Thanks for the great feedback Ian! I'm glad the passthrough is working for someone at least. It's still very much a work in progress, but it's moving forward at least. (There were a few steps backwards recently.) Good suggestion on the physics movement; I'll have to review the code to see what method I'm using. It makes sense that physics will work better with a physics method of movement.
Weird that the ball is moving with the thumbstick. I may have an errant script on there or something. I agree I need to tone down the shadows (had bigger fish to fry). Thanks again!