Programming CH3 - Ridged Body Phyics

In our third programming challenge we focused on ridged body physics. The challenge was to create 2 convincing ridged body assets that damaged the played based on what type of material is was and what velocity it was traveling. Physical materials were also assigned to add sound and make the asset more convincing.  The ridged bodies were to be placed in a fun level people could drive through and be challenged.

I chose icicles and metal balls. The icicles slide around on the ground which you can see in the video below. The metal balls just destroy. The kismet for this is pretty much all trigger volumes and modify health with some float variable stuff to modify damage based on velocity.

The material i did was the ice/snow material. I made it following a 3DMotive tutorial, which is why I won't post a screen grab of the material layout. I will, however, show what the material does.

The material uses up vector math to always put the snow on top of the mesh. I can rotate any mesh, as seen above, and in real time, the snow moves so it is on the up facing sides of the mesh. This makes set dressing reallllly easy.  The material is also highly parametized (?) which I think is a really good habit to get in. There were seriously like 29 parameters you can change within this one material.