[Phil]

Hi. I have dynamically created objects in my game that are connected by a distance joint and I want the length of the distance joint to change over time. As an example I’ve edited the Distance.qml file from box2d-examples to show what I want to achieve. However, when the distance joint is created the length property doesn’t set accurately. Do you know why this is happening? Thanks, Phil

 

import QtQuick 2.0
import Felgo 3.0

GameWindow {

  property var myJoint

  //...

  // Timer that keeps creating heavy balls that crash down on the building
  Timer {
    //...
    onTriggered: {
      //...
      myJoint = extraJoint.createObject(world,
                                          {
                                            "bodyA": ball1.body,
                                            "bodyB": ball2.body,
                                            "world": world,
                                            "collideConnected": true,
                                            "length": 400
                                          })
      togetherTimer.start()
    }
  }

  Timer {
      id: togetherTimer
      repeat: true
      running: false
      interval: 1000
      onTriggered: {
          console.debug("")
          console.debug(myJoint.length)
          console.debug("")
//          if(myJoint.length > heavyBox.width/2 + lightBox.width/2){
            myJoint.length = myJoint.length - 10
//          }
      }
  }

  Scene {
  //...
  }

  EntityManager {
  //...
  }

}

 

[GüntherFelgo Team]

Hi totalzero!

I looked into the matter. Within the DistanceJoint implementation, a certain scaleRatio is applied to the length value whenever a new length is set. If you set the length to a new value, everything works fine. But when you read the length at a later point, you get the modified length that is used internally.

For the moment, you can fix this problem by manually calculating the “real” length when you need it:

// ...
  property var myJoint
  property  real scaleRatio

// ...

  // Timer that keeps creating heavy balls that crash down on the building
  Timer {
   // ...
    onTriggered: {
      // ...

      myJoint = extraJoint.createObject(world,
                                          {
                                            "bodyA": ball1.body,
                                            "bodyB": ball2.body,
                                            "world": world,
                                            "collideConnected": true,
                                            "length": 200
                                          })


      // myJoint.length holds the modified value, as we know that the "real" value is 200,
      // we can calculate the scaleRatio that is applied within the distance joint
      scaleRatio = 200 / myJoint.length 

      togetherTimer.start()
    }
  }

  Timer {
        id: togetherTimer
        // ...
        onTriggered: {
            console.debug("")
            var realJointLength = myJoint.length * scaleRatio
            console.debug("LENGTH: "+myJoint.length)
            console.debug("SCALE-RATIO: "+scaleRatio)
            console.debug("REAL LENGTH: "+realJointLength)
            console.debug("")
  //          if(myJoint.length > heavyBox.width/2 + lightBox.width/2){
              myJoint.length = realJointLength - 10
  //          }
        }
    }

 

This is just a workaround for now. I think we can fix this problem and include the correct version in the next Felgo update.
Thanks for reporting this issue!

Best,
GT

 

 

 

 

[Phil]

Thanks! That makes sense – it’s quite a simple workaround really