I've had a look at the floating platform and while it's okay in it's way, is really not very good for actual platforms. It is more suited to on rails shooting section really. In fact it is ideal for that.
It's nice to see people trying to improve it, but from what I can see it is very limited. There's nearly always a workaround, but for this we really need the physics engine to work for us. We shouldn't need to have to reposition the player in line with the platform, it should move the player automatically. We have a physics engine, the player should have physics enabled as standard and be controlled by the physics engine. Why is it that the player slides as if he has no friction whatsoever on the surface?
I've not seen a physics engine that can't do this and I can't see it being an issue with Bullet Physics either. I mean, I can code a platform to move and have collision on the y axis, but it then slides like I'm floating just above the surface on really effective, but weak rocket shoes. In comparison, doing the same in DB's PhysX engine would be no problem. I haven't used AGK in awhile, but I imagine it will also work in the same way. Perhaps we need some physics commands to move the platform? As far as I see it, that's the main issue. Whatever we do, when we move the platform, the physics has to be disabled. So although we get collision due to gravity, we don't get the friction and movement factor. If we could directly move the player (not transport to a location) we could work around this a lot better. Still, actual physics commands would be far more useful for this, although I still think player and camera controls should be improved.
You know me, I'm always looking to do things that show GG can do more than it appears, but I really don't see why we should be happy with this state of affairs. I consider this sort of thing to be part of the engine, something we should not even have to worry about. When I purchased GG it was so this sort of thing could be avoided and I could concentrate on making games. I'm a big advocate for scripting being important, far more so than several features ahead of it, but this sort of thing should be automatic. We should have some way of moving objects using physics forces.
I'm sure given time, myself or another GG scripter out there could come up with a decent workaround, but in this case we really shouldn't have to. As a problem to be solved, it could be regarded as a challenge. Always fun (well sometimes, lol) but really, having proper physics control over objects would be far, far more satisfactory, long term.
Saying that, I'm so unhappy with the default script I may just have a look anyway
I'm not sure if any of the above examples have improved on this, but by default it seems to be a one way trip. You can only get on at the beginning of the way-point marker and the platform only starts to move when you stand on it. Also, if you try to jump on it in motion, you fall straight through. Not ideal or even worthy of the title platform. I certainly wouldn't even consider it for a platform game. It should be called on_rails_movement.lua.
Edit - Lol, watched cybernescence's vid and that's more like I was thinking of doing. Still, that transport command still looks a little ropey, but probably as good as it gets.
SPECS: Q6600 CPU. Nvidia 660GTX. 8 Gig Memory. Win 7.
