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Topic: Creating Gravity/Phyics (Read 457 times) |
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kevin
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Creating Gravity/Phyics
« on: Dec 26th, 2003, 10:34pm » |
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Hi all,
I want to create a basic physics engine? for a project.
I'd like to have particles bouncing off different surfaces.
I reckon this isn't an easy feat, so I'm hoping to get some decent articles/tips pointing me in the right direction.
Thanks,
- Kevin
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arielm
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sRe: Creating Gravity/Phyics
« Reply #1 on: Dec 26th, 2003, 11:11pm » |
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i started from scratch with physics a few years ago, and here's the "receipe":
- to read some papers on Newtonian Mechanics (mass, acceleration, forces, conservation of energy, momentum, etc.)
- to concentrate on "point-masses", i.e. very small particles.
- to start first with 1D (time, velocity, acceleration, collisions), then move to 2D...
at this stage, you're "ready" to make a simple physics engine!
from here, prepare yourself for a maths overdose 
the next stage is to get acquainted with non-linear maths: when "linear" equations are not giving solutions, you start looking for approximations (i.e. approaching a viable solution through a lot of iterative calculations).
on the same topic, something called "integration" (solving a system of differential equations): useful when you work with systems of particles that affect each other (e.g. a Soda-like animal...)
if know of 2 methods of integration, widely used in physics engines: Runge-Kutta and Verlet (the last one is simplier, yet powerful).
finally, usenet newsgroup such as "sci.physics.particle" or "sci.math" proved to be some very useful places for asking questions.
hth
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Ariel Malka | www.chronotext.org
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TomC
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Re: Creating Gravity/Phyics
« Reply #2 on: Dec 27th, 2003, 1:21am » |
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Chris Hecker's page has some really excellent pointers to get you started. http://www.d6.com/users/checker/dynamics.htm
I can also recommend the O'Reilly book Physics for Game Developers.
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