Piston and Mechanisms

Hey all! We have been hard at work putting together the prologue level but are not quite ready to show it off in more detail. But I wanted to showcase some of the prototypes that are being implemented into it as we work. First up is the Piston, and more importantly, Marc's push for us to create a more physics driven system for our mechanisms.

As you can see in the clip above, our pistons have physics applied to them so they can rotate and move more freely. We use constraints to keep them moving in specific directions or limiting their rotations. The top piece for example has its rotation, x and y locked, but the z is free. Allowing it to move up and down as needed with the other pieces.

Setting up mechanisms to use physics should allow us to quickly create more types. However, the main draw back is in how far we are able to push the limits of physics actors. We will be doing some tests to see what these limits really are as we don't want to create inconsistencies in our mechanics. Yet, our hope is that we can start putting more and more physics interactions in the game for the player to grab, move, or change how mechanisms work by physically interacting with pieces of them. This also could lead to more emergent gameplay, which we are excited to have if possible!