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Information about Game Physics

Computer animation physics or game physics involves the introduction of the laws of physics into a simulation or game engine, particularly in 3D computer graphics, for the purpose of making the effects appear more real to the observer. Typically simulation physics is only a close approximation to real physics, and computation is performed using discrete values.

There are several elements that form components of simulation physics:

Particle systems

For more details on this topic, see Particle system.
A common aspect of computer games that model some type of conflict is the explosion. Early computer games used the simple expediency of repeating the same explosion in each circumstance. However, in the real world an explosion can vary depending on the terrain, altitude of the explosion, and the type of solid bodies being impacted.

Depending on the processing power available, the effects of the explosion can be modeled as the split and shattered components are propelled by the expanding gas. This is modeled by means of a particle system simulation. A particle system model allows a variety of other physical phenomena to be simulated, including smoke, moving water, precipitation, and so forth.

The individual particles within the system are modeled using the other elements of the physics simulation rules, with the limitation that the number of particles that can be simulated is restricted by the computing power of the hardware. Thus explosions may need to be modeled as a small set of large particles, rather than the more typical huge number of fine particles.

Ragdoll physics

For more details on this topic, see Ragdoll physics.
This is a procedural animation and simulation technique to display the movement of a creature when slain. It treats the character's body as a series of rigid bones connected together with hinges at the joints. The simulation models what happens to the body as it collapses to the ground.

More sophisticated physics models of creature movement and collision interactions require greater level of computing power and a more accurate simulation of solids, liquids, and hydrodynamics. The modeled articulated systems can then reproduce the effects of skeleton, muscles, tendons, and other physiological components.

Books

  • Eberly, David H.; Ken Shoemake (contributor) (2003). Game Physics. Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN 978-1-55860-740-8. 

See also

External links

3D computer graphics (in contrast to 2D computer graphics) are graphics that utilize a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images.
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A physics engine is a computer program that simulates Newtonian physics models, using variables such as mass, velocity, friction and wind resistance. It can simulate and predict effects under different conditions that would approximate what happens in real life or in a fantasy
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Classical mechanics (commonly confused with Newtonian mechanics, which is a subfield thereof) is used for describing the motion of macroscopic objects, from projectiles to parts of machinery, as well as astronomical objects, such as spacecraft, planets, stars, and galaxies.
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collision detection involves algorithms for checking for collision, i.e. intersection, of two given solids. Simulating what happens once a collision is detected is sometimes referred to as "collision response", for which see physics engine and ragdoll physics.
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particle system refers to a computer graphics technique to simulate certain fuzzy phenomena, which are otherwise very hard to reproduce with conventional rendering techniques.
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particle system refers to a computer graphics technique to simulate certain fuzzy phenomena, which are otherwise very hard to reproduce with conventional rendering techniques.
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Smoke is the airborne solid and liquid particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes pyrolysis or combustion, together with the quantity of air that is entrained or otherwise mixed into the mass.
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Water is a common chemical substance that is essential to all known forms of life.[1] In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or state, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor.
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precipitation (also known as hydrometeor) is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that is deposited on the earth's surface. It occurs when the atmosphere (being a large gaseous solution) becomes saturated with water vapour and the water condenses and
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ragdoll physics are a type of procedural animation that is often used as a replacement for traditional static death animations.

Introduction

Early video games used manually-created animations for characters' death sequences.
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A procedural animation is a type of computer animation, used to automatically generate animation in real-time to allow for a more diverse series of actions than could otherwise be created using predefined animations.
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skeleton or skeletal system is the biological system providing physical support in living organisms. (By extension, non-biological outline structures such as gantries or buildings may also acquire skeletons.
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MUSCLE (multiple sequence comparison by log-expectation) is public domain, multiple sequence alignment software for protein and nucleotide sequences.
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A tendon (or sinew) is a tough band of fibrous connective tissue that connects muscle to bone and is built to withstand tension. Tendons are similar to ligaments except that ligaments join one bone to another.
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Physiology (from Greek: φυσις, physis, “nature, origin”; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms.
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A physics engine is a computer program that simulates Newtonian physics models, using variables such as mass, velocity, friction and wind resistance. It can simulate and predict effects under different conditions that would approximate what happens in real life or in a fantasy
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Bullet is a free software physics engine, hosted at Sourceforge. It is published the zlib license making it free for commercial use. Its main author, Erwin Coumans, previously worked for the Havok project.
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Flash memory input
  • MemoryStick/PRO/Duo*
  • SD/MMC*
  • CompactFlash/Microdrive*
Audio/video output
  • HDMI 1.3a out
  • S/PDIF out
  • AV Multi out

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