DYNAMICS
Energy Treshold


A weird name for a weird parameter.
The Energy treshold is the minimun amount of energy that an object needs to "have"
in order to start its movement.
Ummm... yeah,really cool definition!.. Now could you please explain it in English?
Hehe, ok, lets see, as a picture is worth a 1000 words, let's take a look to that scene!!

The energy tresholds of the spheres are as follows

Big

Medium

Small

0,0005

0,0005

0,0005

And the mass of each one

Big

Medium

Small

30 kg

1kg

0,0003kg


When pressing Action, you will notice that the small ball doesn´t move.
That's because the energy it receives from gravity is not enough to start its movement.

Changing the energy threshold...

Big

Medium

Small

0,0005

0,0005

0



Now, knowing that, imagine a fractured object. It´s quite usual to have big pieces of geometry combined with small ones.
If the mass of the small ones is not enough (as with the small sphere) it wont move. Just change the Energy threshold back to what it was before to make it work.
Objects with an energy threshold set to 0 always moves.

Another interesting feature of the energy threshold is the capability to optimize the performance of your simulation.
Here's an example (the video can be found in our gallery):



The energy threshold is set to start the movement of the pieces only when it's hit by another and stops when it lays on the ground.
An object gains energy by forces (like gravity) or by collisions with particles or with another object.