Is there a way to make particles behave like rigid body objects?

Question

I want to create a scene that has a lot of irregularly shaped objects piled up on the ground. I don't want the objects to intersect with eachother.

I started off by creating a particle system that uses an object group containing these objects. No matter what settings I 'messed with' I could not get the individual objects to behave the way I want them to - They would interact with the ground like perfect spheres, and they would pass through the other particle objects.

Is there a way to make particles have rigid body physics so they behave with each other and with the ground like real objects?

Or failing that - is there a way to copy rigid body attributes to many objects? (i.e. plan be - don't use a particle system, but rather make lots and lots of copies of the objects and just let them fall)

Edit: I ended up applying the settings 26 times (there are 26 unique objects) and then copying those 26 objects several times. To produce this

but this was before there were any replies to this question. Thanks to WChargin's answer I will be able to copy the attibutes in one action next time I do something like this :)

Answer 1

[Is] there a way to copy rigid body attributes to many objects?

Copy Rigid Body Settings sounds like it might do the trick. Select all the objects, then select the one with the correct settings last (make it the active object). Then, press Space> Copy Rigid Body Settings, or select Copy from Others from the Object Mode toolbox under Rigid Body Tools.

EDIT: You can also use the Copy to Selected function of the right-click menu to copy any property from the active object to all selected objects; for example:

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To do it natively: if there is a way, I can't find it. I've tried Particle Instance modifier with rigid body instances, Size Deflect option, duplication, hooks… nada. Do post if you find a “cleaner” way to do it.

Answer 2

Do what you were doing and when the particle system has spawned enough objects stop the animation and use ShiftCtrl + A which is Make Duplicates Real.

Now do what WChargin said in his answer.

Answer 3

I was seeking for the same topic and I found a solution better than the "Make Duplicates Real".

The script/addon Copy Particles to Rigid Bodies does exactly what you want. Here you have the script and a test scene with easy instructions in it: http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?279329-Copy-Particles-to-Rigid-Bodies

Answer 4

I noted if the tools 't' physics tab is visible You'll see Rigid Body Tools where a "Copy to Active" button exists. If the Particles modifier has been applied to make the objects real. I tried this RMB thing on a single value (which is not the goal) and it's grayed out because the selected objects do not have the Rigid Body Collisions applied yet. I don't think this has the right option https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/3D_interaction/Copy_Attributes_Menu which is it? And nor does CTRL-L the one with 'object data' didn't do it so I'm thinking it lacks a Link Physics choice there too. So they both lack a copy physics attribute it seems.

This vid shows the Tools Physics TAB "Rigid Body Tools" sunsection "Object Tools" where "Copy from Active" hides. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y46GClyIOCM

[rant: Still in the end there was more to do in my usecase = it didn't work really at all, so lack of real geo collision with Object or Group particle sims remains desired, but it will kill your computer with even a small armful of simple geometry, so it's really not possible to process lots of particles in this way it seems, and that explains why it's not integrated, but it's still needed in my mind. It just seems logistically out of reach to me eye at this time.]