Physics Assets, ragdolls, and physical animation

Author

1. Open the Physics Asset Editor and fit minimal capsules/boxes/spheres/convex bodies to meaningful bones.
2. Remove or simplify tiny bodies that do not affect collision/readability.
3. Disable collision for adjacent bodies that should not contact.
4. Align constraint frames at anatomical/mechanical joints.
5. Set Swing/Twist limits from the intended range, then test animation extremes.
6. Assign mass, damping, physical materials, and body/constraint profiles by gameplay state.
7. Simulate in-editor with representative collision and impulses; then test in the actual character.

Choose the behavior

• Full ragdoll: transition the required bodies to simulation and define capsule/movement/camera ownership.
• Partial ragdoll: simulate below a bone while animation controls the rest.
• Physical Animation Component: drive simulated bodies toward animation using a named profile.
• Rigid Body animation node: secondary physics inside the animation graph when its world/collision mode fits.

Blend in/out with an explicit state machine. On recovery, stop gameplay authority from reading unstable limb contacts, choose a valid get-up pose/orientation, reconcile the character capsule, and return body control in a known order.

Profile body/contact/constraint counts across all characters. Skeletal visual LOD does not automatically guarantee a cheap physics representation; use Physics Asset/body/constraint profiles and distance/state policy appropriate to the game.