Book Image

Game Physics Cookbook

By : Gabor Szauer
Book Image

Game Physics Cookbook

By: Gabor Szauer

Overview of this book

Physics is really important for game programmers who want to add realism and functionality to their games. Collision detection in particular is a problem that affects all game developers, regardless of the platform, engine, or toolkit they use. This book will teach you the concepts and formulas behind collision detection. You will also be taught how to build a simple physics engine, where Rigid Body physics is the main focus, and learn about intersection algorithms for primitive shapes. You’ll begin by building a strong foundation in mathematics that will be used throughout the book. We’ll guide you through implementing 2D and 3D primitives and show you how to perform effective collision tests for them. We then pivot to one of the harder areas of game development—collision detection and resolution. Further on, you will learn what a Physics engine is, how to set up a game window, and how to implement rendering. We’ll explore advanced physics topics such as constraint solving. You’ll also find out how to implement a rudimentary physics engine, which you can use to build an Angry Birds type of game or a more advanced game. By the end of the book, you will have implemented all primitive and some advanced collision tests, and you will be able to read on geometry and linear Algebra formulas to take forward to your own games!
Table of Contents (27 chapters)
Game Physics Cookbook
Credits
About the Author
Acknowledgements
About the Reviewer
Acknowledgements
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Preface
Index

Joints


In three dimensions, an object has six degrees of freedom. Three degrees of freedom come from translation and an additional three come from orientation. A constraint takes away one or more degrees of freedom. A joint is a type of constraint that limits the degrees of freedom between two objects. There are several common types of joints:

  • Distance Joint: This keeps bodies a set distance apart

  • Ball Joint: This limits translation to the pivot of two objects

  • Hinge Joint: This allows for rotation around a single axis

  • Slider Joint: This limits rotation and translation to a single axis

  • Fixed Joint: This does not allow movement

  • Motor Joint: This produces some kind of force

Several simple joints can be combined to create more complex joints. We can use joints to model hinges for doors, ragdolls that represent characters, or to simply stick objects to each other.

Getting ready

In this section, we will implement the simplest joint type there is—the Distance Joint. This joint will keep two particles...