Use Position and Rotation instead of GlobalTransform (Based off PR #61)

[Alpyg]

Fixed demos compilation errors

No stuttering when tested with lightyear

[idanarye]

Isn't the PhysicsSchedule a schedule of its own, separate from the FixedUpdate?

[Alpyg]

Not sure what @janhohenheim meant by PhysicsSchedule being FixedUpdate by default

[idanarye]

Maybe that the default in Avian is FixedUpdate but usually you'd want to use PhysicsSchedule?

This is kind of important, both because the documentation needs to be correct and because it affects the ScheduleToUse::PhysicsSchedule option in the demos. I'll try to ping him on Discord.

[janhohenheim]

Hey hey everyone. I was not active much in the Bevy space for some months due to academia, so what I'm writing now might not be accurate. But as I remember it, I was looking at PhysicsSchedule as basically a generic label / wrapper / "variable" for the actual schedule. What the actual schedule was, I determined by looking at PhysicsSchedulePlugin .schedule which back then was FixedUpdate by default (now FixedPostUpdate).
It's very very possible that I misunderstood / misunderstand how the schedule hierarchy precisely works in Bevy, so if you think this sounds somewhat wrong, it probably is :D

[idanarye]

That's weird. I thought the point of the PhysicsSchedule was supposed to run in its own frequency, which means its runner was supposed to run it multiple times, or not at all, depending on how much time has passed since the last time it was ran. In other words - even if it runs in PostUpdate the PhysicsSchedule itself still gets fixed frame time.

But not it looks like PhysicsSchedule is mostly about not running it if Avian is paused and about replacing the Time resource while it runs?

[Jondolf]

@idanarye The point of the PhysicsSchedule is just to advance the whole physics simulation by one step, using the delta time stored in the Time resource. The schedule is independent of how often and in what way it is run; you could run it with a fixed time step, a variable time step, or even run it manually for e.g. networking purposes.

Avian 0.2 did indeed change how the default scheduling is set up. Previously, Avian managed its own fixed time step in PostUpdate, but this had unnecessary complexity, footguns (ex: duplicate fixed time steps when running physics in FixedUpdate, and having to use Time::fixed_once_hz), several bugs, and it was overall strange to emulate a custom fixed time step when Bevy already has a first-party one. Running physics after Update was also kind of strange; both Unity and Godot run it before, near the end of FixedUpdate/_physics_process.

With the new scheduling, the PhysicsSchedule is run in FixedPostUpdate by default, making FixedUpdate the natural place for most user gameplay logic and movement systems, except of course for things like camera movement or interpolation which should typically run every frame for smooth and responsive results.

You can still run physics in e.g. PostUpdate too, but it will use a variable time step with Time<Virtual> since that is the active time resource there. And of course custom scheduling is possible too for additional control.

The new scheduling and rationale is covered in all of these:

• https://joonaa.dev/blog/07/avian-0-2#reworked-scheduling
• https://github.com/Jondolf/avian/releases/tag/v0.2.0
• Use FixedPostUpdate by default and simplify scheduling avianphysics/avian#457

[idanarye]

My scheduling goals are:

• I want Tnua's internal systems to get the correct frame duration - that is, the same one Avian uses - because it's crucial for their calculations.
• I prefer Tnua's internal systems to run in lockstep with Avian's physics simulation, so that they can respond to the position and velocity changes Avian make.
• User control systems don't need to use Avian's frame duration - but they do need to run in lockstep with Tnua's systems because of how actions work.

Base on these goals and your description, I'd say the recommended way is to have both TnuaControllerPlugin and TnuaAvian#dPlugin use PhysicsSchedule and to put the user control systems under FixedUpdate?

Also, regarding the demos, this means that ScheduleToUse::PhysicsSchedule is meaningless. Instead, for Avian, ScheduleToUse::Update should register Avian itself under PostUpdate and the user control systems under Update while ScheduleToUse::FixedUpdate should register Avian itself under FixedPostUpdate and the user control systems under FixedUpdate - and either way the Tnua plugins should be registered under PhysicsSchedule.

[BrainBacon]

@idanarye Is this still blocked by the scheduling choices? I've been using this fork for use with lightyear with success for the last couple months.

[idanarye]

@BrainBacon
Pretty much, yes. Not sure if "blocked" is the correct word, since this mainly is about the docs and about the demos and I can always just merge it and fix it myself, but I do want to at least understand it before doing so.

[idanarye]

I think I'll just merge it and fix the scheduling (and doc comments)

[idanarye]

Wait what?

I thought Avian's PhysicsSchedule is a schedule of its own which has its frequency controlled by Avian. Was it changed to just be equivalent to the FixedUpdate? I don't see anything about it in the release notes.

Also, if PhysicsSchedule really does mean the exact same thing as FixedUpdate - to the point where when we run the demo with PhysicsSchedule it gets switched to FixedUpdate behind our back - maybe we should just remove ScheduleToUse::PhysicsSchedule?

[Alpyg]

I think I messed up when I rebased, I reverted it