1.4 KiB
From Flying Balls to Colliding Polygons
Abstract
(text taken from the abstract of my report that you can find here
Physics engines are a fun and interesting way to learn about the laws of physics, as well as computer science. They provide a real-time simulation of common physical phenomena, and therefore illustrate theoretical concepts such as the equations that dictate the motion of objects.
The goal of this project was to extend an existing physics engine built for demonstration purposes. This engine was initially designed and developed to simulate circular objects ("balls") in 2D.
With this project, we intended to extend this engine to also simulate arbitrary polygons, again in a physically accurate way. The main technical challenges of the project is therefore the correct simulation of the dynamics of rigid, polygonal objects. In particular, we developed a model of polygonal rigid objects:
- we implemented a simulation of their inertial motion, possibly in the presence of a constant force field such as gravity;
- we detect collisions between objects;
- we compute and then simulate the dynamic effects of collisions.
The simulations are animated and displayed in real-time. It is also therefore crucial that the simulation code be efficient to obtain smooth animations.