Multishape Actors

Author:Mostafa Mohamed

Introduction

The Multishape Actors is on of the new Reality physics editing tools, it will enable you to setup novodex actors with multiple shapes for collision and physics calculations simpilificaiton instead of using the actual actor's model vertex data.

How to setup a simple Multishape Actor?

Stop your physics simulation

First thing before using the physics editors stop the simulation by clicking "Novodex Simulation Started" button on the toolbar, stopping the simulation resets the simulation to the intial transformation of actors that they will start with in game.

Import the mesh you want to be multishaped in Reality Builder

Choose File -> Import Mesh or press Ctrl + I in your keyboard to choose the mesh you want to import, for example let's try importing the "TruckBroken" mesh located in your evalkit models folder.

Convert your mesh to Multishape Actor

Select your imported mesh and press Shift + Right click to show the context menu, and choose Convert To Actor -> MultishapeActor from the context menu.

Add your shapes

After converting your actor to Multishape actor a new toolbar will appear on the top-right of the Reality Builder main form, Select from the shapes toolbar the shape you want to add to your actor and start transformaing it until you position it correctly in your mesh, Add more shapes until you represent your mesh with these shapes. Your actor should look like this:

Start the simulation again

Click the "Novodex Simulation" button again and your simulation will run.

Notes

1. You don't have to import a mesh to create a multishape actor, any actor with a model can be converted to a multishape actor.
2. Multishape actors are JointsEditor ready, they can be connected to any type of joints.
3. In the EvalKit project, you can optionally Change to a NetMultiShapeActor rather than a MultiShapeActor. In the EvalKit game framework, NetMultiShapeActor will play sounds upon impact, interact with Players (can be pushed by and can damage them), and are networked. You can copy NetMultiShapeActor.cs to use as you see fit.

Any questions contact me at mostafa@artificialstudios.com.