Physics Support Category in Help and Feedback

Forum Help
#1

Whenever I see topics on the forums that ask for support for physics (hinges, constraints, body movers, etc.), they usually appear in either the #help-and-feedback:scripting-support or #help-and-feedback:building-support categories, but in my opinion, they don’t belong in either.

When do I know if the topic belongs to scripting support or building support? That’s the problem — I don’t.

Usually, I think about it this way: If the problem includes coding, it belongs in scripting support, and without coding, building support.

This really overcomplicates things. Having a separate category for physics would be very useful in my opinion.

2 Likes
#2

I don’t think there’s any real use in making subcategories for niche, singular use cases like physics. The categories currently in Help and Feedback all cover a major field of development and they’re quite fine as they are, so it just comes down to fitting your post into the most appropriate subcategory.

I do agree though that it may be slightly unclear where a topic would best fit under. For example, just because a thread has code, doesn’t mean it can’t be in Building Support. It’s often left to personal judgement as to where a topic would best fit under, as with most categories.

If you ask me personally, how I gauge this is that anything to do with applying physics to the map without any formulas, manipulation or anything (pure engine simulation) I leave to Building Support and anything else that’s arbitrary (custom physics, manipulation, integration with systems) falls under Scripting Support. Would that be a perspective to consider when determining which category to put your post in?

3 Likes
#3

Yeah, some categories are just too broad. While yes this is left up to you and your personal judgement, it would be nice to see an “other category”. It a bit like the OP’s use-case except this is anything which won’t fit under the main ones such as Building Support.

I have to agree with Colbert’s last few lines though, while it may be hard to find a suitable category – just post where you think it’s most appropriate.

1 Like
#4

To be fair, a place for stuff like math and physics is not a bad idea. I do see a question concerning one of these two pop up every 5 questions or so.

2 Likes
#5

I had a similar idea in mind – an engine support/discussion category. A place
to talk about the engine, such as why certain feature in the engine is implemented a certain way. I constantly have questions questioning why roblox engineers implemented something a certain way. No categories fit what I want to ask

2 Likes
#6

Questions focused on how to use constraints should go in #help-and-feedback:building-support.

I’ve adjusted the category description to clarify:

If your question involves code but the code is a minor part of the equation (i.e. main focus is on constraint behavior), use Building Support still. If the code is the main focus (i.e. your code is setting some properties on the constraints incorrectly or you can’t figure out how to calculate a value that you need to input into a constraint), use Scripting Support.

1 Like