Random Question

[SensesFail]

Alright, I was kind of wondering about this for no apparent reason (probably because I'm really looking forward to vehicles)...

I don't see how my question will really be of any concern in singleplayer but it may be if you carry around alyx or something...

My question is...Say if you get in a dune buggy and try to make a jump...when your in the buggy alone you successfully complete the jump but with Alyx in the car, due to the extra weight, the car falls short...or another application is racing...I wonder if Gordon is faster in the buggy by himself than with alyx in there too...

if you guys have played bf1942, there was no thought put into weight and its effect on the vehicles...I was wondering if any of you guys know if HL2 will be more realistic in this way...

oh, and I wonder if the engine gets shot (and starts to sputter or smoke) if the car will lose speed or become less stable or powerful as before...anyone have any ideas?

 

[6iXx]

They have put a lot of thought into vehicles so I'm sure they have added some realism (but not that much) I don't want to have to do some trigonometry etc. before every jump.

 

[Hudson]

I would actually enjoy that, but i doubt its in there

 

[Guest]

alyx is no heavyweight she can just straddle gordon -ooh good romance scene- (starts useing xsi to make porn renders for pr0n mod)

 

[Feath]

Well, because it uses the Havoc Physics engine, and because Gordon has a weight, there's no reason why Alyx won't have a weight and add to the weight of the buggy.

 

[BWMASTER]

Yes but will it slow down the buggy?

We really don't know until we play the game

And I'm beginning to like valve's approach to discovering evereything by yourself. It will be so much more fun. Like "wow I didn't know I can pick up headcraps with the manipulator"(guess it's been confirmed by gabe but its just an example)

 

[Anthraxxx]

I think having Alyz in the car would be negligible. Gordon goin over a ramp at 60MPH and Gordon + Alyx in car over ramp at 60 MPH...... they're still going 60 but now they have more potential energy and momentum.... they still make the 40 ft jump. Unless Alyx weighs 2 tons.....

Of course, I never paid attention in Physics, so i might be wrong. I did pass the class though.....

 

[FictiousWill]

Since everything in the world is physically simulated, I would assume that you'd have a slightly shorter jump length. It would probably be a task to prevent the buggy from jumping shorter. But as Anthraxxx said, the difference of an additional person should be rather low. Three or four people, then you'll feel it.

 

[Adam]

Actualy, it doesnt matter if the Titanic ship was ontop of your car, your jump will always be the same as long as your still doing the jump in the same speed in mph as before you had that extra weight. The weight slows down your speed, so you would have to use more power to get back to the speed you used to make the jump before the extra weight. This would change your landing sequence tho, as theres more potential energy now, so you'd make a crater when you land in real life lol... I know everything is physicaly simulated, but I doubt theres wind resistance, for those of you would were about to post about the titanics obvious wind resitance factor lol..

 

[Sushi]

On the topic of the engine getting shot out, I can see that happening, depending on how engines are implemented in the game.

With the havoc physics engine in HL2, they could model the actual engine so that if you look inside, you will actually see cylinders moving, and if a high powered bullet passed through the mechanism, the engine would sieze (they did something like this in an early tech demo using a large machine and a wrench, pc gamer and others wrote about it). And since materials have density properties in the game, only high powered bullets (ex. 50 cal) would be able to pierce the engine block, which would prevent noobs blowing up jeeps with their 9mm glock (unless it hit a fuel tank, if they are in the game).

But what is more likely is that they simply made the engine a regular block that weighs a lot, and is set so that it powers the vehicle, and if a certain gun shoots it x times, it will break down.

 

[MrWhite]

But as the game is realistic, would they REALLY put all of that weight into it... i mean I know its a good physics enginge but tis not real life... it wouldnt make that much of a difference either way

 

[Tyrion]

It wouldnt be hard for them to implement at all. They'd just add the players weight(which they will have) to the entity they're entering. Then just use the modified weight when moving.

Although it'd make little difference with 90-150 pounds in a 2-3 pound vehicle. Maybe it would in something light like a buggy or jeep.

 

[MrWhite]

It wouldnt be hard but it'd be damn pointless

 

[FictiousWill]

Actually it wouldn't be pointless at all... The whole idea of a physically simulated engine is that all you need to do is give objects physical properties and the engine makes them react. There is not a different set of physical rules for every object. Therefore they wouldn't even have to take the player's weight into account- the engine would already have done it. It's all modular class-based programming. The only limitation is computing power - the buggy does not have a physically simulated internal combustion engine, I assure you. (at least not yet )

 

[MrWhite]

But its just too much to worry about

 

[FictiousWill]

That's not the point - if you're being lethargic or not - the whole concept and point of a physics engine is that you only need to worry about it once, at the begining. Afterwards everything bumps and moves and adds and detracts and does all that stuff by itself - so no, you shouldn't have to worry about it.

 

[Goombatommy]

It usually avides by a certain algorithm.

 

[Logic]

I think we can pretty positively answer this question with a yes. Vehicles and people are all a part of the same physical world, controlled by the same physics simulation. People in vehicles would definately add to the weight of the vehicle, though, as in real life, the effect of this would be pretty trivial.