godot-physics-3d

name	godot-physics-3d
description	Expert patterns for Godot 3D physics (Jolt/PhysX), including Ragdolls, PhysicalBones, Joint3D constraints, RayCasting optimizations, and collision layers. Use for rigid body simulations, character physics, or complex interactions. Trigger keywords: RigidBody3D, PhysicalBone3D, Jolt, Ragdoll, Skeleton3D, Joint3D, PinJoint3D, HingeJoint3D, Generic6DOFJoint3D, RayCast3D, PhysicsDirectSpaceState3D.

3D Physics (Jolt/Native)

High-performance 3D simulation: body choice, CCD, stairs, vehicles, ragdolls, SoftBody — routed through scripts.

NEVER Do

• NEVER move PhysicsBody3D nodes in _process() — Use _physics_process(). Moving bodies outside the physics step causes visual jitter and unreliable collision detection [12, 13].
• NEVER scale collision shapes directly — Scaling physics shapes causes instability, inaccurate normals, and jitter. Use the shape properties (height, radius, size) instead.
• NEVER modify RigidBody3D transforms directly — This ignores the physics solver. Use apply_impulse(), apply_torque(), or the _integrate_forces() callback for safe manipulation [17].
• NEVER use RigidBody3D for platformer player controllers — RigidBody is for objects driven by physics. For refined movement, use CharacterBody3D with move_and_slide() [move_and_slide].
• NEVER leave Continuous CD (CCD) enabled for static meshes — It adds heavy CPU cost. Reserve it for high-speed small objects (bullets) to prevent them from passing through walls.
• NEVER use PhysicsServer3D RIDs without manual cleanup — RIDs are not garbage collected. If you create bodies via the server, you MUST call when done to avoid memory leaks.