How do I make an active ragdoll system that isn't super floppy but instead similar to the euphoria physics engine?

Getting Started
,
1

Hello.
I have an idea for a game and I want to push myself, I have decided that I want to make a system where the character is “technically” an active ragdoll, in that it doesn’t appear or feel like one normally (as opposed to that of gang beasts, human fall flat, etc) but is instead more similar to the euphoria engine, seen in modern gta and red dead redemption games. I know it’s a very big undertaking, but I’m wondering if there are any guides or tools out there to help me. (unfortunately I can’t spend 80 quid on some premade system on the asset store)

2

Then wait until PuppetMaster is on sale. :wink:

PuppetMaster does exactly what Euphoria does, blending animation with ragdoll to a configurable, runtime-modifiable degree.

You can achieve a stiffer ragdoll by tweaking the character joints on the ragdoll. Primarily tweak the angular springs and angular limits to make the joints less “swingy” ie having stiffer tendons. This won’t match the ragdoll state to an animator though but it will make the ragdoll less cartoony.

3

Sorry, allow me to rephrase, i’m not willing to spend any money on assets etc. Im doing it more for the experience and to help me learn this stuff.

Yeah puppet master would make it easier and probably better, but since this won’t be a commercial release, there’s no reason to not try either.

4

In that case you’ll need an animated character with a separate ragdoll, where the ragdoll bodies follow the animation with a modifiable “strength”. At 1 it would precisely match the animation, at 0 it would be entirely physics-based.

The real challenge lies in making the rigidbody adhere to the animation constraints - this must be done by adding forces and torque and will likely require multiple iterations per update to stabilize the motion.

Learning this from the start even with intermediate physics engine knowledge, I’d say you’re looking at a 2+ months learning experience, and more if it needs to be production-ready. Unless of course you have an AI support you in that task, then you might get it done 2-4x faster (depends on the AI and how you prompt it).