CSE 390 – Computer Game Programming

Physics Modeling

Live Billiards, by Terra Game

 Internship Annoucement
• SONY/BMG wants more Stony Brook game development
interns
– Apply ASAP for Summer 07 & Fall 07
– Send resumes to intern.opps@sonybmg.com
– Subject: Game Development
– Can be done for course credit as part of game
specialization
• Lots of other internship opportunities as well
– Ex: Three Rings (see
http://www.threerings.net/jobs/index.html)
– Lots of others listed in Yahoo group database
 Project Announcement
• If you are interested in a games-related research
project, please let me know
– can fulfill research requirement for game programming
specialization
• Project work will start this summer
• In this project, a team of students will develop a
serious game using the Torque Game Engine
– more information for those who participate at
organizational meeting at end of semester
 Unreal Engine 3.0 & Physics
http://www.unrealtechnology.com/html/technology/ue30.shtml

• Rigid body physics system supporting player interaction

with physical game object, ragdoll character animation,
complex vehicles, and dismemberable objects.
• All renderable materials have physical properties such as
friction.
• Physics-driven sound.
• Fully integrated support for physics-based vehicles,
including player control, AI, and networking.
• Visual physics modeling tool built into UnrealEd,
supporting creation of optimized collision primitives for
models and skeletal animated meshes; constraint editing;
and interactive physics simulation and tweaking in-
editor."
 Physics & Hardware
• Fascinating & realistic physics in games is currently a
reality
• Ex: Chronic Logic’s Gish
– http://www.chroniclogic.com/?gish.htm
– 2005 IGF Grand prize winner
– 2D side scroller, main character: a ball of tar
– Fascinating & realistic physics used in game
– Good gameplay
• True physics behavior is impossible
– physics don’t follow a frames per second schedule
– physics can be very demanding on your processor
– Soon you’ll play with physics cards
• http://www.ageia.com/technology.html
• PhysX, a Physics Processing Unit (PPU)
 Ageia’s PhysX Processor Architecture
• Has been designed to enable radical acceleration of:
– Rigid body dynamics
– Universal collision detection
– Finite element analysis
– Soft body dynamics
– Fluid dynamics
– Hair simulation
– Clothing simulation
• These are very expensive operations computationally
(fluid, hair, etc …)
• Ageia’s NovodeX Physics SDK
– An asynchronous physics-modeling API that allows for the use
of software-only and/or hardware-accelerated features in games
 Fundamental Laws of Physics
• Assumption: we’re talking Newtonian physics, not
quantum or Star Trek physics
• Review of basics terms:
– Mass (m): a measurement of how much matter an object is
made of in kilograms (not weight)
– Time (t): in our games, a frame represents a virtual unit of
time, in advanced 3D games, real time is used
– Position (s): location of an object in space (where on object?)
• Physicists use an object’s center of gravity
• Most game programmers use the center of a bounding box
– Velocity (v): instantaneous rate of speed of an object
• ds/dt
• For us, this translates to pixels/frame
– Acceleration (a): rate of change of velocity
• dv/dt
 Common Calculations
• New Position with constant velocity:
xt = x0 + (v * t)
• New Velocity (vt) with Acceleration:
vt = v0 + (a * t)
• New Position (xt) with Acceleration:
xt = x0 + (v0 * t) + (a * t2 / 2)

• NOTE – each of these calculations are in one dimension

only
• How would you handle movement in multiple
dimensions?
– You would perform similar calculations on y & z axes
 Force
• Force (F):
– F = m * a, measured in kg * m/s2, or just N (Newtons)
• Force in games:
– Apply artificial forces like explosions to an object & compute
the resulting acceleration (a = F/m)
– Two objects collide & you wish to compute the forces on each
other
– A game weapon has a certain force, but can fire different virtual
mass shells (thus different accelerations)
• If multiple forces are acting on an object, they may be
summed for a total force
fx = f1x + f2x + f3x
 Momentum
• (P) – A property that objects in motion have
– P = m * v, measured in kg * m/s
• Force equation can be reduced to:
– F = dP/dt
• Momentum transfer – if 2 objects collide:
– A perfectly elastic collision: a ball hits a wall with
velocity vi & bounces off with the same velocity
• Momentum is conserved
– An imperfect elastic collision: some energy is
converted into heat, work, & deformation of objects
• Momentum is reduced after collision
 Two blocks colliding head-on
• Block one before collision: ma & vai
• Block two before collision: mb & vbi
• If momentum is conserved after collision:
(ma * vai) + (mb * vbi) = (ma * vaf) + (mb * vbf)
• Problems – 2 unknowns (vaf & vbf)
– Need a second equation (Kinetic energy equation)
– ke = (m * v2)/2, where ke is never negative Joules (J)
– Insert the ke equation into our momentum equation
vaf = ((2 * mb * vbi) + vai * (ma – mb))/(ma + mb)
 Modeling Gravity Effects
• Gravity is a common game effect, two cases:
– Two or more objects with relatively the same mass
– Two objects where the mass of one object is much greater
than the other
• Gravitational force between any two objects:
F = G * m1 * m2 / r2
G = gravitational constant, 6.67x10-11 N*m2*kg-2
• Example, 70 kg person standing on earth:
F = 6.67x10-11 * 70kg * 5.98x1024kg/(6.38x106m)2
= 685.93N
Flbs = 685.93N/(4.45N/lb) = 155 lbs
• Again, Force (F) can be used to calculate acceleration
 Modeling a Gravity Well
• Using gravity effects, we can model a ship flying
near a black hole in a space game
1. Make up a mass for the ship
2. Make up a mass for the black hole that’s much larger
than the ship
3. Make up your own G that matches your desired
game-play effect
4. Figure out the Force & convert it to acceleration
(m/a)
5. Include this acceleration in calculating the ship’s
velocity
– will be greater as the ship gets closer to the black hole
 Modeling objects falling from the sky
• Assumption
– Acceleration on an object due to gravity is 9.8 m/s2
– Use whatever you want to improve game-play
• results will vary depending on scale of game & game objects
• Velocity of the object at a given time:
v(t) = v0 + (9.8 m/s2) * t
• Position of the object at a given time:
y(t) = y0 + (v0 * t) + ((9.8 m/s2) * t2 / 2)
 Example: Ball falling from top of screen
int y_pos = 0,
y_velocity = 0,
gravity = 9;

while (y_pos < SCREEN_BOTTOM)

{
y_pos += y_velocity;
// DRAW BALL at y_pos
y_velocity += gravity;
}
 Example: Ball falling with curved trajectory
int x_pos = 0,
y_pos = 0,
x_velocity = 2,
y_velocity = 0,
gravity = 9;

while (y_pos < SCREEN_BOTTOM)

{
x_pos += x_velocity;
y_pos += y_velocity;
// DRAW BALL at y_pos
y_velocity += gravity;
}
 Modeling Projectile Trajectories
• Problem assumptions:
– Ground plane at y = 0
– Tank located at (0, 0)
– Tank barrel pointed at angle of inclination theta (θ)
– Tank shoots shell at velocity v
Vix = v * cos θ
Viy = v * sin θ
• To calculate the position at any time t:
vy(t) = viy – ((9.8 m/s2) * t)
y(t) = y0 + (v0 * t) + ((9.8 m/s2) * t2 / 2)
x(t) = vix * t
• When will it hit the ground & how far will it go?
t = (viy * (sin θ) /a) * 2
 Trajectory Example
float x_pos = 0,
y_pos = SCREEN_BOTTOM,
x_vel = 0,
y_vel = 0,
gravity = 9.8,
velocity = INIT_SHELL_VEL,
angle = INIT_ANGLE;
x_vel = velocity * cos(angle);
y_vel = velocity * sin(angle);
while (y_pos < SCREEN_BOTTOM)
{
x_pos += x_vel;
y_pos += y_vel;
// DRAW SHELL OBJECT
y_vel += gravity;
x_vel -= WIND_FACTOR;
}
 Basic Collision Response
• Video games have traditionally use simplified elastic
collisions
– this is rapidly changing
• Simple x,y bounce physics
– Ex: balls bouncing off sides of pool table
– When a ball hits one of the sides, it reflects off the side at an
angle equal & opposite to its initial trajectory
– Trigonometric calculations are expensive
– Trick: Walls are EAST, WEST, NORTH, & SOUTH
• Program velocity to be opposite direction depending on which wall is hit
• Reduce velocity slightly after each collision
• If EAST wall is hit, reverse x velocity, etc …
– Friction – after initial velocity, use an acceleration with negative
value to gradually slow down ball
 Other Interesting Game Physics
• Computing the Collision Response with Planes of
any Orientation
• Simple Kinematics
– The mechanics of moving linked chains of rigid bodies
– Useful for 3D Animation with wireframe objects
• Particle Systems
– Physics models that simulate small particles
– Good for explosions, vapor trails, sand storms, etc …
 Constructing Physics Models for Games
• Physics engine might keep track of:
– Position & velocity of objects
– Angular velocity of objects
– Mass, frictional coefficient, & other physical properties
of objects
– Physics engine geometry for objects
– External universal forces info such as wind, gravity, …
• Calculations might be generated once per frame to
perform all physics modeling
– of course, soon physics cards will help do these things
asynchronously