Throw an object following a curve in 2D

Unity Engine
1

Hello,

I am trying to create a pong template, with the twist of being able to curve the ball with the paddle. Imagine this classic game: http://www.curveball-game.com but in 2D.

Everything in my scene is kinematic, except for the ball, so when the scene starts, I addForce to the ball’s rigid body and it bounces on the bounds and paddle.

In order to calculate how big the curve should be, I am saving the last 10 values of the paddle’s position inside fixedUpdate. Therefore, at the moment of the impact I know how fast the paddle was moving and apply an appropriate curve.

This is where my question starts. In my first implementation, I am using AddRelativeForce inside the ball’s FixedUpdate, pointing to the left or the right (depending on the paddle’s direction during the impact), in order to simulate a curve. But this constant force is messing with the ball’s velocity, meaning I am experiencing an acceleration every time I am curving the ball.

I want to be able to control the maximum velocity of the ball at any time. Should I abandon the addRelativeForce solution? What is the best way to achieve this behavior?

Thanks!

2

One option is to use ClampMagnitude on the ball’s velocity each frame, or after any velocity change, to limit the maximum speed it can go.

ball.velocity = Vector3.ClampMagnitude(ball.velocity, maxSpeed);