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

Projection matrix


There are two kinds of projection we can apply to the graphics pipeline, Perspective and Orthographic. Perspective projection, like the name implies, views the world in perspective, there is a vanishing point somewhere in the distance. Orthographic projection, on the other hand, has no vanishing point. If two lines are parallel in an orthographic projection, they will never touch. For this reason, perspective projection is generally used to render 3D elements, and orthographic projection is generally used to render 2D elements:

When designing a projection matrix the most important thing is not the perspective, but the coordinate system. Depending on how we construct this projection matrix, the world will either be in a Left Handed Coordinate System or a Right Handed Coordinate System. The difference between these coordinate systems is the direction of the Z-Axis. In a Left Handed Coordinate System, +Z goes into the screen. In a Right Handed Coordinate System, +Z comes out...