The Physics within Video Games

[RaptorMoonX]

(If this is in the wrong place, please move.)

Hi! I'm writing a paper for my Fundamentals of Physics course on how Physics is used to create different experiences within our favorite games. I'm having a bit of trouble researching this topic (all sources must be of the scholarly variety). I checked Google Scholar and my school library, but didn't find much. So far I have one Web site and one book.

From our assignment sheet:

"...Turn in four scholarly web and library resources. At least one of
the resources must be a web site and at least one must be a library resource. Your textbook,encyclopedias and Wikipedia will not be accepted...A scholarly source is one that was written by someone who knows the physics involved. For example, a web site prepared by a professional physicist would count. These include sites from the physics departments of colleges or universities, sites you viewed on the Web Familiarization assignment, and HowStuffWorks.com. Professional journals in physics will probably be too difficult to understand at your level of physics knowledge. Magazines such as Scientific American or Science Digest will be acceptable."

Are there any resources that you are aware of that could help me with my research? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. ^_^

[Osmethne]

Google Thomas Jakobsen for his writings/presentations on Advanced Physics.

There also should be some good white papers and reference material on nVidia's site about their PhysX stuff.

[KAS--Will]

Alright, I don't know if this helps or if it's too late to tell you this, but these are the 2 most popular Physics engines in video games as of late, and a few others you could list with their websites.

Havok: (Half-Life 2, Assassin's Creed, Halo 2-Halo: Reach)
http://havok.com/

Euphoria: (Grand Theft Auto IV, Red Dead Redemption, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II)
http://euphoria.com/

Box2D:
http://box2d.org/

Tokamak Open Source Physics Engine:
http://tokamakphysics.com/

I hope this helped and wasn't too late.

[RaptorMoonX]

My apologies for not getting back to this topic sooner. Thank you both so much for your help. I got a B+ on my paper and it seemed to spark some interest with my instructor as well. Thanks again! ^_^

[Nikke]

Why would they accept HowStuffWorks.com ? Is that such an incredible resource, better than Wikipedia? Or are they your sponsors?

[RaptorMoonX]

For the course, the instructor used HowStuffWorks.com as part of the curriculum. She shunned Wikipedia (I think she had issues in the past with non-verifiable information, not sure though).