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Is it possible to speed up time in general? So the physics could play out and I could record the paths and then move frame by frame, back and forward?


You can create a bunch of arrays and store each objects position and angle at a rate of 20 fps and use these arrays to show the objects trails or to show the situation at frame 200 and rotate the camera around the center of action.

This way your get something like the bullet time effect smile

You could use motion blur for sequences of the past and only render outlines of objects from the future.


But it is not easy to speed things up.
Why?
If you have an object with a mass of 1 kg and you want to apply a force to it, a single frame of energy would not be enough.
You would have to apply the force for several frames until the friction, etc. does not hold back the object from moving.

If you increase the energy of that impulse to shorten the time needed to get your object into the air, your object might launch like a bullet from a gun or like a rocket but is not similar to a thrown stone.

It is a realtime physics engine.

But I think there was a time variable which has an effect on the physics engine, maybe you can play around with it and prerecord the sequence without even rendering a single frame.

Just check the manual if there is a reference to physic simulation and time, fps, fps_max, etc.
There was a time related bug some years ago with ODE and it was fixed with such a time correcting variable... maybe it could help you now, too.

-- slacer