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Physics for Games Programmers

Problem Overview

Squirrel Eiserloh
MumboJumbo Games
squirrel@eiserloh.net www.algds.org Technical Director

Types of Problems
Knowing when to cheat Simplifying things Giving shape to things Moving things around Simulation baggage Detecting (and resolving) collisions Sustained interactions Dealing with the impossible Making it fast enough

Knowing When To Cheat

Knowing When to Cheat

Discrete physics simulation falls embarrassingly short of reality. Real physics is prohibitively expensive... ...so we cheat. We need to cheat enough to be able to run in real time. We need to not cheat so much that things break in a jarring and unrecoverable way. Much of the challenge is knowing how and when to cheat.

Knowing When to Cheat

Ask:
Will the player notice? Will the player care? Will the results be predictable? Are we at least cheating in a consistent way? Will the simulation break?

If the simulation breaks, they will notice and they will care

Some crimes are greater than others

Simplifying Things

Simplifying Things

Simplified bodies

Simplifying Things

Simplified bodies Even more simplified bodies

Simplifying Things

Simplified bodies Even more simplified bodies Convex bodies

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Simplifying Things

Simplified bodies Even more simplified bodies Convex bodies Homogeneous bodies

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Simplifying Things

Simplified bodies Even more simplified bodies Convex bodies Homogeneous bodies Rigid bodies

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Simplifying Things

Simplified bodies Even more simplified bodies Convex bodies Homogeneous bodies Rigid bodies Indestructible bodies

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Simplifying Things

Movement is often assumed to be in a vacuum (ignoring air resistance)

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Simplifying Things

Movement is often assumed to be in a vacuum (ignoring air resistance)

Even when air resistance does get simulated, it is hugely oversimplified

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Simplifying Things

Collisions are often assumed to be perfect and elastic

That is, 100% of the energy before the collision is maintained after the collision
Think billiard balls

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Giving Shape to Things

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Giving Shape to Things

N-sphere

2d: Disc 3d: Sphere

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Giving Shape to Things

N-sphere

2d: Disc 3d: Sphere

Simplex

2d: Triangle 3d: Tetrahedron

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Giving Shape to Things

N-sphere

2d: Disc 3d: Sphere

Simplex

2d: Triangle 3d: Tetrahedron

2d: Convex Polygon 3d: Convex Polyhedron a.k.a. Convex Hull a.k.a. Brush (Quake)

Convex Polytope

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Giving Shape to Things

Discrete Oriented Polytope (DOP)

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Giving Shape to Things

Discrete Oriented Polytope (DOP) Oriented Bounding Box (OBB)

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Giving Shape to Things

Discrete Oriented Polytope (DOP) Oriented Bounding Box (OBB) Axis-Aligned Bounding Box (AABB)

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Giving Shape to Things

Discrete Oriented Polytope (DOP) Oriented Bounding Box (OBB) Axis-Aligned Bounding Box (AABB) Capsule

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Giving Shape to Things

Discrete Oriented Polytope (DOP) Oriented Bounding Box (OBB) Axis-Aligned Bounding Box (AABB) Capsule Cylinder (3d only)

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Moving Things Around

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Moving Things Around

Kinematics

Describes motion
Uses position, velocity, momentum, acceleration

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Moving Things Around

Kinematics

Describes motion
Uses position, velocity, momentum, acceleration

Dynamics

Explains motion
Uses forces ...and impulses

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Moving Things Around

Kinematics

Describes motion
Uses position, velocity, momentum, acceleration

Dynamics

Explains motion
Forces (F=ma) Impulses Torque Angular momentum Moment of inertia

Rotation

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Moving Things Around

How to compute the next position and velocity from current position and velocity? This process is called integration; An algorithm for doing this in an integrator

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Moving Things Around

How to compute the next position and velocity from current position and velocity? This process is called integration; An algorithm for doing this in an integrator

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Moving Things Around

How to compute the next position and velocity from current position and velocity? This process is called integration; An algorithm for doing this in an integrator

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Moving Things Around

How to compute the next position and velocity from current position and velocity? This process is called integration; An algorithm for doing this in an integrator

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Moving Things Around

How to compute the next position and velocity from current position and velocity? This process is called integration; An algorithm for doing this in an integrator

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Moving Things Around

How to compute the next position and velocity from current position and velocity? This process is called integration; An algorithm for doing this in an integrator Which integration method to use?

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Moving Things Around

How to compute the next position and velocity from current position and velocity? This process is called integration; An algorithm for doing this in an integrator Which integration method to use?

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Moving Things Around

How to compute the next position and velocity from current position and velocity? This process is called integration; An algorithm for doing this in an integrator Which integration method to use?

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Moving Things Around

How to compute the next position and velocity from current position and velocity? This process is called integration; An algorithm for doing this in an integrator Which integration method to use?

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Moving Things Around

How to compute the next position and velocity from current position and velocity? This process is called integration; An algorithm for doing this in an integrator Which integration method to use?

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Simulation Baggage

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Simulation Baggage

Flipbook syndrome

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Simulation Baggage

Flipbook syndrome Things can happen in-between snapshots

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Simulation Baggage

Flipbook syndrome Things mostly happen in-between snapshots

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Simulation Baggage

Flipbook syndrome Things mostly happen in-between snapshots Curved trajectories treated as piecewise linear

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Simulation Baggage

Flipbook syndrome Things mostly happen in-between snapshots Curved trajectories treated as piecewise linear Terms often assumed to be constant throughout the frame

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Simulation Baggage

(contd)

Error accumulates

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Simulation Baggage

(contd)

Error accumulates Energy is not always conserved

Energy loss can be undesirable Energy gain is evil

Simulations explode!

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Simulation Baggage

(contd)

Error accumulates Energy is not always conserved

Energy loss can be undesirable Energy gain is evil

Simulations explode!

Rotations are often assumed to happen instantaneously at frame boundaries

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Simulation Baggage

(contd)

Error accumulates Energy is not always conserved

Energy loss can be undesirable Energy gain is evil

Simulations explode!

Rotations are often assumed to happen instantaneously at frame boundaries Numerical nightmares!

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Collision Detection

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Collision Detection

We need to determine if A and B intersect

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Collision Detection

We need to determine if A and B intersect Worse yet, they could be (and probably are) in motion

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Collision Detection

We need to determine if A and B intersect Worse yet, they could be (and probably are) in motion If they did collide, we probably also need to know when they collided

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Collision Response

...and we need to figure out how to resolve the collision

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Sustained Interactions

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Sustained Interactions

Surface contact

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Sustained Interactions

Surface contact Edge contact

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Sustained Interactions

Surface contact Edge contact Contact points

Different solutions

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Sustained Interactions

Surface contact Edge contact Contact points

Different solutions

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Sustained Interactions

Surface contact Edge contact Contact points

Different solutions

Stacking

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Sustained Interactions

Surface contact Edge contact Contact points

Different solutions

Stacking Friction

Static & Kinetic

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Sustained Interactions

Surface contact Edge contact Contact points

Different solutions

Stacking Friction

Static & Kinetic

Constraints & Joints

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Dealing With the Impossible

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Dealing With the Impossible

Interpenetration

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Dealing With the Impossible

Interpenetration Tunneling

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Dealing With the Impossible

Interpenetration Tunneling

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Dealing With the Impossible

Interpenetration Tunneling

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Dealing With the Impossible

Interpenetration Tunneling

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Tunneling
(Sucks)

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Tunneling

Small objects tunnel more easily

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Tunneling

(contd)

Possible solutions

Minimum size requirement?

Inadequate; fast objects still tunnel

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Tunneling

(contd)

Fast-moving objects tunnel more easily

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Tunneling

(contd)

Possible solutions

Minimum size requirement?

Inadequate; fast objects still tunnel Inadequate; since speed limit is a function of object size, this would mean small & fast objects (bullets) would not be allowed Helpful, but inadequate; this is essentially the same as a speed limit

Maximum speed limit?

Smaller time step?

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Tunneling

(contd)

Besides, even with min. size requirements and speed limits and a small timestep, you still have degenerate cases that cause tunneling!

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Tunneling

(contd)

Besides, even with min. size requirements and speed limits and a small timestep, you still have degenerate cases that cause tunneling!

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Tunneling

(contd)

Besides, even with min. size requirements and speed limits and a small timestep, you still have degenerate cases that cause tunneling!

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Tunneling

(contd)

Besides, even with min. size requirements and speed limits and a small timestep, you still have degenerate cases that cause tunneling!

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Tunneling

(contd)

Tunneling is very, very bad this is not a mundane detail

Things falling through world Bullets passing through people or walls Players getting places they shouldnt Players missing a trigger boundary

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Tunneling

(contd)

Interpenetration Tunneling Rotational tunneling

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Making It Fast Enough

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Making It Fast Enough

Dont be too particular too soon

Avoid unnecessary work

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Making It Fast Enough

Dont be too particular too soon

Avoid unnecessary work

Eschew n-squared operations

Avoid the everything vs. everything case

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Making It Fast Enough

Dont be too particular too soon

Avoid unnecessary work

Eschew n-squared operations

Avoid the everything vs. everything case Try using simulation islands and space partitioning to divide and conquer

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Simulation Islands

Consider:

1000 objects, 1 island 1000x1000 checks = 1 Million checks

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Simulation Islands

Consider:

1000 objects, 1 island 1000x1000 checks = 1 Million checks 1000 objects, divided into 10 islands of 100 10 x (100x100) checks = 100,000 checks 1/10th as many!

Verses:

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Simulation Islands

Simulation islands can go to sleep when they become stable

i.e. when forces and motion remain unchanged

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Simulation Islands

Simulation islands can go to sleep when they become stable

i.e. when forces and motion remain unchanged

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Simulation Islands

Simulation islands can go to sleep when they become stable

i.e. when forces and motion remain unchanged

When an object enters the islands bounds...

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Simulation Islands

Simulation islands can go to sleep when they become stable

i.e. when forces and motion remain unchanged

When an object enters the islands bounds...

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Simulation Islands

Simulation islands can go to sleep when they become stable

i.e. when forces and motion remain unchanged

When an object enters the islands bounds... ...the island wakes up

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Simulation Islands

Add the newcomer to this simulation island

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Simulation Islands

Add the newcomer to this simulation island ...and put it back to sleep once it stabilizes
This is just one of many ways to reduce complexity Well be covering several others later on

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Making It Fast Enough

Can also exploit work previously done Make educated assumptions using:

to have changed a whole lot in the 15ms or so since the previous frame, so save the previous frames results! Spatial coherence: Things tend to miss each other far more often than they collide, and only things in the same neighborhood can collide with each other

Temporal / frame coherence: Things tend not

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Summary

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Summary
The nature of simulation causes us real problems... problems which cant be ignored So we cheat And we simplify things And even then, it can get quite complex...

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Summary

(contd)

Problems were concerned with:

How should we choose to represent physical bodies? How should we simulate and compute motion? How can we prevent energy build-up? How do we cope with floating point error? How can we detect collisions especially when large numbers of objects are involved? How can we prevent tunneling? How should we resolve penetration? How should we handle contact? How do we deal with non-rigid bodies? How can we relieve CPU burden?

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Questions?

Feel free to reach me by email at:

squirrel@eiserloh.net