Appropriate physics library to use?
Blitz3D Forums/Blitz3D Userlibs/Appropriate physics library to use?
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| I want to do a ball simulation (think marble madness) with a ball running down a set of tubes. Depending on turns in the tube the ball might roll off any of the sides of the tube. Are any of the physics libraries likely to be any better than any other for what I'm after? |
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| If you have 3DSMax or similar modelling package, EasyTOK is pretty enough. |
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| Newton is the best of all of them. |
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| omg...please...not AGAIN! use the search-function goddamnit! there're dozens of threads, discussing "the best"-physics-engines-question! just some examples: http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=66188 http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=53716 http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=43994 funny to see, how preferences change over time, isnt it josh? ;) (see last sample-thread) |
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| @OJay: Hey, take it easy tiger--he's not asking the same old general question. He's asking for advice about which of the libraries is most suitable to a specific project. None the less, there's plenty of previous conversation to read through. I don't think any of those threads mentions Itmbin's newest additions to the physics wrappers available--two wrappers for Newton: Simple (and so far free): http://blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=67229 Comprehensive (and not free): http://blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=66659 |
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| Yes, I've poured over all the threads and realise that everyone has their personal favourite engine. I also notice people say some engines are better at things than others (case in point is one of the engines can't handle car simultations very well and you end up with either a 0% or 100% grip situation). I haven't played with physics yet and at this point my project has only one aspect that needs a physics library that is different to what I've read on the forums. As I'm dealing with spheres running through tubes, and not eg. a car on a road, or 3rd person shooter, there isn't much in the way of previous posts. Therefore I'm hoping someone can tell me which library will suit an environment where a sphere requires collision management on all sides. If the answer ends up that Newton, ODE, Tokamak etc will all do the job then that's what I need to know (not which one is better, I can read everyone's posts for that). But if one is suited (or conversely NOT suited) to my application, knowing that will help me immensely. Thanks to everyone who's replying, If you have any ideas regarding spheres in tubes, I'd love to hear them. |
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| I'd use ITMBIN's Newton in this case, see hull and mesh example. I'd use sketch_up to create the tubes, see follow me tool. I'd get the Ruby Orge Code for Sketch that exports XML. I'd process the XML to build the actual mesh and save it as b3d and be ready to go. |
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| If I were you I get all the physics wrappers and try them out - you should be able to easily modify one of the examples from each package to create a ball, import and position a tube object and then see what happens with each. Personally I prefer Tokamak (as I'm making a car game) but I've no idea if it's any good at rolling spheres down tubes. I'm sure there's a demo somewhere with one of the physics libs that has a small room filled with pipes and slabs and suchlike which has a load of balls poured in at the top. Can't remember if it was ODE or Tokamak however. |
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| Thanks everyone for the responses. Wayne - Any tools you can recommend for converting the XML to a mesh? ITMBIN seems to have 2 wrappers, a free and commercial one. I'll have a play with both and see how they go. Vorderman - I'll have a whirl at Tokamak too (I've been a bit reluctant as I've been reading it's been out of development for years). Looking forward to your car game to be completed, I'll be watching the forums for it! |
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