How Spherical Planets Bent the Rules in Super Mario Galaxy

Let's find out how Super Mario Galaxy's gravity and physics engine broke all the rules, and changed the Mario series forever.
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00:00 Intro
03:37 The Physics behind Spherical Planets in Super Mario Galaxy
26:03 Channel Update

[@ninjanerdstudent6937]

Narrator: There is no written rule that item boxes might have good items. Mario Maker: Correct.

[@aclstudios]

@Luke yeet ...wut

[@ado-]

@Luke yeet ...wut

[@Cuck-Lord]

@Luke yeet ...wut

[@phantomred2]

@Luke yeet ...wut

[@hri7566]

@Luke yeet ...wut

[@alessiobenvenuto5159]

So it's confirmed, photons in mario universe have weight.

[@robhillen8007]

Light has energy so E=mc² says it will be affected by gravity like it has a very small mass, but to the point of falling straight down is a Mario universe exclusive.

[@chloroplast8611]

@@robhillen8007 electrons can be affected by gravity

[@DavidSartor0]

Good comment.

[@alessiobenvenuto5159]

That would explain why mario doesn't stretch in space too, because all the weight of the photons create pressure just like an atmosphere. It's all coming together.

[@ezraguerrero2879]

Acrually, E=mc^2 is not the full story! I reccomend you check out minute physics videos about the subject, but there is an extra term in the equation that is irrelevant for most objects due to their slow speeds compared to light. I am no expert on the subject, but with a little research you can dig up a lot of cool stuff!

[@andrewdrost6786]

The visuals you used for the gravity fields are outstanding. They make the concept so easy to understand.

[@Mario-vt2dy]

Yeah, how did he make them?

[@SemlerCrafter]

@@Mario-vt2dy he made a mod

[@webbtail245]

@@SemlerCrafter they're probably just objects you can view by using a debug mode

[@JasperRLZ]

while I'm flattered to have been mistaken for Nintendo debug code, I did all of the visuals myself through a modified version of noclip. I put a link to the code branch in the video description.

[@thelegendaryluxray6088]

@@JasperRLZ that’s absolutely incredible

[@blackasthesky]

The actual difficulty of this is that these madlads always build their engines themselves, and code the game in c/c++ entirely. That's art.

[@SaadTheGlad]

Blackasthesky holy shit that’s a pain in the ass, and unity is hard enough!

[@nostalgiafactor733]

it makes sense, pre-built engines are only *really* useful for indie-developers and for the companies that made the engines (ie. Unreal). A custom engine will always have more flexibility and personalization to fit any specific needs of a particular game.

[@__8120]

I made Tetris in c++ and I wanted to die I can't imagine building a game like this

[@keithkaranu4258]

@@nostalgiafactor733 that might have been the case in the past but more and more studios are using third party engines. Case and point being games like animal crossing using unity or FF7 remake using UE4.

[@Gevs]

While that was true at the time, Nintendo actually uses Unreal Engine for their games now. I was shocked when I found that out.

[@199NickYT]

I can't believe I never realized that the cause-effect relationship for Super Mario Galaxy went FROM spherical worlds TO the outer-space theme, not the other way around. The outer-space theme was a complete byproduct and a means to the end of spherical worlds. It was not the intention from the beginning. Mind-blowing.

[@RedHatGuyYT]

Nintendo's philosophy is gameplay first, worldbuilding later.

[@199NickYT]

@@RedHatGuyYT and I knew that, which is why I am even more stunned I didn't figure it out earlier lol

[@ausdorian3252]

@@RedHatGuyYT except on mario oddysey

[@rhettmitchell]

@@ausdorian3252 how so

[@ausdorian3252]

@@rhettmitchell the gameplay is add a lot of moves and 1 action captures whit barely any use And a world whit a million moons easter eggs and more

[@ODCrab]

Default Mario was 1 tile high. So fitting inside a sphere makes sense. He was only a long boy when he was on growth shroom. His body must have slowly reverted to normal after the Delfino police confiscated them.

[@arctrog]

ふふふふ🤭

[@cube2fox]

I always assumed that 3D Mario was the "long" Mario of the 2D games. Nintendo even called "long" Mario "Super Mario" in some Super Mario Maker commercial.

[@ODCrab]

@@cube2fox "long" Mario would be the weird shroom, lol Mario wasnt actually hitting the shrooms untill the first "super Mario" game. So "super Mario" would be his trip-sona. He probably started them to help regrow his bones after DK Jr severely injured him. It's commentary on opioid adiction.

[@cube2fox]

@@ODCrab Luckily super mushrooms are hallucinogenics not opioids!

[@ODCrab]

@@cube2fox Its real world counterpart, the fly amanita, is hallucinogenic. But this is a fictional mushroom that gives health and sometimes growth. I feel pain killers are a more apt comparison. Though you could argue that the pain being gone is a hallucionation as well. Still the principle is the same. Getting adicted to something perscribed for medical purposes. And suffering from continued use, long after it is still necessary.

[@dkosmari]

Also worth noting is Mario's silhouette when behind a wall; so much for making levels spherical with no walls... they ended up writing special code to show Mario when he's obstructed.

[@radiak488]

it’s actually a completely separate model! twitter.com/mariobrothblog/status/1307752723954237442?s=21

[@ArcRay20]

i want to say "didnt they already do this in Sunshine" and they did, but also that "peep hole" effect the sometimes happens that makes a hole in an object so you can see through it, but it doesnt happen all the time. maybe its only for objects and not walls?

[@melody3741]

I know i hate when games dont do that! It was such a great addition and genius.

[@thinkublu]

​​@@ArcRay20 the Splatoon games actually do that peephole effect too, it's so helpful And yeah, it's only for objects, and only some objects - if you have splatoon 3, you can go to the lobby and notice that you can see through the targets and the elevated platform on a stand by the moving targets One of the big things you can see through are the bumpers on some of the maps too

[@thinkublu]

I just realised this is 2 years old oops

[@Dezomm]

Getting a "behind the scenes" look like this gives me a whole new level of appreciation for the immense amount of work, passion and ingenuity that goes into making a game as revolutionary as Mario Galaxy. Thanks a lot for the time you put into making this!

[@__-cd9ug]

even though I know there are teams of talented people working hundreds if not thousands of hours on those major games, I feel like this is one of the first time I've begun to realize and appreciate their efforts

[@iLiokardo]

too much work lol

[@ims2129]

Liokardo bruh

[@BierBart12]

It also shows just how dedicated Japanese people are to their work in a way.

[@nuxx1876]

nintendo still puts a ton of work into a lot of their games, just a shame their shitty business practices overshadow that fact

[@zydeas]

I'm fairly sure a whole lot of games these days use **capsules** rather than cylinders. that's what both Unity (& UE4 too I believe) use for their character controllers. Physics solving code can get very complex so I'm simplifying, but the rounded bottom on a capsule means it's easier to write a character controller that doesn't get stuck on tiny variations in the height of the ground. If you think about it this way, Galaxy Mario is essentially a capsule with no mid-height. Having character animations switch around and not match hitboxes is also something that's incredibly common, simply because complex character animations often don't fit inside simple shapes.

[@JasperRLZ]

I was simplifying for the sake of video explanation, but the orientability of capsules is still a problem. Abusing the symmetry of spheres to forgo orientability concerns altogether is an elegant solution, especially having to interpolate a sweep along a surface. I debated for a long time whether to include capsules vs. cylinders in the script, but as the main concern is about orientability, I figured it wouldn't be a major sin to exclude the difference for the benefit of snappier pacing.

[@zydeas]

@@JasperRLZ Fair enough. A sphere would probably be the option I'd end up choosing in their situation too (after banging my head against the wall with cylinders long enough). The video's still great.

[@charlesthomson9276]

However "capsules" are more complex shapes than cylinders and spheres (which can be defined with just two points and a radius or one point and a radius respectively) so in terms of collision detection calculations they'd probably avoid capsules. Just a thought....

[@DogsRNice]

Capsules are also recommended to be used in the godot engine as well even for 2d games

[@leonardotemperanza5824]

@@charlesthomson9276 While it's true that capsules are indeed more complex shapes than spheres, what you used to describe the definition of a cylinder in a physics engine pertains to capsules, not cylinders. A capsule can be represented with a line and a distance (radius) from that line. A cylinder, on the other hand, assuming it's not always axis aligned, can be slightly more expensive (especially cylinder-cylinder intersection tests), which is why it's not even included as a physics primitive in most modern physics engines such as PhysX. I doubt the performance difference would in any way be significant for tens or even hundreds of objects though.

[@LeleSocho]

8:12 "to answer this... ... ...we need to talk about Parallel Universes" sorry i couldn't resist with Mario 64 File Select music on the background.

[@boilingsoymilk]

this sounds super familiar, is this from the mario 64 thing?

[@boilingsoymilk]

@@bucketfullabiscuits7865 thanks! :)

[@DavidSartor0]

@@bucketfullabiscuits7865 *Rocks Edit: Fixed.

[@r033cx]

This is 100% intentional

[@Alphie_]

@@r033cx If it isn't I'll be super disappointed.

[@MrDoot_]

wow, this man really just figured out the gravity in super Mario galaxy, AND the cell shading in windwaker?? kudos to you, my guy. Kudos to you

[@DeathnoteBB]

And the scrolling textures in Mario Galaxy 2

[@MrDoot_]

@@DeathnoteBB yes, that's how I found this channel, of course. All great stuff

[@TamaraValmar]

Mario already was a round man but we had no idea just *how* round this little jump man *really* is...

[@bamster64]

The custom graphics that you use to represent usually invisible and abstract objects (e.g. force field) is an amazing work of art. As a programmer myself I'm always wondering "did he do that on the video editing software or did he code it manually into the engine".

[@jbritain]

He implemented it in his map viewer for Nintendo games, noclip

[@PurpleSunTAS]

As a TASer, it's always interesting to see how physics and mechanics work at the core of it. The shaped gravity fields makes it clearer as to how gravity can be manipulated for speed and height. Great video!

[@playtime8945]

@Luke yeet ...wut

[@katawaya8101]

I bet TASing this game takes literal calculus

[@Green0Photon]

Oh wow, this was incredible. Mario Galaxy is my favorite game from my childhood, and it was amazing learning about how the gravity actually works, which I've always wondered about. It's super interesting how, after playing the game, the gravity shapes you talk about are super obvious. Thanks for such an informative and interesting video!

[@Shady_Inktail]

I actually didn't know that the Spooky Speeder star in Ghostly Galaxy had individual gravity zones to make you fall back to the start to prevent cheating. Very interesting.

[@BaalFridge]

"Rules and player expectations" Here I was thinking you were gonna say parallel universes

[@UltravioletNomad]

Me: expecting a video about level design This video: let's talk about physics and coding Me: I have no idea what's going on but I'm having fun.

[@reddragon3132]

As someone who's dabbled a bit with game dev myself the idea of using gravity fields had been my first thought of how galaxy pulled this off. Especially since they're a good way of describing gravity from a physics viewpoint. The thing that surprised me most was using a spherical hitbox! It's a simple fix but is such an ingenious idea!

[@Marv503]

This is so interesting! I never realized that the shadows always point to the ground. When you climb up the wall with the honey, the shadows are displayed on the wall, so you can see how high you flew, because you wouldn't see your shadow on the ground at that point

[@makarisland]

Every time I replay Galaxy I'm always baffled at how smooth and seamless the gameplay feels despite the minor complaints about the camera controls I have. I never realized that the camera controls bug me bc I'm trying to control the camera like I would do in other 3d games I've played when the intention was to get rid of the need to control the camera at all. I still can't help my urge to readjust the camera and look around more freely though, the game's so pretty:,)

[@tovi3280]

So glad I got to watch this before sleeping, this is so relaxing to watch, so please do more!

[@MetroAndroid]

When Mario Galaxy first came out, there were so many times where I wasn't sure if I'd fall into space or land on the other side. Made me afraid to even go near the edge of most planets. Awesome video! Somehow I didn't see your videos since the one on scrolling textures, so I'll be watching those too.

[@KaptenKetchup]

I recommend the book "game feel" for those interested in how the controls of Super Mario Bros. and Mario 64 works on a more technical level.

[@littlemoth4956]

Game feel is a stupid ass term. Anyone who uses it is extremely likely to be completely clueless on game design.

[@KaptenKetchup]

@@littlemoth4956 Huh, I've never heard that sentiment. Why do you think that?

[@carlosfbarajas7755]

I hate math, so I'm going to become a game developer. Some years later: I have to program the physics of gravity fields!!!!!!

[@nigeladams8321]

I'm going to be real with you: This is kind of how I assumed it worked (other than the sphere hotbox bit) what made this kind of obvious to me was the gravity switching areas with the arrows that move along walls.

[@HaydenTheEeeeeeeeevilEukaryote]

I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of listening to you talk about Super Mario Galaxy, and simply because you present it really well and I feel it still has so much left to teach us. As I’m sure you’re aware of by now, these videos are awesome and I can’t wait to see what else you have to teach us in the future about how these old games accomplished so many of their cool feats.

[@ArthurGamer20101]

Black Holes: are the most powerful objects in the universe, where not even light can escape. The planets with a blackhole inside it: well, it's all right!

[@poijnve3912]

jsu tlike with the moon, black holes can have orbits~

[@aortaplatinum]

Now that we know how it works, it would be rad to see this applied to older games' gravity segments through mods, Mad Space from Sonic Adventure 2 in particular needs it

[@FunkyFurret]

Portal with spherical chambers!

[@aortaplatinum]

@@FunkyFurret S P H E R I C A L

[@Quaternality]

Very, very, very interesting Jasper! And I mean that in a good way! Lots of information to think about, especially with that article on planning in games. Thanks for taking the time to make this, your stuff is always a treat to watch!

[@voyagerwitch]

you made this whole video without saying the word "vector" once. i'm impressed!

[@Eli-akad]

I remember playing Mario galaxy when I was 7 back in 2007 while my mother’s friend was babysitting me. The planets that were a sphere with hole straight thru them scared me as a youngin (same kinda fear that some feel from deep oceans) because of what I knew about gravity as a kid and the back drops. The thought of falling in one of those holes and somehow falling out the world terrified me. At the time I didn’t even know what game I played until around 2013 when I learned about Mario galaxy. For the longest time I was perplexed by what game it was and why it was so strange as a Mario game to me

[@okathebakerpon5788]

The editing for all the visuals in this video is incredible from the hitboxes to the gravity fields, they're just really nice to look at in this video! Excellent work yo!

[@1gnore_me.]

hitboxes are actually really weird, most of the time they don't really match up with the model as well as you would think ... but as a player you never see the hitbox so it doesn't bother you. it's only when a hitbox is outrageously bad that people start noticing.

[@ozmaozmaozmaozma]

Absolutely adore your channel and content. All your videos are so in-depth and engaging. I’ve been looking forward to all your videos after following you on twitter

[@Dogmen58]

So glad to see you doing it! It was very interesting for me to look into technical stuff of this game - and many others. Good job!

[@Rotog]

Excellent video! I just finished my Galaxy playthrough in 3D All-Stars. These mario games in particular are so fascinating in terms of design, and your passion for breaking down how they work is so infectious that it makes me want to toy around with game creation again!

[@JamesDarpinian]

Gravity fields affecting shadows, and shadow-specific gravity fields, are genius. Little details like this are what make Nintendo games consistently great. Thanks for the in depth look.

[@supahstarclod]

Yooooo glad there's appreciation for Elebits music!! On the real though, super glad to see another Galaxy-related video from you. I always assumed that there were hidden points within each planet and that gravity was determined using the closest point to Mario, but preset gravity fields are way more elegant as a solution.

[@JasperRLZ]

elebits music is very much "on the real"

[@pedroenmanuelfuenteszambra8873]

Your videos are amazing. They are fun to watch, plus, you have compiled so much great reference. Having that library of used content in the description section makes of this video an even more valuable resource. Thanks sincerely.

[@davidguthary8147]

Another great example of Galaxy's visual design telling the player where things will fall: black holes. If you see a black hole, you know that's where Mario will end up if he gets too close. They're introduced intuitively with the first black hole being at the center of a planet, then they demonstrate dangerous areas in places which might otherwise seem safe. The player knows Mario can't go to the other side of that planet at the start of Ghostly Galaxy because there are black holes on the other side. Black holes help to demonstrate how gravity works on the stone spiral in Beach Bowl Galaxy. Black holes in Honeyhive Galaxy prevent the player from questioning why they can't walk on the underside of the main planet. There are plenty more examples.

[@Sientir]

It's really cool learning how they handled the gravity in Galaxy! It worked sooo much better than a student project I'd worked on in college that was an FPS that took place in a similar setup (though we had a grappling hook to get you from place to place).

[@patrickholston7090]

Only about 8 minutes in so far, but the contrasts you draw between how Mario falls in different instances on similarly shaped areas actually highlights how good the game design is that I never got confused about whether an area was going to have “flat” or “curved” gravity while playing.

[@joyceliang3658]

This was so well done!! The arrows/boxes make the concept so easy to understand and the narrative is easy to follow as well (prior knowledge, gaps, questions relevant methods)! Keep up the great work!

[@Lou-li5mv]

big kudos for listing both the music used as well as the footage sources!! It's something I often wished was included in videos, so big thumbs up.

[@MrDiana1706]

Super Mario Galaxy 2's 2D Levels that are based on changing directions is also a great example. The video, narrations and explaining are awesome and this is just my first time watching a video of you. Keep the good stuff.

[@user-wd7bw9ip5y]

It's actually quite interesting how the Mario 128 demo inspired both Pikmin and Super Mario Galaxy. One demo being the foundation of 2 great games.

[@ianbowden2524]

I love this level of technical analysis on big games. I've seen people talk about stuff like this, but only when making their own smaller games. Awesome stuff dude.

[@marcorubio3002]

the way you transitioned between topics is very smooth and the visuals you use are very helpful to see how the game works. gonna watch another video of yours

[@KenColton]

These videos are _ridiculously_ high quality and really interesting. I can’t imagine how long these take to make. This channel is criminally undersubscribed. I am subscribed to over 100 channels, but can count on 1 hand the number I actually turn notifications on so I don’t miss when they do upload. Congrats for making that list

[@haysdixon6227]

I’m taking Physics this year, and the part around Mario’s jump/fall speed switching from only Y to a combination of XYZ was super interesting. reminds me a lot of problems with a force pushing forward/down, or pulling back/up, where you have to find the components of the force with sin/cos. although the 3D must make it quite a bit more complex, plus dealing with the camera

[@derpherpington8085]

Incredible video. This is one of those topics I took for granted and never even stopped to consider how it was accomplished, but I was immediately super curious when I saw the video. I love the creativity that artists and designers use to achieve stuff like this.

[@seifenspender]

Rendering the gravity fields and spheres was AMAZING. This has to have taken very much effort and I respect that a lot. It is very easy to sympathize with you and I like the direct way you talk. Keep doing what you are doing, gladly subscribing to this kind of stuff!

[@CasualCheetah]

Outstanding analysis! It's easy to tell that a lot of time and effort went into writing and presenting this. ❤️

[@caymorris8719]

A year or so ago I was trying to replicate this physics system in Unity. I was going on a bunch of assumptions on how it worked, and I'm very happy to see my assumptions were correct. I even had the shadow orientation. Project got cancelled, but it was a good (if frustrating) experiment! Orienting the camera was the hardest part for me personally.

[@psychmd6794]

Watching this 2 years later and all I can say is wow. The effort put into the editing, researching, and commentary is amazing! You did such a good job explain and using edits the further your explanation. Great work! Keep it up! I’m surprised you don’t have more subs.

[@osfield]

watching your videos makes me so happy because they give an answer to almost all the questions I had that led me to learn video game development, and Super Mario Galaxy was THE game that had the most tricky questions

[@forgado7396]

It's always great when I see these videos. They're incredibly interesting.

[@Big-boned_Pikachu]

When I was in college I would sit outside the game development classes and listen in from time to time. I found them fascinating but I could never actually partake because I needed money and I knew we had a very low % of students actually make it into work after graduation. Your videos scratch that same itch of listening to lectures behind closed doors. Thanks for sharing this with us

[@yanec2501]

Man this was something I really needed. The nostalgia trip and my love for game design in one video. Really well made. The visuals made it way easier to understand how their gravity and hitboxes worked. Well done Jasper :D

[@ThomCote88]

Great explanation! I was part of SMG2.5 ages ago if you've heard of that so I knew about the gravity fields, but I wasn't aware of the spherical collider technique. It's so interesting how that must've informed the very rounded character/object designs in Galaxy, which I've always thought fit the Mario series perfectly.

[@EOS62035]

this here was wonderful, as with all your other creatoons!! i will always support your content

[@davidandrewthomas]

One of the things I find incredible about Super Mario Galaxy compared to just about any other (third-person) game is how little I find myself messing with the camera. Maybe that has something to do with the spherical planet game design, but it's really pretty amazing how much they innovated here and how much it just...works. Such a special game.

[@funfan2345]

this has been so interesting to watch, and it's great to have someone answer your longing questions about how the physics system works in mario galaxy

[@jacobb3440]

absolutely phenomenal video!! i still can't believe it's so simple (but so clever) i imagined such a more complicated gravity system tied to the level geometry

[@dusty2366]

I wonder what other ways the circular hitbox influenced the models and animation. I noticed in the footage that Mario's basic run keeps his arms fairly spread out from his sides to better fill in the shape, along with his model having really big hands that also help emphasise the spin mechanic.

[@8SomaCruzes]

I'll always be in awe at how skilled Jasper is at presenting complicated concepts in a way that's both concise and clear.(under 100 club)

[@Yipper64]

I have had a game idea for a while now about a character who's direction of gravity depends on the last part of ground they stood on. Basically if you walk towards a wall and up it, now your gravity is down wherever that wall is. This video definitely gave me some good tips, like how I should make sure the player has a spherical hitbox.

[@rougeknight4029]

Incredible video! I would love to see some more videos that go behind the scenes of iconic games!

[@pflaumi123]

5:22 Seeing how they did it in the games before, I throw in a idea to solve the problem before seeing the rest of the video. Especially since u said it is surprisingly simple in 3:14. A change from cartesian to spherical coordinate system might do the trick. I mean it feels like the application in itself stays the same with the swap. Lets see how they end up doing it. Edit: The gravity field object is a cool solution. That does its job and is rly resource friendly. After 8:03 I saw that it is not as simple as I thought before, but further building on it I thought they use the collision mash and make him fall in the direction of the nearest collision triangle (like what u later said in 17:23). Then these points are either active (e.g. ground), inactive (e.g. walls) or switchable. The switchable ones are needed to allow platforming and need to check Marios position. These only activate if Mario is orthogonally above them. This should prevent getting sucked through the ceiling. I know the resources needed would be nuts in comparison and I of cource dont even know if my idea is feasibe, but damn I love wasting time with thinking how I might make programming problems work. I seriously took up to an hour total now.

[@11equalsfish]

5 years ago, I watched ClassicGameJunkie's explanation for Mario Galaxy Gravity. It's amazing how the standard for KZbin videos is higher now. I've been watching videos like this since I was a kid, so I'm quite excited about this channel's current activity. I hope this channel finds a good audience.

[@frickinfrick8488]

Incredible work as always, I absolutely love your content! It’s so interesting to see all the tricks behind my childhood games and you have a really pleasant voice over and presentation.

[@nappkins9346]

One of the best videos I've seen on KZbin. Outstanding. Keep up the good work!

[@Glacial7]

I think the best example of seeing gravity fields is probably rightside down galaxy of Galaxy 2 It’s the closest we can get to visualising the gravity fields interacting with eachother, as the player constantly jumps through them and flipping up and down

[@MrHomelessHobos]

This video is out of this world

[@Cliffordlonghead]

Congrats you are First but don't edit this comment

[@MrDoot_]

yay! another upload about game design! please keep doing this kind of stuff, you're really good at it

[@AuraBOI]

Wow this is insanely well made and explains it all perfectly! The visuals for the gravity fields are perfect as well

[@DanielC01000100]

is there any place when we can read about the calculations to determine "down" on discs, donuts, lines and the other shapes? because figuring that out is really genius.

[@JasperRLZ]

It's just some basic geometry, but it might make for a nice lightweight follow-up video for a more niche crowd.

[@benwyatt2838]

@@JasperRLZ programmer who also does RE on games in Ghidra here. I'd love to see more of that and also more insights from it like this.

[@Clodd1]

@@JasperRLZ You call something that almost breaks the rules of physics “basic”? haha

[@nishoakesribavan5438]

@@JasperRLZ that would be appreciated

[@jackrasksilver6188]

Here's my like and comment for the algorithm: I enjoy the tweets and vids.

[@typhoonthunder]

this channel is pure gold. love this kind of in depth analysis of the way these games are programmed

[@BareTuna]

This video was exactly what I was hoping it would be... I always wondered how it was done! Keep up the good work man, this video was super enjoyable to watch :)

[@andricode]

I've tried to remake that in a 2D environment and that makes everything a lot more understandable

[@RedPoisonDragon]

Huh, that redesigning of Mario's model thing makes a lot of sense. I somehow always felt that, in Galaxy, Mario's arms and hands felt a little big compared to the rest of his body. Likely also the animations were designed to make the sphere hitbox make more sense

[@thehiddenninja3428]

Also I'm sure I remember his fists visibly grow in size whilst doing a spin

[@RedPoisonDragon]

@@thehiddenninja3428 That they do

[@viggoasgarden7050]

I'm loving these videos, really great quality and really comprehensive. It's really cool that you're actually adding code to the game to visualize what you're talking about 👌

[@neylick]

Your channel is insanely rich, I love every little visuals, music choice and the amount of details. Cheers

[@Unk0wnHope]

Just a casual comment for the algorithm. Thank you for the content!

[@stevengoomba6490]

I always thought Mario’s galaxy model has his arms out more than most of the other, guess the spherical hitbox shows even in the minor character changes.

[@avoilachan]

Great video, this concept would've been so hard to grasp if I looked into it on my own but you explained it so well, thanks!

[@mr_whyy]

I love you ! Explaining how my all time favorite game works behind the scenes is so awesome

[@jstrandquist]

This was super interesting and informative! I'm curious, what sort of coordinate system does Galaxy use to determine the relative position of things? I figure that a global Cartesian coordinate system would be simplest, but where would you draw the origin? Alternatively, it seems like giving each planet its own spherical coordinate system would simplify movement calculations (ie, jumps change Mario's radial position, while walking changes his angular position), but based on your description of the gravity fields, it sounds like that isn't the case.

[@JasperRLZ]

Everything's done with Cartesian coordinates. They put the origin in an arbitrary location every map.

[@jstrandquist]

Good to know, thanks!

[@Katzelle3]

The floating arrows made me think that they carefully placed parallel hitboxes all over the place and added some clever blending, but the basic shape idea is super elegant, yet likely a coding nightmare.

[@quorryraphael9980]

It's probably less nightmarish than you think. The simple shapes have simple rules

[@BambinaSaldana]

I honestly thought they would go for vector fields, and use specific points as attractors, but the approach they used sounds much more simpler, and much more easy on the computer.

[@lagmeester9456]

I thought I had a good idea of how the physics worked going into the video, but man did it go into details I didn't expect. I can see you put a lot of time into this video, good job.

[@Rolfke]

Very nice video! Nice job on the custom visuals to illustrate the gravity fields.

[@pbrunet44]

8:12 To answer this, we'll need to talk about *parallel universes*

[@DaNintendude]

Mario's hands feel quite large in Galaxy as well (at least to me they do). I'm guessing that's due to the sphere hitbox. Having larger hands helps give him more of a spherical shape. I believe the reason Mario is more short and round in Odyssey is because they wanted to make his design feel more like how he looks in classic Mario artwork.

[@user-bo6vy5eg8g]

They also get bigger when you spin, i'm pretty sure.

[@DaNintendude]

@@user-bo6vy5eg8g Yes I believe that is true. I thought I mentioned that in my comment but I guess not, lol

[@QuiteDan]

I did a whole study on mario galaxy style movement and gravity. Happy to hear it wasn't very far off This is a GREAT channel!

[@dnys_7827]

oh my god this is absolutely brilliant, it made my giddy with joy seeing behing the curtain on a game i love so much. outstanding work.

[@CallMeTess]

Is it just me or does this all seem really obvious? I guess it may be because I have experience in programming, but really, the implementation of gravity fields seems like such an obvious solution, the way they're being explained just feels kind of condescending. The thing about the spherical hitboxes is actually a very interesting solution to the hitbox rotation issues, though.

[@The_Holy_Wooomy]

Mario’s eyes in reflections don’t have pupils. Just saying...

[@david_ga8490]

Lol you are right

[@CaioLoureiro]

Your videos are so clever and so inspiring. You explain complex game design concepts in such an easily understandable way. Thank you so much for this. I'm in love with your channel already!

[@ZedEdge]

Gosh dang, you're videos are so good. Love all the visualizations in the game worlds.