Manually creating good ragdolls in code can be tough. This blog post takes you on a hands-on ragdoll creation journey and provides several tips.
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We have recently added 3D vehicle physics to our DigitalRune Physics library. In this post we will explain how the car physics works, so that you can either create your own car physics, or you can understand and tune the car physics that comes with our libraries.
Let’s have a look at what we want to achieve. Following Vehicle Sample is an XNA example project that is included in the DigitalRune Physics Bundle:
Here is another Windows Phone 7 physics example: It shows a few bodies and a 3d ragdoll. Tilt or shake the phone to move the bodies.
Windows Phone 7 is awesome! – This blog post shows DigitalRune Physics on a real Windows Phone 7 in action. The full sample source code can be downloaded at the end of the posting.
Following video shows the sample running on a Samsung Omnia 7 (a great WP7 device!):
Fine, we have found a way to implement Continuous Collision Detection (CCD), but how do we integrate this into our game physics library?
This article explains how to use CCD in game physics; especially a technique called motion clamping that is used in DigitalRune Physics and possible pitfalls you could come across when you use game physics with CCD.
Our new physics library is nearly finished. Here is a compilation of a few tests:
DigitalRune Geometry supports automatic generation of bounding shapes and convex hulls. Using simple bounding shapes or convex hulls is more efficient than using arbitrary triangle meshes in game physics. In this post we will investigate different kinds of bounding shapes.
Let's look at a practical example. Here is the Dude from the XNA Skinned Model Example:
The model has 13132 vertices and the skeleton has 60 bones.
Here is the same model where a bounding sphere is computed for the vertices of each bone.
Here is a list of physics engines. This blog entry will be updated from time to time. If you know other useful links, please let us know and we will include them in this list.
Here is a list of books related to rigid body dynamics and game physics.
by David M. Bourg
This book is an easy-to-read introduction to game physics. It explains the basics (kinematics, kinetics, forces, particles, rigid bodies, collision response) and several applications (projectiles, ships, hovercrafts, cars, etc.). The book is for beginners. You will need other sources for advanced topics, like rigid body contacts or joint-handling.
I have encountered several errors while reading the book, so make sure to read the errata on the book's website: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/physicsgame/
This is a collection of links about game physics, especially rigid body dynamics, and related topics.
In 2005 I finished my master thesis about rigid body dynamics. It shows how to build a rigid body physics engine for interactive 3d applications. I am sure it is a good starting point for everyone who wants to learn about game physics.
A collection of the most useful blog articles can be found here:
Article Collection (on Documentation page)
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