pin ball flippers---how? (mine are crap!)

[firthy]

Hi,
I hope some math/physics guru can shed some light on this.
I'm currently making a pinball game, it's reasonably tight apart from the flippers....very shoddy! For the majority of the game I'm using bit101's(great site) method of tranlating co-ords to do the non vertical/horizontal reflections. The question is (i'm no expert) is how do i use this method of tranlation with an already rotating movie clip, taking into consideration the amount "leverage" (ie how far down the length of the flipper)is on the ball and how speed/vector/mass of the flipper effects the x and y velocities of the ball? Any kind of help on this would be much appreciated, or even a good book covering such issues. (i've already got flash super samuri). many thanks,
Firthy

[bit-101]

i've struggled with this quite a bit. basically, the paddle is a movieclip and you rotate it when you hit a key. then you do your normal hit testing as per the other angled walls. the main thing is getting down the timing.

as far as reaction, if the flipper is stationary (either up or down) it's just a straight bounce. if it is moving, then it is going to add momentum to the ball. of course, the further from the pivot point, the more velocity it will add.

after countless tries at this, i learned that it can get real complex real fast and sometimes the best idea is to tackle it again another day with a fresh mind.

here's the best one i came up with so far:

http://www.bit-101.com/pinball/pinball_06.swf

can't give out the code for this one, sorry.

[firthy]

x
[Edited by firthy on 05-25-2002 at 05:09 AM]

[bit-101]

can't help much more at the moment. sorry.

[firthy]

Thanks anyway, I've kind of got this thing going in the right direction. It certainly gets the grey matter going on overtime!

cheers firthy.