Colliding billiard balls. Missile trajectories. Cornering dynamics in speeding cars. By applying the laws of physics, you can realistically model nearly everything in games that bounces around, flies, rolls, slides, or isn't sitting still, to create compelling, believable content for computer games, simulations, and animation. Physics for Game Developers serves as the starting point for those who want to enrich games with physics-based realism. Part one is a mechanics primer that reviews basic concepts and addresses aspects of rigid body dynamics, including kinematics, force, and kinetics. Part two applies these concepts to specific real-world problems, such as projectiles, boats, airplanes, and cars. Part three introduces real-time simulations and shows how they apply to computer games. Many specific game elements stand to benefit from the use of real physics, including:

• The trajectory of rockets and missiles, including the effects of fuel burn off
• The collision of objects such as billiard balls
• The stability of cars racing around tight curves
• The dynamics of boats and other waterborne vehicles
• The flight path of a baseball after being struck by a bat
• The flight characteristics of airplanes

You don't need to be a physics expert to learn from Physics for Game Developers, but the author does assume you know basic college-level classical physics. You should also be proficient in trigonometry, vector and matrix math (reference formulas and identities are included in the appendixes), and college-level calculus, including integration and differentiation of explicit functions. Although the thrust of the book involves physics principles and algorithms, it should be noted that the examples are written in standard C and use Windows API functions.

Physics for Game Developers Review,  April 28 2003
Submitted by mike insanantone   [Respond | View]

Actually, I would give this book 3.5 critters. I do have the math and physics background to follow the author. A more comprehensive book on mechanics is

"Vector Mechanics for Engineers" by Beer and Johnson. Io, or moment of inertia, is explained in great length as are all of the authors topics and much more.

What would be really nice if all of the programs were made available, either with an accompanying CD or at the web-site. For no better reason, than to show how the program works. If the author doesn't explain what is left out, I have to figure it out. I would rather be experimenting with the code. This is sort of like bying a mini-van, without an engine. Sure you have a vehical that can haul half of a softball team, but until you get the engine, nobody plays any ball.

I'm not a Mac guy, but I agree with their gripe and then some. It should be clearly stated which language and platforms this code is intended for.

In summary, the basic algorithms are good if you understand mechanics. The code needs to be more verbosely documented. And why not have all the code available?


Physics for Game Developers Review,  January 12 2003
Submitted by Koji Sato   [Respond | View]

A wonderful book. Well layed out, a simple and practical framework of basic principals which provide a sufficient foundation for most readers to apply real-world behaviours to just about any simulated event.

The techniques and formulas provided in this book are applicable to any platform. Any reader who complains about not being able to cut/paste and compile the sample initialization code into their OpenGL application is missing the point.


Physics for Game Developers Review,  May 20 2002
Submitted by TrickyFishy   [Respond | View]

I'm thrilled with this book. It covers the topics I want it to cover and I'm particularly glad I didn't have to pay for paper that covers too much introductory information.

The appendicies cover just enough background information to shake the rust off but isn't a complete lesson on basic math. I think more books should be written like this.

The examples are clear and easy to understand and the text is in the classic O'Reilly quality: the meat without the fluff. The $40 price point is an excellent value. Bravo! More like this please!


Physics for Game Developers Review,  March 01 2002
Submitted by Mike Ethetton   [Respond | View]

I find this book a great resource for the game developer. As stated in another review, this book really covers mechanics, and not many other fields of physics. Fortunately, the book covers exactly what I purchased it for. I've had to brush up quite a bit on my rusty math skills, but I think that could be considered an occupational hazard.

While I sometimes write for Windows, most of my game coding is actually done on another platform, yet I did not find the Windows-based C code included to be a hinderance. If anything, through translating it to my platform, I found I understood it better than if I had just "thrown it in" someplace.

I was searching for a book with just this information, and just this depth about two years ago, and could find nothing close in my research. Overall, an excellent book! Now, if only there were a "Collision Detection for Game Developers" (hint,hint}




Physics for Game Developers Review,  February 11 2002
Submitted by Einstein   [Respond | View]

Unfortunately, this book appears to only cover mechanics, not physics. Where, for example, is the subscience of optics (reflections, refractions of light) for game developers covered?

The boastful title is exaggerated.


Physics for Game Developers Review,  January 26 2002
Submitted by Chris Laurel   [Respond | View]

Physics for Game Developers strikes a perfect balance between theory and practical examples. The chapters explaining how to simulate projectile, plane, boat, hovercraft, and car were extremely helpful applications of the theory introduced in previous chapters. I rarely felt that there was any sort of 'gap' between theory and application--nearly every parameter and equation used in the applications was at some point in the text derived (very readably) from fundamental principles of mechanics. It would have been nice to see a more thorough discussion of collision detection. While collision detection methods aren't physics, accurate and numerically robust collision detection is and essential part of any game that uses a physics engine.

The code examples are easy to read. I don't think that the fact that they're written to use Direct3D should keep anyone from buying this book. It will prevent you from running the examples without modification, but no developer even slightly familiar with 3D graphics should have trouble translating them to their preferred OS and 3D API. And only the graphics code is platform specific--the actual simulation code is completely portable.




Physics for Game Developers Review,  January 03 2002
Submitted by Steve   [Respond | View]

This book is excellent. Easy to read, good code examples. Who cares if the downloadable code is PC-centric? It's the algorithms that you're interested in, right?

Complete and concise. Written with respect, as if the reader actually has a clue. An excellent value.


Physics for Game Developers Review,  December 18 2001
Submitted by Crispin Wellington   [Respond | View]

The book is excellent but I can only give it two stars. It is let down completely by the code examples which all use Direct3d and Windows API formatting. This is very specific in what should be a general book for any platform.

I would suggest OpenGL to be a more universal API to use. Or remove the API and System dependant stuff entirely and replace the 3d specific code with pseudo functions.

I hope future editions of the book will remove this Microsoft centricity.


Physics for Game Developers Review,  December 12 2001
Submitted by Nick Maj   [Respond | View]

There are no Mac example apps to run, only PC. Unfortunately, I'm returning this book.


Physics for Game Developers Review,  November 30 2001
Submitted by Thomas Cunningham   [Respond | View]

An excellent, well presented book on the subject. You could spend weeks searching the net or your local college libraries compiling this information , but why bother. The right amount of theory backed up by solid examples and code (C). The right amount of detail and depth of the material .

Take the "what I assume you know" section seriously. You need a college level background in math to follow what is presented. This should be obvious, physic concepts involve math. However, you do not need to know how to calculate calculus problems to follow the material., just an understanding of the concepts. Physic properties are well defined and shown with examples.

This really is a very well written book, it was needed, especially for hobbyist programmers, such as myself. It will be my reference book on the subject. I am able to follow the subject and apply it to my particular platform and programming language.

My only knock would be that there are no Mac example apps to run, only PC. This seems odd, as the authors bio indicates he works with Mac's.