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Submitted by Simon Kallweit, posted on February 20, 2001



Image Description, by Simon Kallweit



This is a screenshot of my rigid body simulator. I wrote this application to get into physics-programming and to understand the basic kinematic/dynamic behaviours. Fortunately I was able to work on this project as a school-project (so I got some more time and a pretty good mark, hehe :-). I only implemented 2d simulation because this makes things much easier and I hadn't too much time to code it. I also wrote a paper about the simulation basics (math) and some implementation notes, but as I'm from switzerland, it's written in german. At the current state, the application has the following features:
  • needs Windows / OpenGL
  • quite "user-friendly" GUI
  • load/save scenes
  • shape-editor
  • linear/angular motion (euler integration)
  • force-fields (linear, like gravity, and concentric, to simulate solar-systems)
  • springs (with damping)
  • collision detection (for convex shapes only)
    • You can download the binaries, the source and the paper (in german) from http://www.oxi.ch/rigidbodysim. I also wrote a small "user manual" to help you playing around with this simulator. Please go and download the application because the beauty of this software is motion, and that's lost in a screenshot ;-)

    Hope you enjoy it . . .


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    Archive Notice: This thread is old and no longer active. It is here for reference purposes. This thread was created on an older version of the flipcode forums, before the site closed in 2005. Please keep that in mind as you view this thread, as many of the topics and opinions may be outdated.
     
    The Wolf

    February 20, 2001, 02:47 PM

    very cool,
    what's next? the ability to deform or break objects?

     
    Joakim Eriksson

    February 20, 2001, 02:57 PM

    Very nice 2d simulation. I assume the next step is to go 3d with all the fun things that comes with it. I'm working on a 3d rigid body simulation myself and I can safly say that's it's worth the job it takes to create it in 3d.
     
    ktingle

    February 20, 2001, 03:08 PM

    This simulator is one of the coolest things I have seen recently, download it!
     
    Vorteks

    February 20, 2001, 04:35 PM

    Very nice. It certainly looks user-friendly. Is there a 3D version coming?
     
    ZEN

    February 20, 2001, 06:34 PM

    a really cool demo, i only wish i had enough time to work on some cool rigid body stuff like this. you could use this to make some kick ass demos...
     
    Hannu K.

    February 20, 2001, 09:49 PM

    Simply beautiful! I'd love to see 2d arcade game with real physics =)
     
    Don Mynack

    February 21, 2001, 03:59 AM

    By any chance, were you inspired by this?

    http://www.sodaplay.com/constructor/index.htm
     
    Jason Wood

    February 21, 2001, 05:32 AM

    Nice work! 2D physics (spring-mass, rigid body) sims are by no means easy to write, especially when you get into the issues of stackable objects and non-convex object collisions.

     
    henry ludemann

    February 21, 2001, 05:54 AM

    Beautiful program! I know rigid body stuff is by no means easy... Your collision detection works really well. Have you thought about putting in non rigid body objects as well?
     
    freakyboy

    February 21, 2001, 06:36 AM

    Hi

    Thanks for your positive reactions ;-)

    If I had more time, I would continue to work on this little project. There would be a lot of things to do (concave collision detection, collision contact handling, friction, joints, non-rigid bodies, and so on, just to mention a few). My main idea was to create a software, where you can play with all sorts of physical models. You can do a lot of simple experiments, and understand what all the different attributes stand for, and how they influence the system. I learned quite a lot during the development, so I think everyone can learn a lot from playing around :-)

    My *big* project i'm currently working on, is my 3d engine. I will implement 3d rigid body physics in my own engine, but this won't be much use for you.

    But nevertheless, perhaps i will do some work on this little app from time to time. If there will be a new version, I will post a message to Flipcode ..

    To Don Mynack - No, I haven't seen this page before .. but very nice indeed


    Simon Kallweit

     
    remo

    February 21, 2001, 08:45 AM

    i downloaded it and it's very cool indeed.
    i might do something like that once i know enough mechanics
     
    This thread contains 11 messages.