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PC Games (Games) Entertainment Games

NovodeX Physics Engine SDK/Demo Released 32

Posted by simoniker from the causing-havok dept.
JJC writes "If, like me, your favourite thing about Doom 3 is the test_boxstack demo map, you're in for a treat. To demonstrate their physics engine, NovodeX has produced a Windows program, called NovodeX Rocket, that lets you set up and manipulate a number of 3D objects and watch them collide and interact realistically. Included are ragdolls (human, deer, horse and monsters), dominoes, trebuchets and a giant Jenga tower. This coincides with the NovodeX Physics SDK v 2.1.1 becoming freely available for non-commercial use. I heard about this from David Weller's MSDN Blog."
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NovodeX Physics Engine SDK/Demo Released More

NovodeX Physics Engine SDK/Demo Released

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  • Its all good (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Phazz666 ( 778423 )
    This would be great if could also run on linux. Maybe they could consider this.

  • And there's Open Dynamics Engine... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rgbe ( 310525 ) on Tuesday August 10, 2004 @12:00AM (#9926484)
    ODE (http://ode.org/ [ode.org]) is a GNU physics engine that has a simulation where you can crash a car into a brick wall .... LOT's of fun :)

  • Well, a glimmer of hope (Score:4, Insightful)

    by jvmatthe ( 116058 ) on Tuesday August 10, 2004 @12:38AM (#9926626) Homepage
    I had been worried that future id Software games might not be released as Free software (like Doom, Quake, Quake 2, and soon Quake 3) because they were incorporating third party libraries for physics. Sure, John Carmack and crew ripped out some sound code from Doom to get the source released, but a whole physics engine is a completely different beast, and I doubt that Carmack would be up to coding a decent one in order to make the Doom 3 source something he could release in a workable state.

    Anyway, good to see they're at least thinking about tools that are open enough that they might be usable in a few years when Doom 3 is made Free.

    As another example: I doubt that UT2k3 could be released as anything resembling Free software when it is a true legacy product and Epic's newer tech is attractive enough to keep people licensing the new instead of going for the old. It's got a physics engine that they depend on someone else to build for them, last I heard. (Can't remember the name of it right now. Karma? Ah well.)

    Not that I'm waiting for Doom 3 to become Free: it's many years out and for now id's getting my cash as soon as the GNU/Linux binaries for Doom 3 are released. It's the least I can do for a developer that continues to give its source away when it's done with it. Of course, I'd like to see the new game too. ;^)

    • Re:Well, a glimmer of hope (Score:5, Informative)

      by waaka! ( 681130 ) on Tuesday August 10, 2004 @01:27AM (#9926760)

      Don't be misled by the submitter's mention of Doom 3's test_boxstack map, Doom 3's physics were done in-house at id by Jan Paul van Waveren (a.k.a. Mr. Elusive), who was also responsible for bots both official and unofficial in past Quakes. Gamespy interviewed [gamespy.com] him and Robert Duffy back in 2001, although the interview doesn't go too much into the details of exactly how Doom 3's physics work.

      On the other hand, there was a press release [google.com] back in late March about how Epic Games will be using NovodeX technology in future versions of the Unreal engine.

      • Don't be misled by the submitter's mention of Doom 3's test_boxstack map, Doom 3's physics were done in-house at id by Jan Paul van Waveren (a.k.a. Mr. Elusive), who was also responsible for bots both official and unofficial in past Quakes. Gamespy interviewed him and Robert Duffy back in 2001, although the interview doesn't go too much into the details of exactly how Doom 3's physics work.

        Yes, that was my guess when I read this article. Marketroid: "People like DOOM3 right now. Hmm. Time to get a Slas
      • Ah. Thanks for setting that straight. That'll teach me to post to /. right before bed. :^)
      • Interestingly, there's no dynamic action in Doom 3 that couldn't be handled easily by ODE [ode.org]. They didn't really need to roll their own physics package.
    • I doubt that UT2k3 could be released as anything resembling Free software when it is a true legacy product

      I see no reason to think that the Unreal engine will ever be released as free software, regardless of its ties to third-party software. It's really something special for id to release the Quake engines. You see it here and there with smaller and older titles, but John has said that the Quake 3 engine (still to be found in recent games like Jedi Academy and Medal of Honor) may be released by the end of

  • great... (Score:3, Funny)

    by hookedup ( 630460 ) on Tuesday August 10, 2004 @12:56AM (#9926677)
    it's 1am, and i'm playing jenga alone..

    some of the demos make great stress relievers... now where did i put that thumbdrive to bring this to work tommorow...

    • Re:great... (Score:3, Funny)

      by prockcore ( 543967 )

      some of the demos make great stress relievers.

      True, but some of them create stress.. the dead horse and deer ragdolls were just disturbing.

      That didn't prevent me from throwing them high in the air just to watch them hit the ground, however.

      I need help.
      • If you really want a challenge, try to make them stand up on their own.

        I got the deer to do it, but the horse is still giving me trouble.

  • Open Source (Score:1, Redundant)

    by noselasd ( 594905 )
    For an open source physics enging, see ODE [ode.org]
    It also has quite a few nice demos.

  • I don't really like the physics in D3 (Score:3, Interesting)

    by 88NoSoup4U88 ( 721233 ) on Tuesday August 10, 2004 @10:28AM (#9929082)
    I personally don't like the physics engine that much ; In the game itself it's used in the id-way of using it : showing it off , all tech-demo-ey like (i only played through half of it)

    But when i tried the boxstack testmap, alot of times i've seen combinations, where gravity would have done its work in real life (eg. some boxes still staying upright when shooting one box halfway out).

    I really like the Havok engine, currently being used in the UT series, and also available in the HL2-Source engine (looked way more realistic than the D3 physics do)

    • I've noticed what you observed about test_boxstack, too, but what bothered me more was the way the stack of boxes falls once you finally knock a piece far enough out. It seems like the stack ought to sink as one, but for now it doesn't look like a box starts to fall until the box below it has moved completely out from below it. I suspect this has to do with not actually running the simulation on objects unless certain conditions are met, since the amount of contact resolution that needs to happen in order t

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