What is the fastest way to have a 'ground' plane for physics

Unity Engine
1

Complete newby question here, so be patient.

If the game area is flat, but I want physics/collisions to work reliably on it, what is the fastest way (performance wise) to implement this?

Based on what I have seen so far, I can use a plane, an existing box/cube game object, or use my own mesh collider, but I am trying to figure out the best way to take advantage of the terrain’s flat nature.

2

I believe the engine’s built-in terrain will offer the best perfomance.

3

CosmicMesh,

Thanks- that makes sense, but I realized that I did not define the issue adequately.

I need to place a bunch of items on the terrain, but with exact accuracy of their placement. The default terrain allows “painting” of trees/grass and custom meshes but does not give any way (or I haven’t figured out yet) for placing specific items at specific locations. Think about building a town block where you have the buildings and want to place them exactly.

I can instance the objects through scripts or just place them in the editor, but it seems like the renderer will issue one draw call per object; adding a few hundred objects rapidly drops the framerate. The same number of items through terrain painting barely make a dent - so is there a way to handle terrain like that?

4

A BoxCollider is definitely very efficient for this. You can remove the default MeshCollider from a plane object and add your own BoxCollider (menu is Component > Physics > Box Collider). You will have to set the collider’s size to match the plane using the inspector.

5

Thanks, I am trying both right now. The more I am using Unity the more I like it, by the way.

So, is there a way to use the ‘special mesh’ painting approach but add meshes to specific locations, or is there a setting for the random variation and other parameters that will allow me to click and place features on the terrain with some accuracy? Of course, I realize these features have no collisions or physics, they are just eye candy.

6

i have a question should anybody be bold even to even answer. lets say i import a cube. then stretch it into my terrain.meaning i use it as a terrain. now i am attempting to do animations on that cube using the is gorunded parameter. do i need t go into the cubes settings and specify it as the ground? my character has all the neccesary scripts and even a character controller but wont move and i think thts some of the problem. Help plz. Thx