Hot Springs Air Hockey

[RyanGadz]

I originally made this game with XNA using BEPU Physics:

I Never released it because I felt it was missing a few things that would have made it fun, namely a random force push in a random location near the center that disrupts the somewhat tedious gameplay. The force push would have a geyser visual with lots of particles that can be hit for added points. It was meant to be a simple game and things were getting a little too complicated with my amateurish coding.

Here is what I have in Unreal so far:


There is no video yet but I can say the geyser particle system is so much easier to create.

Next up I will add the flippers and buttons.

[RyanGadz]

This is the current video of my progress: puck still passes though the flippers on occasion, but its getting close. Let me know what you think.

[AlwysAnrchy]

Very cool idea RyanGadz! I like having the geyser particle system in the middle to help speed up the game. Be sure to keep us updated as you progress though the development of Hot Springs!

[RyanGadz]

It doesn't show it quite yet but the geyser will push the puck towards the edges and then roll toward the flippers so you can time a shot more like pinball. (This is why the edges are curved the way they are)

At the moment the geyser is just an explosion not a sustained force.

[AlwysAnrchy]

Sorry about that. Got to typing too fast. Meant to say I like the *idea* of having the geyser

[RyanGadz]

I'm still having a lot of trouble with the physics. CCD is on and my sub-stepping time is set to 0.016667 with 16 max substeps.

The flippers are now constrained with a hinge and use motors instead of simply setting their rotation. I played with various velocity clamps to the puck but still no luck.

Anything else I can try?




Edit: After setting up physics forces for the flippers I realized I was still adding non-physics velocities to the puck. Taking off all clamping and velocity seems to have fixed the problem, although there is a lot of tricks that need to be done to prevent the puck from stopping in corners and slowing down to an unplayable speed.