Physiclock

Community Forums/Showcase/Physiclock

Noobody(Posted 2009) [#1]
For a small code competition in the german forums, I wrote a clock that displays the current system time using spheres.

The movement of the spheres is calculated by a small physics integrator - hence the name - using a combination of verlet integration and a rigid body approach.

Screenshot:


The current time is a combination of all three seesaws. The upper two seesaws are to be added to get the minutes (in the picture, that'd be 5 + 24 = 29 minutes). The lower seesaw represents the current hour, which ranges from 1-12 (no AM/PM display). In the picture, the current time would be 9:29.

Once a seesaw is full, it tilts over and the spheres roll to the reservoir in the lower part of the window - except one, which will roll onto the next seesaw.

Because it's quite boring to wait until the seesaws are full, you can also create new spheres with the left mouse button. Please note that the clock only works correctly if there are 30 spheres or less. Otherwise, the many spheres lead to jams once a seesaw tilts over (the physics still works fine, but the time is not displayed correctly).

Download (Win Exe + BMax code): Link


beanage(Posted 2009) [#2]
Simply beautiful. Hence theres always a free spot on my two screens, i am using it now! Thank you and good luck with the competition,


Noobody(Posted 2009) [#3]
Thank you and good luck with the competition

Thank you very much, but I already won the competition, so no need to worry :)


beanage(Posted 2009) [#4]
double post


beanage(Posted 2009) [#5]
but I already won the competition

Oh i see :D

Maybe you could join up with NTG and do a fluid version.. that would be totally awesome, might even handle seconds, and make a fantastic screensaver!


Noobody(Posted 2009) [#6]
Maybe you could join up with NTG and do a fluid version

I already thought of putting water in there, since I wrote a small collection of water simulations a while ago, but there wasn't much time left to implement those. Also, I couldn't really think of a way to let the water blend in with the rest - it just wouldn't fit :)

I might give it another shot in the next weeks, but at the moments I got too much to do with other projects (and RL, unfortunately).


Nate the Great(Posted 2009) [#7]
I already thought of putting water in there, since I wrote a small collection of water simulations a while ago, but there wasn't much time left to implement those. Also, I couldn't really think of a way to let the water blend in with the rest - it just wouldn't fit :)




I dont think adding fluids to this would do a whole lot. A water clock? And it takes way too long to get them just right.


I might give it another shot in the next weeks, but at the moments I got too much to do with other projects (and RL, unfortunately).




Real Life? I think we lost a few blitzers to that about a month ago unfortunately... haha


Ginger Tea(Posted 2009) [#8]
id much prefer to be able to pick up a ball and place it somewhere than have a new ball spawn on mouse click, that way you could set the clock to a different time than what the system clock is, in the end i just clicked the screen to death so nothing could move


ICECAP(Posted 2009) [#9]
Haha! This is great!



Now I have tonnes of time to complete my projects!! :D