What's the easiest way to make a player fly/glide?

UnknownUser

My player should glide like plane. Can the physics engine do that with some settings or do I need to implement the physics for this myself (or something in between)? Is there an example for this somewhere? The player should get faster when going downwards (and the opposite) and be controllable by roll and pitch.

I couldn't find a matching setting as of yet and while implementing the physics myself I seem to have missed the most simple possibility :#

Megalomaniak

The simple answer is to disable or modify the gravity variable in your player controller.

The more complex solution in going for a more of a physics sim would involve actually implementing engines and thrusters that would apply a force onto the physics body.

UnknownUser

@Megalomaniak said: The simple answer is to disable or modify the gravity variable in your player controller.

The more complex solution in going for a more of a physics sim would involve actually implementing engines and thrusters that would apply a force onto the physics body.

Thanks for the quick reply!

So, to sum up: The engine does not support the physics of "wings" and I need to calculate these myself, either by calculating the gravity based on speed(s) and angle(s) or calculating the "thrusters" thrust based on the same (or implement it directly in code), correct?

Megalomaniak

For functional wings you would need the physical simulation of air that is to say fluid(gas) to offer resistance and bounce against the wing collider to provide lift. Way too much work. It would be way too slow to process in real time.

For something like flight sim you will have to build an abstract approximation. That is not to say you couldn't implement a custom node for wings and give it the logic to approximate dynamics related to wings as a concept though.

Obviously this is rapidly becoming a complex topic though. I think it's best to start with developing some simpler custom logic in your player/vehicle controller and just modifying gravity in response to player inputs.

If that leaves you unsatisfied after you are done implementing it then you can go back to the drawing board and see if you can't think of a way to make it a little more complex.