Is there a way to examine physics?

Help and Feedback Scripting Support
1

I was previously just studying basic physics concepts and it occurred to me how complex a moving assembly can be, with constraints and body movers.

With a previous physics glitch thread that went unresolved, I realized that I didn’t know how to properly/systematically debug physics. How do you guys do this? Is there a way to examine physics in action?

2

Not exactly aside from looking at forces, collision geometry, constraints, and weights. Usually most physics problems arise from one of these things:

  1. Something is moving or changing too fast
  2. The weight is improperly balanced. To one side, on the wheels, on the body, on the front…
  3. The friction settings are not appropriate
  4. The object is colliding with itself (i.e. wheels with the wheel hub of a chassis)
  5. The collision geometry is very complex (using exact mesh geometry instead of an invisible cylinder or a couple of invisible boxes)
  6. The constraints are not properly configured (root is not accurate, attachment points are inaccurate…)
  7. There is way too much force being applied (usually when talking about suspension / springs and things like hinge constraint powered motors)

You can debug most of these by enabling Show Contact Points and just watching how different objects react under different simulations / tests. It also helps to check who is the current network owner and try different ways of doing the same thing to see if it is something you did wrong or something you did not think of.