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Process for Changing Player Physics Part 1
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HiRezMick Hi-Rez Team Member Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2007 2:21 pm Posts: 431 Location: Atlanta, GA	Process for Changing Player Physics Part 1 The following will be available when the next patch drops, later this week. Process for Changing Player Physics Part 1 Objective This document covers how to change player physics and how to keep track of your changes. Please refer to the initial post, On Modifying Player Physics (viewtopic.php?f=345&t=96145) for a broader overview. Player physics can be modified only in “standalone” environments, which includes roaming and training maps. Players can experiment with various tweaks to the values of many different physics variables. Part 2 will explain how to select presets for a custom server and for information on working with HiRezAPC for additional community-driven presets. Chat Console Commands Note: These commands only work in a “standalone” environment, which includes roaming and training maps. /SetPhysicsProperty <propertyname> <value>: Sets the value of a specific property. Properties are listed below in their own section. /SetPhysicsProperty reset: Resets all properties back to default (1.0). /PrintPhysicsReport: Copies all of the physics properties with their current values to the Windows clipboard for easy pasting into a text editor and prints all the current values to the log. It may be easier for your workflow to run the game in windowed mode and running the game with a “-log” command line parameter. Physics Properties All properties are scaling floating point values with a default value of 1.0. MaxSpeedDecelRate: Rate of deceleration back to max speed when the player is traveling over the max speed for the current physics type. AirControl: Base amount of air control for jetting and falling. JumpZ: How high a player can jump. GroundSpeed: Ground speed while walking. ImpulseMass: Mass of the player as it relates to being impulsed from explosions. Gravity: Gravity value when in freefall. SkiPeakControlSpeed: Center of the bell curve where strafe control is highest. SkiControlWidth: Width of the strafe control bell curve. SkiMaxControl: Max level of ski control when at peak of bell curve. SkiSlopeGravity: Additional gravity when skiing down a slope. SkiMaxSpeed: Max speed achievable via skiing alone. SkiTerminalSpeed: Absolute speed cap for skiing. SkiFallVelocityTransfer: How much velocity transfers when hitting a surface from falling to skiing. There is a bug currently where this won't work and is controlled by JetForwardAccelPercent. This will be fixed in the next patch. JetMaxSpeed: Max speed ever achievable by jetting alone. JetTerminalSpeed: Absolute speed cap for jetting. JetAirSpeed: Global air speed multiplier for jetting. JetBoostMax: Max ground speed that still allows you to get a boost when you launch in the jetpack. JetForwardAccelPercent: Controls how much forward acceleration is applied to acceleration while flying. There is a bug where this also controls SkiFallVelocityTransfer. This will be fixed in the next patch. JetMaxThrustSpeed: Speed at which thrust acceleration falls off. JetAccelRateAtMaxThrustSpeed: Constant acceleration rate when at or above Max Thrust Speed. JetBaseAcceleration: Constant acceleration rate when below Max Thrust Speed. SplatLandMinDamage: Minimum amount of damage to take when cratering into the ground. SplatLandMaxDamage: Maximum amount of damage to take when cratering into the ground. SplatWallMinDamage: Minimum amount of damage to take when cratering into a wall. SplatWallMaxDamage: Maximum amount of damage to take when cratering into a wall. SplatMinSpeed: Minimum speed the player needs to be going before cratering. SplatMaxSpeed: Maximum speed that deals maximum damage for cratering. Max Speed vs. Terminal Speed While Tribes: Ascend isn’t speed capped (well, at least in the realm of achievable speeds) we do employ a mechanic that attempts to limit the speeds achievable by jetting or skiing alone. This mechanic exists purely for game-balance reasons. The problem with a standard speed cap is that the game physics feel wrong if players don’t gain speeds when falling or when impulsed by an explosion. “Max Speed” therefore represents the limit on this soft cap. If a player is traveling at a speed over this limit, they are gently brought back to Max Speed based on a ratio between the Max Speed and the Terminal Speed, multiplied by the global “MaxSpeedDecelRate.” The Terminal Speed is the absolute cap and is designed to be so high, that it is unachievable with the default values. The setting works though, if you want to experiment with a speed cap. Ski Control Tribes: Ascend allows players to correct their lateral movement while skiing. This feature is designed with a “sweet spot” that allows for optimal control at mid-to-high speeds. There are several reasons why we implemented ski control this way. At low speeds, the base implementation has very minimal correction because players could actually ski in circles up and down a hill and it generally felt strange. At high speeds, the base implementation has minimal correction because of balance concerns; try hitting a highly skilled player zipping around the map with a lot of course correction! SkiPeakControlSpeed, SkiControlWidth, and SkiMaxControl control the shape of the bell curve. Stages of Flying There are three stages to flying: Initial Thrust: This has the most acceleration by default Standard Thrust: Players will still gain speed, but at a slower rate than the initial thrust Max Speed: The maximum speed achievable by jetpacking alone. There is also an added boost that most players leave on by default: jump-jetting. Tribes: Ascend simplifies the benefit of jumping and then jetting at the apex by auto-jumping by default when the player presses the jetpack button. Changing the JumpZ will impact the balance of the initial thrust phase, but be aware that some players choose to separate jumping and jetting! “Splatting” Because Tribes is so fast, players take damage when “splatting” into things. Splatting is divided into two types: walls and ground. The default values yield the same damage values for both types of splatting, but we have made controls separate for you to change them, if you wish. There is a range of valid speeds to be considered a “splat” which is universal, represented by SplatMinSpeed/SplatMaxSpeed. There is a corresponding percent-based range for wall and ground damage values, represented by SplatLandMinDamage/SplatLandMaxDamage and SplatWallMinDamage/SplatWallMaxDamage. _________________ Programmer, Tribes Ascend Hi-Rez Studios
Tue Dec 04, 2012 6:28 pm

HiRezAPC Hi-Rez Team Member Joined: Sat Nov 03, 2012 5:28 pm Posts: 423	Re: Process for Changing Player Physics Part 1 I'm currently working with a couple community websites - www.NATribes.com, www.WilderZone.org and www.bittah.com - where players will be able to upload .txt files that contain their own tested physic values. The plan is to have users try out different values in offline servers (such as target practice, roam map, etc.) and have them find out what physics feel best for them. With that, we'll have the user upload their .txt file to one of the three sites I listed so others can try them out and discuss. Depending on the discussions and responses of each preset, I will host a server where we can test these modifications together. The values can be adjusted on the fly so if we feel that, for example, the gravity needs to be turned up a little bit or the impulse mass needs to be turned down, we can do so without restarting the server. If we test a certain preset out enough and the mass majority thoroughly enjoys it, we can then look into the option of possibly putting that preset into the game itself and have it available as a custom server option. Get creative with you mod names too! I look forward to seeing what everyone comes up with!
Tue Dec 04, 2012 7:15 pm

HiRezAPC Hi-Rez Team Member Joined: Sat Nov 03, 2012 5:28 pm Posts: 423	Re: Process for Changing Player Physics Part 1 Well with the patch now live, I hope you guys are having fun controlling these settings. I know we've had some fun making bizarre presets over here. Tonight I plan to have a custom server up where we can play with some of the physic values together. You can find me in the NATribes.com public Mumble, which you can find the IP info at www.playapug.com - It will be the American Server. I also plan to stream this for those of you that can not make it but are around to watch. Let's plan to start at 7pm est this evening. You can watch the stream at www.twitch.tv/HiRezAPC Everyone's welcome but there will be limited slots, so come early! This will go on for a couple of hours (~2-3 hours). I will announce more times and dates later with more of a notice for future preset testing. This includes for other regions as well such as Europe and Australian communities. All I need from you as the community is to work together to find and narrow down to presets that have an overall good feel to it. They can be either fun physics or for a competitive environment. Then we can look at the option of making you preset available for any custom server to use. So start sharing your physic values with your fellow tribals and have some fun with it!
Thu Dec 06, 2012 5:46 pm

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Process for Changing Player Physics Part 1

Author

Message

HiRezMick

Hi-Rez Team Member

Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2007 2:21 pm
Posts: 431
Location: Atlanta, GA

Process for Changing Player Physics Part 1

The following will be available when the next patch drops, later this week.
Process for Changing Player Physics Part 1

Objective

This document covers how to change player physics and how to keep track of your changes. Please refer to the initial post, On Modifying Player Physics (viewtopic.php?f=345&t=96145) for a broader overview.

Player physics can be modified only in “standalone” environments, which includes roaming and training maps. Players can experiment with various tweaks to the values of many different physics variables.

Part 2 will explain how to select presets for a custom server and for information on working with HiRezAPC for additional community-driven presets.

Chat Console Commands

Note: These commands only work in a “standalone” environment, which includes roaming and training maps.

/SetPhysicsProperty <propertyname> <value>: Sets the value of a specific property. Properties are listed below in their own section.

/SetPhysicsProperty reset: Resets all properties back to default (1.0).

/PrintPhysicsReport: Copies all of the physics properties with their current values to the Windows clipboard for easy pasting into a text editor and prints all the current values to the log. It may be easier for your workflow to run the game in windowed mode and running the game with a “-log” command line parameter.

Physics Properties

All properties are scaling floating point values with a default value of 1.0.

MaxSpeedDecelRate: Rate of deceleration back to max speed when the player is traveling over the max speed for the current physics type.
AirControl: Base amount of air control for jetting and falling.
JumpZ: How high a player can jump.
GroundSpeed: Ground speed while walking.
ImpulseMass: Mass of the player as it relates to being impulsed from explosions.
Gravity: Gravity value when in freefall.
SkiPeakControlSpeed: Center of the bell curve where strafe control is highest.
SkiControlWidth: Width of the strafe control bell curve.
SkiMaxControl: Max level of ski control when at peak of bell curve.
SkiSlopeGravity: Additional gravity when skiing down a slope.
SkiMaxSpeed: Max speed achievable via skiing alone.
SkiTerminalSpeed: Absolute speed cap for skiing.
SkiFallVelocityTransfer: How much velocity transfers when hitting a surface from falling to skiing. There is a bug currently where this won't work and is controlled by JetForwardAccelPercent. This will be fixed in the next patch.
JetMaxSpeed: Max speed ever achievable by jetting alone.
JetTerminalSpeed: Absolute speed cap for jetting.
JetAirSpeed: Global air speed multiplier for jetting.
JetBoostMax: Max ground speed that still allows you to get a boost when you launch in the jetpack.
JetForwardAccelPercent: Controls how much forward acceleration is applied to acceleration while flying. There is a bug where this also controls SkiFallVelocityTransfer. This will be fixed in the next patch.
JetMaxThrustSpeed: Speed at which thrust acceleration falls off.
JetAccelRateAtMaxThrustSpeed: Constant acceleration rate when at or above Max Thrust Speed.
JetBaseAcceleration: Constant acceleration rate when below Max Thrust Speed.
SplatLandMinDamage: Minimum amount of damage to take when cratering into the ground.
SplatLandMaxDamage: Maximum amount of damage to take when cratering into the ground.
SplatWallMinDamage: Minimum amount of damage to take when cratering into a wall.
SplatWallMaxDamage: Maximum amount of damage to take when cratering into a wall.
SplatMinSpeed: Minimum speed the player needs to be going before cratering.
SplatMaxSpeed: Maximum speed that deals maximum damage for cratering.

Max Speed vs. Terminal Speed

While Tribes: Ascend isn’t speed capped (well, at least in the realm of achievable speeds) we do employ a mechanic that attempts to limit the speeds achievable by jetting or skiing alone. This mechanic exists purely for game-balance reasons. The problem with a standard speed cap is that the game physics feel wrong if players don’t gain speeds when falling or when impulsed by an explosion.

“Max Speed” therefore represents the limit on this soft cap. If a player is traveling at a speed over this limit, they are gently brought back to Max Speed based on a ratio between the Max Speed and the Terminal Speed, multiplied by the global “MaxSpeedDecelRate.”

The Terminal Speed is the absolute cap and is designed to be so high, that it is unachievable with the default values. The setting works though, if you want to experiment with a speed cap.

Ski Control

Tribes: Ascend allows players to correct their lateral movement while skiing. This feature is designed with a “sweet spot” that allows for optimal control at mid-to-high speeds.

There are several reasons why we implemented ski control this way. At low speeds, the base implementation has very minimal correction because players could actually ski in circles up and down a hill and it generally felt strange. At high speeds, the base implementation has minimal correction because of balance concerns; try hitting a highly skilled player zipping around the map with a lot of course correction!

SkiPeakControlSpeed, SkiControlWidth, and SkiMaxControl control the shape of the bell curve.

Stages of Flying

There are three stages to flying:

Initial Thrust: This has the most acceleration by default
Standard Thrust: Players will still gain speed, but at a slower rate than the initial thrust
Max Speed: The maximum speed achievable by jetpacking alone.

There is also an added boost that most players leave on by default: jump-jetting. Tribes: Ascend simplifies the benefit of jumping and then jetting at the apex by auto-jumping by default when the player presses the jetpack button. Changing the JumpZ will impact the balance of the initial thrust phase, but be aware that some players choose to separate jumping and jetting!

“Splatting”

Because Tribes is so fast, players take damage when “splatting” into things. Splatting is divided into two types: walls and ground. The default values yield the same damage values for both types of splatting, but we have made controls separate for you to change them, if you wish.

There is a range of valid speeds to be considered a “splat” which is universal, represented by SplatMinSpeed/SplatMaxSpeed. There is a corresponding percent-based range for wall and ground damage values, represented by SplatLandMinDamage/SplatLandMaxDamage and SplatWallMinDamage/SplatWallMaxDamage.

_________________
Programmer, Tribes Ascend
Hi-Rez Studios

Tue Dec 04, 2012 6:28 pm

HiRezAPC

Hi-Rez Team Member

Joined: Sat Nov 03, 2012 5:28 pm
Posts: 423

Re: Process for Changing Player Physics Part 1

I'm currently working with a couple community websites - www.NATribes.com, www.WilderZone.org and www.bittah.com - where players will be able to upload .txt files that contain their own tested physic values.

The plan is to have users try out different values in offline servers (such as target practice, roam map, etc.) and have them find out what physics feel best for them. With that, we'll have the user upload their .txt file to one of the three sites I listed so others can try them out and discuss. Depending on the discussions and responses of each preset, I will host a server where we can test these modifications together. The values can be adjusted on the fly so if we feel that, for example, the gravity needs to be turned up a little bit or the impulse mass needs to be turned down, we can do so without restarting the server.

If we test a certain preset out enough and the mass majority thoroughly enjoys it, we can then look into the option of possibly putting that preset into the game itself and have it available as a custom server option. Get creative with you mod names too!

I look forward to seeing what everyone comes up with!

Tue Dec 04, 2012 7:15 pm

HiRezAPC

Hi-Rez Team Member

Joined: Sat Nov 03, 2012 5:28 pm
Posts: 423

Re: Process for Changing Player Physics Part 1

Well with the patch now live, I hope you guys are having fun controlling these settings. I know we've had some fun making bizarre presets over here.

Tonight I plan to have a custom server up where we can play with some of the physic values together. You can find me in the NATribes.com public Mumble, which you can find the IP info at www.playapug.com - It will be the American Server. I also plan to stream this for those of you that can not make it but are around to watch. Let's plan to start at 7pm est this evening. You can watch the stream at www.twitch.tv/HiRezAPC

Everyone's welcome but there will be limited slots, so come early! This will go on for a couple of hours (~2-3 hours).

I will announce more times and dates later with more of a notice for future preset testing. This includes for other regions as well such as Europe and Australian communities. All I need from you as the community is to work together to find and narrow down to presets that have an overall good feel to it. They can be either fun physics or for a competitive environment. Then we can look at the option of making you preset available for any custom server to use. So start sharing your physic values with your fellow tribals and have some fun with it!

Thu Dec 06, 2012 5:46 pm

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Process for Changing Player Physics Part 1