Re: [boost] [gsoc-2013] Physics Library Abstraction Layer

Subject: Re: [boost] [gsoc-2013] Physics Library Abstraction Layer
From: Michael Marcin (mike.marcin_at_[hidden])
Date: 2013-04-11 23:30:45

Preston Hamlin wrote:
> Hello, my name is Preston Hamlin and I am a current CS undergraduate at the
> Florida State University.
>
> I was reading over the list of ideas provided and then referenced the
> source code libraries to get a feel for what was being asked for.
>
> I found the prospect of writing an abstraction layer for PhysX or related
> libraries to be interesting. I am somewhat familiar with THREE.js which is
> an abstraction of WebGL. In THREE.js there is a heavy amount of abstraction
> to the degree of providing geometric primitives, particles effect presets,
> simple materials and basic data structures (matrices, vectors, etc...).
> Given the platform that THREE.js operates on, such a degree is
> understandable. How much of the physics library is to be abstracted away in
> generic structures and functions?
>
> I would think that having a few simple primitives (cube, low-poly sphere,
> etc...) would be required since they are commonly used. However more
> advanced meshes like a torus might be better produced through using
> modifiers on said primitives rather than a built-in preset. I think the
> degree of abstraction is most important for modifiers, and I desire to get
> a feel for what is being looked for. I assume the end goal is to be able to
> produce Blender/Unity/3dsMax usable code as well as standalone utilities.
>

Hello,

Cheers to you for choosing an interesting and, IMO, challenging topic.

PhysX, Havok, Bullet, ODE, Newton are some good libraries to take a look 
at and perhaps see if you can lift shared Concepts from.

I would expect something to provide a handful of colliders out of the 
box and support extension for supporting user defined colliders through 
proper Concept(s).

Unity for example provides:
  - BoxCollider
  - SphereCollider
  - CapsuleCollider
  - MeshCollider
  - TerrainCollider
  - WheelCollider

PhysX provides:
  - sphere
  - box
  - capsule
  - plane
  - heightfield
  - convex
  - triangle mesh

Bullet supports slightly more:
  - btSphereShape
  - btBoxShape
  - btCylinderShape
  - btCapsuleShape
  - btConeShape
  - btMultiSphereShape
  - btConvexHull
  - btConvexTriangleMeshShape
  - btBvhTriangleMeshShape
  - btHeightfieldTerrainShape
  - btStaticPlaneShape
  - btCompoundShape

To answer your question directly I think a good usable starting set 
would be:
  - Box
  - Sphere
  - Capsule
  - Plane
  - Convex Polyhedron

You could probably easily represent all of those in any physics backend.