Custom vehicle dynamics in multiplayer

Development World Creation
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1

I’ve spent some time recently trying to figure out the best way to implement a custom vehicle on the network. Let’s just assume it’s a helicopter for this example. Neither the character nor [wheeled] vehicle seems like the right place to start – so I’m looking for the best recommendation for a starting point.

Ideally, I’d do something similar to the WheeledVehicleMovementComponent, but that seemed like a little strange to be accessing ‘private’ engine physics in the implementation. I’ve got a couple other ideas, but before heading down that path, would like to know what the unreal recommendation is.

Any suggestions?

2

For something like a helicopter, you probably want to start from scratch, rather than trying to use the Wheeled Vehicle functionality. You can probably look at the Rolling or Flying templates to get started, though these do not include networking support at the moment. If you decide to use the PhysX physics simulation (like Rolling), the built-in physics state replication should at least get you started (this is similar to what we have done for vehicle replication in previous games).

3

Thanks James, that’s more or less what I was expecting. I’ll take a look at the Rolling template for the PhysX simulation.