Wind and swimming updates #2793
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Previously players were slowed down when moving in the same direction as wind when its velocity was particularly low. `add_wind_velocity` was ported from `Badguy` to the `Player` class to fix this.
* Darts, kamikaze snowballs and owls stop moving vertically after exiting wind * Zeeklings abort a dive if they are stopped by strong enough wind. For Flying Snowballs: * Velocity is now calculated based on the previous target height to avoid snapping when pushed away from their start position * They can be pushed upwards or downwards * When pushed sideways, damping keeps them from floating away forever
mrkubax10
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status:in-progress
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A issue that does still persist is that when the wind is set to values (I believe) below Tux max. walk/run speed, Tux will not be moved by the wind when standing still, stuck in his run animation. Also, I feel that wind should always affect things when they are in their zone. Right now if you don't jump it will not affect you at all, even though you are clearly inside the wind zone. wind.mp4 |
- "Current" variant of wind that blows bubbles and does not affect Dive Mines. - Players now have an `m_wind_velocity` variable that is applied only after calculating other player physics. This fixes several unwanted behaviors related to Tux and wind.
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I have made several changes to the wind physics process that seem to have fixed these behaviors. I've also added a prototype "current" that does not affect dive mines. I would like some clarification about what you mean in #2592:
By this, do you mean faster acceleration/deceleration? |
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So the thought behind the current was that (since it is underwater) it can be used to suck/push Tux into an area. However, Tux should be able to swim against the current if it is not too strong. Now that should probably apply to both the current and wind. Main difference is that the current type would have different particles (i.e. bubbles) to better fit the aquatic theme. |
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Somethig I noticed with the "Current". It is very hard to fight it. Especially with an acceleration of 100. You would expect setting the speed of wind lower than Tux's swim/boost speed, he'd still be able to slowly go against the current. However, I seemingly get force-halted by the current even thought techincally Tux should still be able to swim through (obviously slower). It lets me swim for a short moment before halting all my progress, even when oosting which is moves very fast! Even with an acceleration of 10. current_wip_issue.mp4Also, make sure to have the "Current" particles fade out rather than suddenly disappearing in an instant. |
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I would not be suprised if something similar applies to the normal wind as well |
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I'm admittedly a bit stuck on this issue. While the normal wind seems to be working correctly, it seems that in water, the acceleration from current is still vastly overpowering that from swimming. Unfortunately I'm not really sure how to fix that without also altering how swimming works- any ideas would be appreciated. |
Altering swimming in what way? Swimming is still a fairly "unpolished" mechanic so alterations are still legitimate as long as they improve it. So depending on how would have to alter it, you might be able to go through with it. |
Swimming now works on velocity rather than acceleration, which previously caused odd behavior with regard to swimming through wind. Further tweaking may be needed but should hopefully be easier to do.
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Alright, I've tried tweaking swimming to actually work with wind. Let me know what you think. Boosting in particular seems to sometimes create large radii on turns which might need to be fixed. Also, how can I make the water bubbles fade out? |
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Found a couple bugs:
inconsistent_wind_push.mp4
swim_bug.mp4
wind_current_jitter.mp4It also seems that the wind affect Tux statically, i.e. instead of his speed accelerating or decelerating "smoothly" it changes instantly. Atleast that's how it felt to me. It should ease into the new faster/slower speed to make the transition more smooth. This seems to apply to both wind and current, if that is truly what is happening, maybe I'm mistaken here. |
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I can confirm the first and third bugs but I'm not able to recreate the second one. Can you upload the setup that is shown in the video? Another bug: Pressing the down arrow rapidly while moving into fast wind somehow allows you to go through easier. This is caused by some stuff around line 1586 of |
This is the level I tested and discovered that bug: |
The `apply_friction` function previously caused tux to swim constantly to one direction due to it adding acceleration under the assumption that tux was walking. Swimming-specific friction logic has also been moved to the function.
Wind now has a configurable variable that allows for feathering of the strength of wind. This is intended to make the transition into wind smoother. Fixed a logic error where all enemies would only be affected by current, not normal wind.
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More bugs I found:
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I also noticed that when you swim in the Current and you move in the direction it goes, you kinda seem to break the speed at which it is pushing you, like you get a bit slower than when you just get pushed without moving yourself. This might also apply to normal wind. Not sure on that. I usually notice it best while swimming. |
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Okay I keep finding many more bugs - sry 'bout that :D So apparently, Dive Mine is still affected by currents but also when they leave the current/wind area they keep on going, never stopping. Also getting pushed underwater is still somewhat jittery. Feathering help a little bit but overall needs a much higher value than normal wind to be smoothed out fully, for the most part. Speaking of feathering, so idk if I fully get what it does specifically but the best values I've seen with it seems to be around 350? Can shed some more light on what it does exactly because with default value of 16 it looks horribly jittery |
Previously, acceleration was calculated completely incorrectly which resulted in excessively high accelerations within wind areas. Dive mines also no longer are pushed by wind.
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Don't worry; that's what open-source is all about. I haven't done a particularly good job testing each change, to be honest. Also, the way feathering works is that it calculates how far the center of your hitbox is from the edge of the wind area (in pixels), then divides it by the feathering distance and clamps it between 0 and 1. It wasn't introduced to fix the jittering (that is caused by friction) but rather the fact that tux would keep "bouncing" off the edge of strong wind instead of pushing up against it like you might expect. My main problem with how it works right now is that if you put wind in a tunnel, like in the test level you showed previously, the top and bottom edges of the wind will have feathering, even though this makes no sense inside a tunnel. Also, I found out that I was calculating
I will keep attacking these issues and hopefully we can get this to work soon! |
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Any further progress on this? Just checking :) |
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Not really as I have again been busy with other things. It seems like the cause of the weird jittering bug is that wind only collides with tux every few game ticks and adds velocity, in between which, friction causes tux to suddenly slow down. That is what I have been stuck on currently. |
* `CollisionObject` now keeps track of colliding wind areas each frame * Wind now interpolates its applied velocity 50:50 each frame to prevent Tux from jittering * Tux will not skid constantly in wind * Tux has higher turning acceleration in wind to give him a bit more control
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Alright I think I got the jittering issue fixed finally... Sorry that took awhile. Let me know what you think and of any bugs you find. |
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Swimming has gotten rather worse here, or rather swim boosting. It is very sluggish now, you can't build up speed anymore properly for swim jumping. I like how it eases into faster speeds but the execution isn't so great. The max speed should be reached much faster but still ease into it, turning also needs to be made just a bit tighter. I'm also unable to push against currents of weaker strength when swim boosting even though technically Tux should be able to swim through. This might be linked to how slow you build up speed when boosting right now. |
Slightly higher acceleration for normal swimming and much higher acceleration for boost swimming. Turning is a bit more sharp.
Have you taken a look at the ground movement manager? It could possibly be related |
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Swimming feels much better again. Still the issue of being unable to swim against a weaker currents is present but the rest seems great 👍 |
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Hold up, is Tux swim boost faster? I'm testing out some levels and he zoomin'. Maybe a bit too fast. It's like he keeps gaining speed underwater. I keep ramming into stuff :D |
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I haven't tested this PR, nor do i like it's description, because I have a question regarding the swim updates. Is it directional? Meaning, does the turn still happen instantly or is there a bit of slowdown now when turning in the water? I think an issue i've noticed with the old swimming is that turning is too easy, it's much like the frog suit in the mario games. I always wished there was some turnaround 'lag', where the player's turning is clamped to where they want to go (up, down, left, right). This creates an immersion of realistic swimming and also makes swimming feel more challenging (not just flying in midair sort-of) Not to mention, I would really like if swimming wasn't as fast as it is now. |
With this PR turning has gotten a bit looser now, though Tux is rather fast which causes some issues. Especially while boosting.
I wouldn't be against fine tuning a couple values here (as long as swim boosting remains on the faster side for swim jumping mostly) though not sure if required for this PR specically as the main focus is wind. |
Can you show a video of you turning? |
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Here you go: 2024-10-30.19-52-14.mp4 |
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One thing i wish would be added back to this pr's swimming is the ability to jump out of the water with a lot of speed after dropping into the water with a lot of speed. as.mp4it let to a lot of cool and fun speed-running opportunities. currently when you drop into water from a high place you just loose all your momentum. I dont feel like something like this is required for this PR, but it would be really nice if this got added to this Pr, because it would be a shame to see this go. |
biggeryetbetter
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Swim and swim boost speed is still way too high. Very uncontrollable in narrow water areas. |
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Definitely getting closer. While normal swimming is better now and boosting technically feels much better to control, an issue that arises is the jump height you gain from jumping out of the water. It is very low. Previously you used to be able to jump about 4-ish tiles. Now it's barely 2. Adding a little bit more speed for boosting, it may run the risk of making boosting uncontrollable again. You could try increasing the boost speed to 500? Not sure how much that will fix it. |
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The Wind is definitely an improvement
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The currents feature is very welcomed
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There is still more to be desired when it comes to diving:
There is too high an emphasis placed on vertical height when holding up+right after diving into a water source, when coming out of it, it doesn't look or feel like a 45-degree angle, and the speed you have UP is higher than the speed you have RIGHT. It looks more like a 30-degree angle from falling. A consequence of this is that now you dont cover much horizontal ground from these kinds of dives.
Secondly, The speed conversion from falling doesnt seem to convert as fully into speed while in the water, this has been completely numbed, it seems like you "speed-cap" in the water too harshly. this looks especially odd when you leave it because it looks like you just gain a ton of speed from tux's flippers.
Thirdly the speed ratio from falling to the ratio when coming out of the water seems to be more than halved than what tux' momentum when diving.
The last two points seemed to be sourced from the fact that just diving out of water looks to give the exact same momentum as diving in to water from a height. it looks like they grant the same momentum, but only if you're falling ~30+ tiles or more does marginal speed gains start to occur, but then tux' terminal velocity hits and there isnt really much to be gained.
Fourthly, Tux doesnt gain speed as he reaches a liquid edge, I think in terms of Biology and physics this would make more sense because A: you'd assume the penguin knows they're surfacing, so would put some extra kick into trying to get out, and B: its easier to push around water on a surface than a meter down, the pressure is less there.
Fifth: Currently if diving in and holding UP+Direction, Tux falls into the water about 4-5 tiles deep, i'd rather this be 2-tiles deep at most. Not only would it make the Bubble tileset actually viable, but i think it also would look more natural especially if we're going to have a 45-degree (or close to) trajectory.
Sixth: previously when diving into water, if you had a small amount of horizontal momentum (by tapping right, or by being slightly pushed by wind) and then held UP only, you could get different angles of trajectories. I'd like to see this kind of feature maintained, it gives designers a lot of options for using diving mechanics.
Overall The wind changes are really good but the swimming changes are unfortunately really undesireable! It heavily reduces the amount of fun you get from gaining lots of horizontal speed from them, it reduces options for getting different trajectories based on what input you press during a dive entry. It improves swimming while deep in water in terms of controlling tux, but unfortunately is undesireable elsewhere. If this PR was split into two, where wind was in one and swimming in another, I would approve the Wind ones immediately. Please reach out if you want clarification on any points :)
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Can we merge this into local branch, separate out the wind and then merge into master? @Alasdairbugs |
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Doing that would be best i think for now and let swimming changes be another PR. Swimming changes will require a lot more R&D and feedback from level designers and it wont make sense to halt changes to wind for that. If @Zwatotem or @biggeryetbetter could do that that would be nice :) Personally i think any swimming changes are kind of lower priority? Swimming seems fine to me rn. the only issue is underwater currents not being a thing, thats the only issue i can really think of. |
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Sorry guys, I've been a bit busy lately but I can isolate the wind updates soon so you can merge them. |
This PR includes an overhaul of wind and swimming physics.
Included changes:
Physicclass for convenience.Most levels should be unaffected by these changes, however levels that rely on certain swimming quirks may break.