Help with gliding mechanic

Help and Feedback Scripting Support
#1

I have this piece of code here that increases and decreases the gliding speed of the player when they’re flying based on how much they’re going up and down. The problem with this is, if you glide upwards at the right angle, the player can just keep gliding upwards for as long as they want; that doesn’t happen, realistically, with a glider.

local perDown = direction.Unit.Y

velocity.Force += direction * 100 * (1 - perDown) * HRP.AssemblyMass

What I’m aiming for is allowing players to speed up as they dive down, but then slow back down once they go against gravity, like if they go up or are no longer diving down.

For example, if a player dives down and then quickly glides up, they’ll retain that speed going up but they’ll slow down until they can no longer go upwards (cuz gravity big and speed too small), so they’re forced to glide back down. This mechanic can be seen in Bird Simulator - Roblox and Glider Simulator [WORLD 2] - Roblox

How can I do this?

2 Likes
#2

Yo, I been askin this for a while now, but I have not gotten a good answer. lol.

maybe one of my other topics will help?
Gliding System Help - Help and Feedback / Scripting Support - DevForum | Roblox
Aerodynamics Help - Help and Feedback / Scripting Support - DevForum | Roblox
Physics of Gliding Flight - Help and Feedback / Scripting Support - DevForum | Roblox
How to make a player glide realistically - Help and Feedback / Scripting Support - DevForum | Roblox

I would also like to do this, but I kinda gave up on my game that would use it already.

#3

The snippet you included seems to speed up players based on angle, but with no possibility of slowing them down, unless I’m missing something.

Each time the code runs, it adds an amount of force that scales with the direction the player points, but the math there means that force will never be negative. Is there drag or something not included here that fixes that, or am I misunderstanding the code?

#4

oh there’s drag. The only issue lies in the code I provided, and you’re right. It speeds up players based on angle. After trial and error, I know that the speed doesn’t need to be negative; it only needs to be less than the force of gravity so that stops going up. At least, that’s my understanding of it.

Here’s the drag tho

if HRP.AssemblyLinearVelocity.Magnitude > 0 then 
	local dragVector = -HRP.AssemblyLinearVelocity.Unit * HRP.AssemblyLinearVelocity.Magnitude ^ DRAG_POWER 
	velocity.Force += dragVector * DRAG_COEFFICIENT * HRP.AssemblyMass
end
#5

yeah, I think it’s going to take my a long time until I find a solution

1 Like
#6

So to avoid the infinite-flight issue, can you offset the maximum speed gained by a constant amount?

It sounds like the problem occurs when

direction * 100 * (1 - perDown) * HRP.AssemblyMass > (GravityForce + DragForce)

when the player is pointing up at a shallow angle, which lets them gain speed while gliding up. Can you correct it by changing the (1-perDown) line to say, (0.5-perDown)? Or if that’s too drastic, maybe a number in between until it feels good?

#7

This is basically what I’m doing:

local GRAVITY = Vector3.new(0, game.Workspace.Gravity, 0)

local function onGlide()
	velocity.Force = (GRAVITY/1.05 * HRP.AssemblyMass) 
		
	if humanoid_direction.Magnitude > 0 and direction.Magnitude > 0 then 
		local perDown = direction.Unit.Y
		velocity.Force += direction * 100 * (1 - perDown) * HRP.AssemblyMass
	end
	
	if HRP.AssemblyLinearVelocity.Magnitude > 0 then 
		local dragVector = -HRP.AssemblyLinearVelocity.Unit * HRP.AssemblyLinearVelocity.Magnitude ^ DRAG_POWER 
		velocity.Force += dragVector * DRAG_COEFFICIENT * HRP.AssemblyMass
	end
end

And the problem would occur when

velocity.Force.Y > (GRAVITY * HRP.AssemblyMass).Y
--velocity includes all the 3 values u see for velocity in the onGlide function added up

ur solutions was one of the things I tried. It doesn’t work. I put .75 for example, I can still find the angle to go up forever. If I do .5 for example, I also won’t be able to glide the way I want like in the game I linked. It doesn’t retain momentum if I were to dive down, but then glide back up, and then do it again

Here’s a clip with (.5 - perDown): https://i.gyazo.com/c87843e40cf40310158422e2192cefc7.mp4
I just sink to the ground after diving, not being able to glide up. Same thing happens if I do (.75 - perDown)