Reduce bounciness of dynamic bodies in Box2D

Question

In my 2D platformer game my player character is modeled using a Box2D dynamic body. One thing I thought feels off though is that even though the restitution of the fixture applied is zero, the player will bounce off static geometry when falling at an angle, kind of like a plastic box would perhaps, but certainly not like a body would.

There isn't really much that Box2D allows me to tweak though except for density and restitution? I noticed that playing with the density has basically no effect on how the player moves which I thought was odd too.

Are there any realistic value ranges you would recommend? It's all a bit trial and error right now for me.

Answer 1

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the density of fixtures will affect the mass of the body.

Anyway, the only settings that affect the "bounciness" is restitution. If changing the restitution of the box doesn't fix it, have you tried changing the restitution of the ground (or whatever the box shouldn't be bouncing off of)?

If that doesn't work, as far as I'm aware the only other solution would be to listen for collision events and add forces to counteract the bouncing. I don't recommend this, as it can be buggy, but it's possible to get decent results depending on your needs.

Answer 2

I had the same issue and setting linear damping to a higher value solved it for me. This has the effect of reducing the velocity after a collision, see the Box2D Damping Documentation for details.