How do I make a controllable ball, marble madness style?
I'm struggling to get the combination of controller sensor, signal splitter, and advanced rotator working correctly.
I just want to make a ball which I can control with my left stick.
I have the controller sensor set to force possession. This seems to be the right start, but the camera follows the micro chip that is on the surface of the ball, so when it spins, the camera goes bonkers.
I also can't get the proper combination of controls. Figuring out which left stick output to use and when to use local space... it's making my head spin.
-
First thing is to make sure the controlle sensor is at the centre of the marble. That way the camera will pivot around the centre of the ball. To do this you can turn the grid on, cut the ball in half using a subtractive edit, stick the microchip right at the centre of the marble (L1 while moving the microchip/gadget) , and then delete the subractive edit.
The next thing is to set up the mover correctly. Its quiet complicated but the simple answer is
- split the left stick output of from the controller Sensor (page 2),
- split this output so that you have X & Y values,
- plug these into the X & Z speed inputs on an advanced mover,
- remove all damening on the advance mover.
Hope this helps - Peter -
Also set your marble's physics quality to low (bottom of the Physical Properties tab) and it will roll smoother. Our physics engine is made up of loads of tiny balls so in this one instance setting physics quality to low actually makes it more accurate. :)
-
I was about to post a question on gravity when a search found this. I had the same idea for a ball game, but I'm still going to do it.
Mine was more about gravity controlling the ball, with the LS tilting the table, but I can't even get a ball in mid-air to drop on to the surface using gravity.
Thanks for the tips Peter. -
OK, figured gravity out, but I was sure I had set the options, although it is very hard to see sometimes the difference from on & off of certain settings in an object.
-
If you read the more info tooltip for the advanced rotator, it describes how you can do exactly this :)
Luci -
Luci,
I have tried for the past two hours to try and get the ball rolling and it's not budging :o)
Is it correct that I should connect the X and Y outputs of the splitter to the X axis speed and Z axis speed inputs of the advanced rotator?
If any other user reads this can they try, create a dream and publish it so I can see what I am doing wrong.
TIA -
Cupra-AL, yes, that's correct. A couple of things to check...
- you're connecting the output of *left stick local* to the splitter input, not plain ol' vanilla left stick
- the ball is set to *moveable* (on the physics page of the ball tweak menu)
- you've got Y speed set to 0
- controller sensor is set to possessable and you're possessing it (forgive me if that seems obvious, just trying to think of everything)
- try turning up *rotation strength* - almost every time I have issues getting something moving it's because strength isn't high enough!
Really hope something here helps!
Luci -
I've been trying this too. I've got the ball rolling. But whether I use "left stick" or "left stick local" the ball will not roll relative to the camera built in to the controller sensor. If I move the camera around, the ball doesn't move relative to the camera in either case.
How can I make the ball roll relative to the camera? -
OK, so I'm still stuck on this. I'll start from scratch again but I don't know quite what I am doing wrong. Thanks for all the advice though.
One thing to clarify, does the X go to the X and the Y goes to the Z, or do both X & Y go to X, and both of them again go to Z? (The wording maybe misleading me) I have tried all methods, but can you explain why the Z is involved because surely that is a vertical axis, i.e. up & down), I just want to control the ball in the X & Y axis. -
It's sorted now in this thread: https://feedback.indreams.me/forums/917434-dreams-how-do-i/suggestions/36349435-advanced-rotator-can-t-get-the-ball-to-roll
A couple of tweaks to other settings was required.
Hope this helps someone else. -
For camera work, consider making an action group where the controller isn’t directly stuck to the ball. Have a microchip with a camera, transmitter, and follower attached to the space above the ball (maybe with local guide gadget as well).
-
To those that are interested, I DID manage to get something working quite well!
https://indreams.me/scene/ZL3hGG_TG2A
This includes:
Only being able to change direction when in contact with the ground.
Jumping, and only when on the ground.
A camera that "follows" the ball rather than is actually on the ball (helps smooth out bumps a lot).
Lots of tweakable settings, like speed and jump height. (need to pull these out into their own sliders.
Improvements to be made:
Working on turning the jump into a "charge" jump where the longer you hold the higher it jumps.
Working on fixing some speed issues where it can go faster diagonally. Need to normalize the speeds.
Jumping should launch the ball in the direction of the normal of the surface it's touching, not necessarily upwards. -
Marble Madness?! I am mega interested in playing a marble game @dr_murk.
-
I haven't had a chance to test this yet, but if you wanted the ball to be able to move in mid-air could you place the ball you possess into an empty sphere?
That way you could build momentum by using the inner ball to move the outer sphere (the marble).
Would that work?
Please sign in to leave a comment.