What causes a trajectory preview not matching the throw?

The preview computes the arc with different physics, gravity, or initial conditions than the actual throw, so the projectile does not land where the preview showed.

How do I catch this when it only happens for some players?

Capture it automatically from the player's device with the full stack trace, the device and OS, the build, and a breadcrumb trail of what they did. That turns a vague complaint into a specific, reproducible issue you can fix without owning the hardware it happens on.

How to Fix a Trajectory Preview Not Matching the Actual Throw

Quick answer: Compute the preview with the exact same physics, gravity, and initial velocity as the real throw, simulate the same steps, and account for collisions identically.

A trajectory preview not matching is a physics mismatch. Using identical simulation fixes it. Here is how.

How to fix it

1. Use identical physics and conditions

Compute the preview arc with the same gravity, drag, and initial velocity the actual throw uses. Any difference between the preview's simulation and the real throw makes the projectile land off the preview.

2. Simulate the same steps

Step the preview simulation with the same timestep and integration as the physics engine, so it matches. A preview using a different integration or step size diverges from the real trajectory over distance.

3. Match collision handling

Account for collisions (bounces, stops) in the preview the same way the real projectile handles them, so the predicted landing or bounce matches. Ignoring collisions in the preview shows a path the projectile never takes.

Catching the ones you can't reproduce

The hardest version of this to fix is the one you can't reproduce — it only happens on a player's hardware, OS, driver, or save state, under conditions that simply aren't present on your machine. A report that says “it crashed” or “it froze” gives you nothing to act on, so the bug survives release after release while quietly costing you players.

Automatic error capture closes that gap. Each failure arrives with its full stack trace, the device and OS, the build number, and a breadcrumb trail of what the player did right before it broke, so even a failure you have never seen becomes a specific, reproducible issue. Fold identical failures into one signature ranked by how many players each hits, and your worklist sorts itself worst-first instead of arriving as a stream of vague complaints.

This is where a tool like Bugnet earns its place. Its SDK captures every error automatically with the full stack trace plus device, OS, memory, build, and game-state context, folds duplicates into one grouped issue with an occurrence count, and ties each to the build it first appeared on — so you fix the problem that hurts the most players first and confirm it is gone when its signature disappears from the next release.

Ship the fix, watch the signature disappear from the next build. That's how you know it's really gone.