AndEngine Box2D Extension - Scaling

Question

I'm new to AndEngine and Box2D. So bear with me please.

I created a new project, set up a 480x800 camera, added a 32x32 stripe, created a physics world at Earth gravity and dropped the stripe. Lo and behold, it DID drop. But it didn't seem "natural" to me; it was too slow.

Then I realized that the gravity is in meters (m/s2) whereas the environment is in pixels. Where does the conversion between meters and pixels tak place? Somewhere there should be an assumption behind the scenes. Do I have any control over it?

How does Box2D know whether it's dropping the stripe from 100 meters above the ground (and viewing it from a distance which would appear a very slow drop) or 1 meter above the ground (and viewing it from up close which would appear very fast)?

To test that the conversion is the real problem, I multiplied the gravity by 10 and it improved the "naturalness". But I think there should be a more sophisticated way to convert pixels to meters.

Thanks in advance. I really appreciate your comments.

Answer 1

It's as @iforce2d said it the comment. In AndEngine the default value is 32, therefore 32 pixels is considered one meter. When converting pixels to meter, divide the pixels by this value. When converting from meters to pixels, multiply with this value. You can find this value in org.andengine.extension.physics.box2d.util.constants.PhysicsConstants class.

The ratio is then used in PhysicsFactory.create... methods if you don't specify your own. These methods create the physics body for you, measuring your sprite size in pixels and passing meters to Box2D. It's also used in the PhysicsConnector class constructor. Use your own value if 32 doesn't suit you, but then you will have to be consistent and use it every time.