Hello!
In a Bullet Solver, I was wondering when should I use a Constrain TOP to connect 2 Actors and when should I merge 2 SOPs to draw one Actors.
For example: to simulate a pendulum with a rigid string, should I merge a Line SOP for the string and a Sphere TOP inside an Actor or should I use a Constrain to keep them together?
and if so: can I superpose 2 Actors via a Constrain?
Thank you!
Conceptually, you’d want them to be one actor/body when it’s a single cohesive shape with a shared center of mass, among other properties. Otherwise they can be separate and constrained.
In the case of a pendulum string, intuitively I think it should be done with instanced line segments constrained together in one Actor COMP, then the other Actor COMP would be the ball constrained to the last line segment instance. The “ball and chain” Bullet Solver COMP snippet demonstrates the behaviour, but in your case you’d replace the torus with a line (or an elongated box to give the collision shape some volume, if necessary)