Collide with heightmap

[DesignVibe]

Hi guys

I've "nearly" completed a project and come to a stage where I have a height map and a flying steampunk ship ("yep I'm a steampunk fanatic") anyways, I have a stretched sphere surrounding the ship and I wish to use that as the collision point to the heightmap.

I have used rays and it work really well but I would like more of a realistic collision i.e. When the ship hits a mountain head on, instead of going up and over the mountain I would like it to collide and to move left or right 

http://www.babylonjs-playground.com/#1L0CBO#2

I remember on a previous submission @RaananW made an impressive playground for a car to travel over a heightmap. which I tried to understand, however for a newbie its a little complex 

http://www.babylonjs-playground.com/#UGMIH#3

any help or advice would be greatly appreciated 

 

[jerome]

When using a ground mesh, it is better to consider using getHeightAtCoordinates() and getNormalAtCoordinates() (if you need the normal to implement your own behavior) that are far more faster than the ray method

http://doc.babylonjs.com/classes/2.3/GroundMesh#getheightatcoordinates-x-z-rarr-number

http://doc.babylonjs.com/classes/2.3/GroundMesh#getnormalatcoordinates-x-z-rarr-vector3-classes-2-3-vector3-

 

here is a demo of the use of these both methods : http://babylonjs.com/Demos/Boom/

[DesignVibe]

Hi Jerome

thank you for the fast feedback.

I shall give that a very good try.

tip of the hat to you 

[jerome]

thank you

another shorter (in LOC) demo using getHeight and getNormal on a heightmap : http://jerome.bousquie.fr/BJS/demos/getHeightAtCoordinates.html

[DesignVibe]

Hi @jerome

I have searched quite a few posts and found that you are the ultimate master of using getHeightAtCoordinates() and getNormalAtCoordinates(). I still find it a little confusing but with these posts I think I might be able to learn quite a few tricks:

from what I've seen I really do like this system as it saves time and RAM but trying to understand how I can use it to detect a mesh colliding upon a key-press (with world/local translation) instead of an animation is a little over complex, I'm sure I'll get there though 

[jerome]

hope so

courage :-)

[RaananW]

Or use physics!

If the (truly wonderful) mathematical solution is enough for you, use it. But if you need true collisions you will have to use the physics engine...

Let us know if this is enough, and if not let's try using physics. Which is a lot of fun, once you know how it's done. Just like a good magic trick.