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A Different Approach for Continuous Physics
In recent shipped games collision bugs still occur such as a character's arm, leg, or head stuck in the geometry. When Ghost Recon Future Soldier encountered this kind of issue, it was time to investigate the continuous physics problem. Commercial physics engines tend to use expensive iterative algorithms and sometimes even those are not enough. The goal was to provide a system that was fast, robust even with a varying frame rate, and with behavior as physics-driven as possible.
Ubisoft's internal physics engine handles continuous physics with an approach that prevents tunneling issues while respecting the laws of physics. It handles fast-rotating dynamic rigid bodies without any tunneling issues and does not use any complicated iterative processes. Nevertheless, this approach still has some limitations that will be discussed.
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