Unity Virtual Reality Projects - Second Edition

Deflector versus paddle

As implemented, our paddle acts more like a deflector shield than a paddle. The ball will bounce off the paddle's Pad in a direction based on the Pad's surface normal orientation. But if you whack the ball, that doesn't transfer any physics. We can change this by adding a RigidBody to the Pad, as follows:

1. Select the Pad of your Paddle
2. Add Component | Physics | RigidBody
3. Uncheck Use Gravity checkbox
4. Check the Is Kinematic checkbox
5. Click the Apply button at top of Inspector to save your changes in the prefab

By making it kinematic, our Pad will apply physics to objects colliding with it, but will not react to collisions itself. This is good, otherwise, the paddle would shatter when hit by a ball.

One important lesson ...