Ragdoll physics - Complete overview

Community General Discussion
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Hello everyone,
I’m a developer of Environmental and Free(attch) 3D models required for architectural projects. I’m writing this post due to high anticipation of seeing World of Warcraft engine develop into more modernistic one.

In general:

So-called “Ragdoll” physics were always present at all the triple A productions, in my “not so humble” opinion World of Warcraft should have introduced it already some time ago (BFA), instead of ray-tracing which is much more resource consuming and will not be used by many compared to physics. However, lot of games occur issues with corpse weight, where body can fly away even 1000 meters or more. By my experience, corpses must be way “heavier”, so e.g., Shaman’s Thunderstorm won’t push back too far away.

What’s Ragdoll effect:

I’ll use very short quote to anyone who doesn’t know what the ragdoll physics is: “Letting an animated body fall without premade animation.”
Or: Drive across the sidewalk in GTA 5.

Questions:

• Question(1): Impact of ragdolls on PvP?
• Answer(1): Ragdoll effect and its duration will be same as specific stuns, or pushbacks.
Example: Thunderstorm used -> Duration of the character in mid-air = Ragdoll effect duration -> Character lands = Animation terminated.
Example2: Thunderbolt used -> Duration of the stun = Ragdoll effect duration -> Stun ends = Animation terminated.
Obviously not all stuns will cause Ragdoll effect.

• Question(2): Loot from killed creatures will be lost if the corpse gets glitched/clipsed?
• Answer(2): No. Killed creature will drop a bag which is not affected by physics, corpse can fly away.

• Question(3): Physics? What about performance?
• Answer(3): Indeed, with implementation of physics CPU usage will be higher, however let me use an example of modern gaming.
As a developer my experience has shown the current gen ragdoll physics sticks always with:

  • i5-3470 (~€40)
  • GTX 660 (~€40)
    And here are min specification requirements for Shadowlands:
  • i5-3450 (~€40)
  • GTX 760 (~€90)
    (Some people are spending more money on weekly character service / mount shop), performance is not an issue since some years and the late-develop of Pascal architecture.

Positives:

• Fun of course, slaying mobs could be way more interesting, for me personally even addicting with physics.
• Assimilation into more modern gaming (achievement for Blizzard themselves)
• Lot of potential for new quests, raid/dungeon mechanics etc.

Negatives:

• Additional balancing - explanation: Shaman’s Thunderstorm, Druid’s Typhoon etc. would require specific calculations of a body push limit, that’s why I’ve mentioned about “Body weight” at “In general” at the top of this subject. E.g After 35 yards (or whatever the distance is), ragdoll stops, or body becomes heavier, so it won’t fly away too far.

Spells affected by physics (besides bodies, READ QUESTION(1) AS WELL!):

• Shaman: Thunderfury
• Druid: Typhoon
• Warrior: Stormbolt (Short push of 1-2 yards max. Ragdoll remains as long as stun duration, or if trinket used)
• Hunter: Powershot
• Potentially more spells with further expansions
(Any PvP talents based on pushback.)

Technical side:

• As we know NVIDIA owns the PhysX, it allows processing of physics in games on the GPU. However MMO’s are processed on the client’s CPU, so it is possible that two different players will see different “animation”, but the tracking of the object is still done by server side (hitbox etc. remains the same for everyone).

Personally I do not understand why raytracing has been implemented but physics not. If you’d like share your opinion which one would you prefer, Raytracing, or Ragdoll effect? Feel free to vote:
strawpoll [.] com/kss2gj7wr

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And the point of this thread is?

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Implementing ragdolls, sorry, thought my point is clear here.

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I stopped taking it serious here because hardware requirements for one isolated feature are of no value, considering there’s more going on for the hardware in a game / in WoW. WoW’s minimum requirements are already higher than that.

“As a developer in my experience” you can’t estimate hardware requirements of a feature without knowing the full picture.

(Some people are spending more money on weekly character service / mount shop), performance is not an issue since some years and the late-develop of Pascal architecture.

And reality shows the outrage of the community when SSDs were listed as a minimum requirement

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Indeed my “by eye” theory of those calculations are minimalistic, since we can throw a bomb of 80 players in mid-combat full of flying bodies, which will result in completely differect specifications. Those were done very casualy, since I simply cannot do it without knowing the currect hardware Blizzard is using.

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Blizzard will never put ragdoll physics into an RPG.

Well, maybe but it would have to be highly restricted. Flailing bodies don’t really match an MMO.

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Ragdoll physics are simply awful, they bug out so bad. Just nooooo.

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True, I have seen some really odd things in other games with ragdolls in them.

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only if we can use that console thing that allowed you to fusrohdah enemies to china

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I don’t think I’d want this feature in-game. It just doesn’t feel like s good fit. That’s not to mention I’m not sure how happy the already very old engine would be about the change. Also I think the number of problems/oddities it would introduce is just not worth it. Like with your example

so the character would be ragdolling while in the air, and then the second they hit the ground they would suddenly be back on their feet ready to go? That would look awful. And if you added a getting up period (i.e. a stun) that would cause big issues to the balancing.

I dunno. Seems like a lot of problems/negatives for little to no gain. I’d take ray tracing over ragdolls without hesitation.

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Raytracing was added just so they can use it as a marketing buzzword. I mean, look at it’s implementation. It couldn’t possibly be any more barebone.

Ragdolls sounds more fun, but if im going to be honest, i feel like both are a waste of development. Ragdoll physics will make people go “cool” for an hour or two and then they will forget about it.

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