Instantiated scene does not rotate with the parent as pivot

[prashank]

Godot Version

Version 4.4

Question

I am starting to learn Godot by creating a game in which my ‘Player’ scene is instantiating and adding the ‘Ball’ scene as it child on starting the game. I position the Ball at a distance from the player. The ball is moving along with the player but not rotating with the player as the pivot.

Player scene:

Ball scene:

player.gd:

extends CharacterBody3D

@export var speed = 14
@export var sensitivity = 0.008
@export var ball : PackedScene 

var target_velocity = Vector3.ZERO

func _ready() -> void:
	var ballPos = $Rig.position
	ballPos.z += 5
	inst_ball(ballPos)

func inst_ball(pos):
	var instance = ball.instantiate()
	instance.position = pos
	add_child(instance)
	

func _physics_process(delta: float):
#	Movement:
	var direction = Vector3.ZERO
	
	if Input.is_action_pressed("move_fwd"):
		direction.z += 1
	if Input.is_action_pressed("move_bwd"):
		direction.z -= 1
	if Input.is_action_pressed("move_left"):
		direction.x += 1
	if Input.is_action_pressed("move_right"):
		direction.x -= 1
	if Input.is_action_pressed("move_up"):
		direction.y += 1
	if Input.is_action_pressed("move_down"):
		direction.y -= 1
		
	if direction != Vector3.ZERO:
		direction = direction.normalized()
		direction = $Rig.global_transform.basis * direction
		
	target_velocity = direction * speed
	velocity = target_velocity
	move_and_slide()

func _input(event: InputEvent) -> void:
	if event is InputEventMouseMotion:
		rotation.y -= event.relative.x * sensitivity
		rotation.x += event.relative.y * sensitivity

Game when started:

[gertkeno]

The ball as a child of the player is probably not a good idea, if the player moves left/right so will the ball. You can use add_sibling instead to add the ball without making it a child. One reason it may be failing to inherit rotation is that RigidBodies are supposed to be driven by physics forces, not the parent’s transform; say gravity is pushing the ball into the floor and the parent rotates, the rigidbody will calculate the gravity/floor collision and respond by keeping the ball in it’s current location, overwriting the parent’s rotational change

[prashank]

Oh! I didn’t know that info about RigidBodies.

I want the ball to move left/right as the player moves.

If I try freezing the ball(someone suggested at another site), it solves the issue but then the ball cannot collide with any object.
In my case collision is not a problem when player has the ball. But I’m not sure if freezing the ball is the right thing to do. Would it bring up any other issues?

[gertkeno]

Freezing sounds good until you want to move the ball again. You could un-freeze and reparent the ball at the same time.

var ball: RigidBody3D # keep track of your ball after instantiating

func drop_ball() -> void:
    ball.freeze = false
    ball.reparent(get_parent()) # change to siblling