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I am not completely sure if this is the best forum to discuss gaming physics (there is no tag for it), and this is certainly a game about portals.

But when the turrets in portal 2 fire at you, the force is great enough for you to be pushed back. This is definitely noticeable in here (https://theportalwiki.com/wiki/Portal_2_Chapter_8_Test_Chamber_16) where you simply cannot approach the turrets because the bullets push you back with a lot of force.

The turrets are light enough to be picked up.

Why don't they fall over due to recoil?

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  • Something to do with how they 'fire'? As stated in the relevant Portal 2 trailer the turrets don't actually use a gunpowder reaction to shoot they literally propel the entire thing "65% more bullet" as Cave Johnson put it. There's even a graphic showing it.
    – IG_42
    Commented Jul 16, 2017 at 19:27
  • I can only think of a handheld of weapons in Source games that have knockback to the person firing them.
    – Powerlord
    Commented Jul 17, 2017 at 2:57
  • 1
    Because Science.
    – Ben
    Commented Jul 18, 2017 at 2:12

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I think you may be misunderstanding how game engines work.

Game objects don't have real world physics properties by default. Simulations of physical properties like bullet recoil can only be present if they have been specifically programmed into the game.

Even if a turret or weapon was programmed to have recoil when fired, the programmers could just turn off the recoil or set it to 0. (i.e.turret_recoil = false, or turret_recoil_amount = 0

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Because game engines don't necessarily follow the laws that apply for you and me ?...

Simply put that's just how the Game engine is designed to operate. No one ever advertised the Source engine as one to apply the 3rd law of motion.

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  • Sure, but they make the portals follow conservation of momentum. This just popped into my head as interestingly contradictory.
    – learning
    Commented Jul 16, 2017 at 18:41
  • @learning Portals are not physically accurate. They don't even follow the conservation of momentum. Momentum is a vector not a scalar.
    – gre_gor
    Commented Jul 18, 2017 at 14:56

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