Session Name: | Starship Physics and Controls that Feel Real: Bringing the Toys of Starlink to Digital Life |
Speaker(s): | Michael Wasilewski |
Company Name(s): | Ubisoft Toronto |
Track / Format: | Programming |
Overview: | How do children play with their toys? They skim them along the floor, tumble them around in the air, and smash them into walls. In Starlink: Battle for Atlas, one of our key pillars was that the digital ship should feel true to how children might play with its physical toy equivalent. In this talk, we will describe how we brought the ships of Starlink to life. By combining specialized but reusable behaviors, designers can control how vehicles handle in multiple navigation modes, as well as how dynamic they look on screen. The tricky bit with highly configurable vehicles is tackling the ensuing combinatorial explosion of tuning that comes from each part affecting the outcome. Finally, relaxing the coupling between physics and gameplay can lead to more interesting environmental impacts and corresponding angular momentum preserving recovery animations. |