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: 2013-04-12 00:48:19

Jeffrey Lee Hellrung, Jr. wrote:
>
> What do you mean by "colliders"? You mean rigid bodies? Or something more
> general?
>

Sorry my physics is a bit rusty, I'm not sure.

A rigid body in Unity at least (which uses PhysX under the hood) 
typically has a collider.
http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/Manual/Physics.html

I believe collision primitives is what most libraries call what I was 
talking about.
See newton for instance:
http://newtondynamics.com/wiki/index.php5?title=Collision_primitives

>
> This sounds like you're focusing the scope of this on rigid body
> simulations, which is fine, just that, ya know, there's quite a bit more to
> physics simulation engines :)
>
> [1] http://physbam.stanford.edu/
>

Indeed.

I've never heard of physbam before but looking over it I think it has a 
similar set of abstractions to most of the other physics libraries I've 
come across.

Formalizing these shared aspects into concepts and creating an elegant 
interface with multiple backend bindings is what I would hope a boost 
physics library would accomplish.