transform.Translate strange results with children

Questions & Answers
1

Hello,

I have my player GameObject, towing a chain of other objects using SpringJoints, all works well & good. They are flying in a pseudo-2D world, which is a finite size. When the player goes past a certain limit near the edges, I translate everything across to the other side, so it’s like having a globe world - again, this works fine for the player. Trouble is, the towed objects don’t seem to translate properly, and spend a few frames whizzing about as their spring joints readjust, so it looks a bit odd. The basic code is -

Player (on FixedUpdate() ):

float posX = transform.position.x;
float posZ = transform.position.z;
	
bool hasCircumnavigated = false;
Vector3 shift = Vector3.zero;
	
if (posX < worldXLimitLeft) {
	
    shift = new Vector3(worldWidth, 0f, 0f);
    hasCircumnavigated = true;
			
} else if (posX > worldXLimitRight) {
	
    shift = new Vector3(-worldWidth, 0f, 0f);
    hasCircumnavigated = true;
		
}
	
if (posZ < worldZLimitBack) {
	
    shift = new Vector3(0f, 0f, worldDepth);
    hasCircumnavigated = true;
		
} else if (posZ > worldZLimitFront) {
	
    shift = new Vector3(0f, 0f, -worldDepth);
    hasCircumnavigated = true;
		
}
	
	
if (hasCircumnavigated) {
	
    transform.Translate(shift);
		
    trailingObjectsManagerScript.RelocateTrailingObjects(shift);
		
}

Trailing objects:

public void RelocateTrailingObjects(Vector3 theMovement) {
	
	foreach (GameObject theObject in towedObjects) {
		theObject.transform.Translate(theMovement);
	}
	
}

It’s as if the spring joint is affecting the translation somehow. If anyone knows what’s going on, I’d appreciate some advice!

Thanks

2

Well, I fixed it, but to be honest, I don’t know why the first method didn’t work. The fix is -

public void RelocateTrailingObjects(Vector3 theMovement) {
	
	foreach (GameObject theObject in towedObjects) {
		
		Vector3 objectPos = theObject.transform.position;
		objectPos += theMovement;
		
		theObject.transform.position = objectPos;
		
	}
	
}

If anyone can follow this up, I’d be very happy!