How can I manipulate a RagDoll made with farseer physics in Silverlight?

Answer 1

I think a better approach is to have an animated sprite played, rather than going through joint manipulation .

Answer 2

Maybe you can use some RotateTransform implementations to articulate arms and legs.

Answer 3

Not sure that ragdolls are the way to go here, if you want animations. But if you do want to use them, I'd lock the feet to the floor and have some rotation springs in the joints so that when no forces are applied, the body stands upright. Then if it gets a hit, it'll kind of bend over, but should rebound to it's stand-up state afterwards (you may have to help it along the way back, e.g. apply some forces/torques until it's back where you want it).

For animations, such as the character punching, you could perhaps apply a spring joint (I think that's the name). Connect it to the fist and the destination, and the arm should automatically move there. You could do the same with a kick, just release the lock on that foot. However, I think it might be hard to get it to look right. On the other hand, it would look unique to other games, even though it might look kinda funny.

If you're skilled, you might wanna create an animation editor and save an animation as a sequence of forces and torques that need to be applied to limbs in order to get them to where and when they should be.

Answer 4

For sure animated sprites are the best, and painless, way of doing this.