Might we expect realistic ballistics that vary from caliber and load in FPS that change based on gravity? And if so, since we know there are at least two gravity factors: zero-g and Earth-like, is it presumable that there will be two types of ballistic curves for each load/shell/round?asked by Tokomi
TL;DRProjectiles are fully physically modelled by velocity, mass and cross-section, with gravity and other forces affecting them, so zero-g and Earth-like trajectories differ, though often not noticeably over short distances.
The projectile modelling in the game is full physical modelling, so we're actually in the process of changing out some abstracted damage point models for the projectiles to make it be more about velocity, mass, energy, size/volume/cross-section of a projectile. It's going to be much less about "this shell does 10 points of damage and this shell does 20 point s of damage". It's going to be much more, a hit at this velocity, it weighs this much, its cross-section is this much – and that will translate into amount of kinetic energy that's imparted that will translate into a damage amount. Energy bolts will be more about energy and less about the kinetic energy transfer... but still about the energy that is poured into the laser bolt. Because of that, you could have multiple weapons that fire the same projectile – say a 25 mm shell or a 50 mm shell – and it can have the same mass and everything but since the weapons fire the same projectile at different velocities, then that projectile will do different amounts of damage upon striking on whatever target you're shooting at.Then, not only that but things like the gravity – whether it's zero-g, Earth-like, or some other gravity – is all part of the simulation. So, as we move it forward at the speed, it will be affected by other forces which could include wind and all of the rest of the stuff. So all of that is modelled in CryPhysics and because we're having our projectiles all part of the physical simulation, all of the forces that affect everything else will also affect projectiles. This is slightly different from the way Crysis and those games have done it because they just did a ray cast and said, "Did I hit or not hit?", but we're actually firing real projectiles and moving them around in the physical space so they have all of the forces that act on them.So, yes, essentially you would probably have a slightly different trajectory path for a bullet you fire in zero-g as opposed to a bullet you fire in a more Earth-like gravity. Although, they go fast enough over a short enough distance that in most cases it would not be discernible. But yes, we have much more realistic ballistics and physical modelling in the game than maybe a lot of other ones.