscrapper was lost :shock:. Do you know how could this be or could you offer me a little tutorial on mesh creating and adding it the "game"? BTW the skyscrapper is really huge, but hasn't such a high poly count, does that matters? Thanks for your help, I leave you a picture with the problem:

[Image: WE.jpg]

At the top left is the windowed simple world loader tutorial, some #2, and in the background is the world editor with the building.
02-21-2009 03:12 AM
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Esenthel Offline
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Post: #8
Re: PhysX and Destruction
maybe you haven't set an object container responsible for the type of the skyscrapper

check tutorials code 'World.setType..'
02-21-2009 12:54 PM
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Phenixer Offline
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Post: #9
Re: PhysX and Destruction
PhysX have a Metal Bending thing, could be interesting
02-25-2009 05:27 AM
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Esenthel Offline
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Post: #10
Re: PhysX and Destruction
Yes, I think it is based on, soft bodies.
I'll be looking into it in the future.
Thanks for the info.
02-25-2009 11:07 AM
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