Ok, this one is simple - but simple things matter. Take a block of wood, drill three holes and add 3 colored pencils. If you do it right, you might get something like this:

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Yet another blog post about character controllers for 3D games, and this time we will talk about the actual implementation.

Kinematic Character Controller Using Discrete Collision Detection

Here is how the character controller in our Character Controller Example works:

Capsule Shape

The character is represented as a an upright capsule that does not rotate:

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There are at least two ways to implement a character controller for a 3D game: Kinematic and Dynamic Character Controllers. In this post we discuss the difference and which solution is better.

A short reminder:
In this context a character controller is the piece of code that computes the movement of the player character in the game. It takes care that the user does not run through walls, can step up/down, jump etc. The character is often modeled as an upright capsule.

Related posts:  3D XNA Character Controller Example and Character Controller Requirements

Kinematic Character Controller

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In one of the last posts we introduced our Character Controller Example. In the next posts, we will discuss character controllers for 3D games in more detail, including: general requirements, kinematic vs. dynamic character controllers, implementation, character controllers in virtual reality.

This post starts the series with a discussion of requirements of 3D game character controller.

Functional Requirements

Teleport

The first requirement is teleport because the character controller must be set to its initial position. A teleport sets the character to a new position. It doesn't matter where it was previously and if there are obstacles between the old and new position.

Recover from penetrations

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In our company we do not program in VB.NET. Not that we have anything against it, we have just specialized in C# when we program .NET applications.

We are are aware that our WinForms libraries (DigitalRune Docking Windows and the DigitalRune Text Editor Control) are used by many VB programmers. And they regularly ask for VB example code.

Here are a few ways to automatically convert C# code to VB (or the other way around):

For the new DigitalRune Geometry library we have created a simple 3D character controller example (including source code).

A character controller, as understood in this context, is a game engine module that computes the movement of an avatar in a game. The input for the character controller is the desired movement (e.g. “move forward with 5 m/s speed”, or “jump”) and the output is the new corrected avatar position in the 3D game world. The character controller has to apply gravity, avoid penetration of walls and other solid objects, handle stepping up/down slopes and stairs, and more.

This blog post contains our collection of references for Collision Detection: website links, a list of collision detection libraries, list of books. This post will be updated from time to time.

If you know other useful links, please let us know and we will include them in this blog post.

Collision Detection Websites

This is a collection of various links about collision detection and related topics. 

• Collision Detection on Wikipedia
• GAMMA research group
  Website contains a brief description of several libraries.
• Geometry Algorithms
  Collection of geometry algorithms: clipping, intersections, etc.
• …
  

Here is a list of physics engines. This blog entry will be updated from time to time. If you know other useful links, please let us know and we will include  them in this list.

• 3Impact
  Game engine with dynamics.
• AERO
• AgX Multiphysics Toolkit 
• Animats - Falling Bodies
  Ragdoll physics.
• BEPUphysics
  3D physics engine designed specifically for the XNA Framework
• …

Like my brother Helmut, I finished my master thesis in 2005. The thesis goes through all the steps necessary for animating characters in games. I thought it might be of use to someone who is just starting with this topic – so I might just write a blog post and put it back online for download.

If you don’t know how to create class diagrams for the XNA classes in Visual Studio, here is a quick summary of the process.