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Interactives/Gravity Master Race

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matthewbny
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Interactives/Gravity Master Race

Post by matthewbny »

I'm playing around with a space level and I've noticed that Interactives aren't used very often. I can attest to this because I've made physics-heavy levels in the past (though these were merely for testing purposes). Sure, they do clog the level up and if used in excess can cause a lot of lag, but here are some interesting observations that some of you may be able to fit into your levels.

1. Debris / Falling Buildings
I've demonstrated this in a couple levels and so have many others. You place an Interactive block/prop in the air and make it fall to the air. It's really simple so I'm not putting any pictures here!

2. "Looping" Interactives
This one's just like the concept above, but with one minor twist. Just place an Interactive block/prop somewhere in the air and modify the integer assigned to Respawn if Left to 1.0 (you can set it higher, but gravity accelerates so you wouldn't want to put it for longer than 5.0s. It would detract from the scenery. The applications for this vary and are limited, but you could pull it off if you want to create "ethereal" levels.

3. Gravity Chain
This one involves placing an Interactive in a Gravity field (preferably a Unidirectional Gravity field) and putting one right next to where it would land to balance the force. Takes some experimenting but here's what I mean, because I'm terrible at explaining and pictures are a lot better.
Image
A is the Interactive (a Log prop in this example, but you can change this), while B and C are Gravity fields in opposing directions with the same force.


4. Properties of Gravity Fields
If you have multiple Gravity Fields in your level and you want one to trump
Image
...the other, you can change the integer assigned to Priority. Higher priorities will trump (not doing it again) the lower priorities. You can also make Gravity Fields affect certain things - you can exclude everything except Interactives to make a more realistic "moving platform" without the use of Waypoints (or Moving Platforms).
Image
In this picture, the Gravity Field does not affect players. This can be done in Detect Players > Off.
Image
In this picture, the Gravity Field is acting on the ball (the Gravity Field is going to the right, mind you.)

5. "Tilt" Your Levels
Wanna put your level on an angle, but it's too large/stretches too far? Just use a Gravity Field and tilt in the desired direction to fix this.

Some things to note about Interactives/Physics:

Gravity accelerates: this is the first thing you learn in a Physics class lol. If you jump, your descent will be slower at 1 second into the fall than at 5 seconds into the fall. You are accelerating the longer you are in a state of free fall, no matter the gravity.

Objects fall at the same speed: also for my fellow Physics nerds is that free fall is independent of mass - basically, that all objects fall at the same speed (given the same gravity). This also means that things, like the Soccer/Beach ball bounce depending on height - not on weight. Keep this in mind once you make an AtmoBall game with very low gravity ;)
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papaya
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Re: Interactives/Gravity Master Race

Post by papaya »

im not sure i fully get number 3: when I do it it just seems to make them bounce between the two gravity fields which looks really dumb
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matthewbny
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Re: Interactives/Gravity Master Race

Post by matthewbny »

papaya wrote:im not sure i fully get number 3: when I do it it just seems to make them bounce between the two gravity fields which looks really dumb
That is exactly what it's supposed to do, it usually accomplishes a look that's more realistic than using a moving platform because it uses gravity fields instead.
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Baufritz
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Re: Interactives/Gravity Master Race

Post by Baufritz »

What if you stand on it though? Won't it just fall through?
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matthewbny
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Re: Interactives/Gravity Master Race

Post by matthewbny »

Baufritz wrote:What if you stand on it though? Won't it just fall through?
If you expand both of the fields you could minimize the risk of that happening, but the point is that it's not supposed to be within reach. These are aesthetic concepts, but wouldn't kill to find out would it now ;)
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