Downhill Longboarding: Character movement

Unity Engine
1

So I’m attempting to make a speedboarding sumulator, which requires the manipulation of multiple joints, individually. I have a video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHlXY4aKDq8&feature=plcp

Now that all is fine and dandy, but the main leaning hinge joints are connected to nothing, and when I connect them to something, it goes haywire. So I figured going with a rigged character might be the way to go. My question is then, is it possible to set up a rigged character to move the bones based on character input using physics, and not animation? I want to eventually use a PS3/Xbox controller and have the arms move based on the analog stick’s direction.

A great example is this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG5-Ghluhs8

That’s the exact type of input I would like to create, but obviously a different scenario. Is there any way to do this in Unity?

Thanks so much!

2

I’m doing something kinda similar but in 2D for my game, Krashlander (Currently a Windows Phone game, soon to be an iOS game). Here is an old video showing the touch controls.

This, probably doesn’t help you that much however, there is a guy who’s done a lot of research on this kinds control mechanic and he just happens to address 3D motion/control as well.

Hope this helps: User Interfaces for Interactive Control of Physics-based 3D Characters (.pdf)

Here is some of his other research that might also be helpful: http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~van/papers/index.html

Interested to see how your simulator turns out. I love the physics based controls mechanics.

-Jeff