I have created a nice physics enabled Pool Table prop with working ball return. It works great but the Pool Table prop would be even better if the sides/bumpers would actually act like they should.

For example, ignoring things like ball spin, when a pool ball hits the pool table edge, physics dictates that the angle of incidence (the angle at which the ball hit the edge) equals the angle of reflection (the angle at which the ball reflects from the edge). I have tried playing with the Physics settings on the pool table edges but I can't seem to come up with a combination that get anywhere near this effect. Typically the ball hits the edge, loses most of its momentum and rolls somewhat along the edge instead of bouncing off the edge. Is there some Physics settings that will achieve this effect or is this a limitation of the iClone Physics engine.

Similarly if the cue ball hits another ball dead on, typically the momentum of the cue ball is transferred to the impacted ball. In a perfect transfer the cue ball stops completely where it impacted the other ball and the all of the energy is transferred into the second ball. What kinds of Physics settings should I use to achieve this type of energy transfer.

BTW, I am fully aware that to animate both of the above situations manually would be fairly trivial unless the animation consists of a large number of objects (such as breaking during a billiards game). However, it would still be nice to provide a Pool Table prop that had working physics so that the user does not have to animate manually. 













"We often compare ourselves to the U.S. and often they come out the best, but they only have the right to bear arms while we have the right to bare breasts"
Bowser and Blue, Busting The Breast

The forces probably need increasing. Try an initial force of 200-500. Make sure your pool table edges have a higher mass than your billiard balls.

My Pool Table Surface is currently:

Physics Type: Static
Mass: N/A (for Static objects)
Friction: 0.1
Damping: 0.1
Elasticity: 0.0

My Pool Table Edges are currently:

Physics Type: Static
Mass: N/A (for Static objects)
Friction: 0.1
Damping: 0.1
Elasticity: 100.0

My Pool Table Balls are currently:

Physics Type: Dynamic
Mass: 1.0
Friction: 2.0
Damping: 5.0
Elasticity: 0.0

What I am seeing is that the balls hit the edge and either slide along the edge if it was not a perpendicular hit or they remain at the edge rolling in place. In neither case do I get bounce back.




"We often compare ourselves to the U.S. and often they come out the best, but they only have the right to bear arms while we have the right to bare breasts"
Bowser and Blue, Busting The Breast

I have tried different forces and that does not seem to change the results much. I mean the ball rolls and hits with faster speed/force but it still rolls off instead of deflecting.

"We often compare ourselves to the U.S. and often they come out the best, but they only have the right to bear arms while we have the right to bare breasts"
Bowser and Blue, Busting The Breast

You might need a lot more "friction" for proper ball rolling  Something like "50."
Sadly, the "friction" value does not seem to correspond to any actual values.

I'm not sure about the elasticity, but that probably needs to be very high, too, like "99."

Apply both those values to the balls, since they have the dynamic physics.

(Um, yeah, it's not a scientific simulation tool.  But a lot better than nothing.)

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
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You can try this one. The trick seems to be using a high friction on balls and walls and floor, so that the balls will roll. I used 200 all around. Damping at zero. Initial velocity 600. The friction cuts it pretty quickly. An avatar with a pool cue will probably hit a lot harder than this anyway.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3nsNVGroEz6NG5JdGtCZ2o2ZU0

Another thing that makes a big difference is what your physics world scale is set to in the project panel. The default is 5, but a prperly sized billiard table and balls work much better at 2, or even 1. 

Another approach here might be to use the IC7 API.
We still do not know how much we can do with them, but if we can tightly control the movement of the objects along the timeline, then it should not be difficult to scrpit what Lord Ashes wants to achieve.
During the Python online course of the Rice University at www.coursera.org (which I strongly recommend to start to get the hands wet on Python) I made the Pong video-game in Phyton, which is about how a ball bounce against a wall, and the Asterorids video game, which is about how an element (Ship) detects when it collides with another (the asteroids).
Doesn´t sound similar to build some script to make the pool "alive" ? 

  Roberto

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The most important thing is to set your physics world scale, in the project panel, to a small number. Because billiard balls are pretty small, I set the scale to "1". Two sort-of worked as well. When you set the scale smaller, you must also increase gravity (a lot!).

Now where did I hear that before? Oh, right! You said that before!
I am sure that you are absolutely 100% correct but I am starting to suspect that you may be working for NVIDIA or at least getting some kickbacks ;-)


"We often compare ourselves to the U.S. and often they come out the best, but they only have the right to bear arms while we have the right to bare breasts"
Bowser and Blue, Busting The Breast