Jebediah Pavleas

Kinecting to Mathematics through Embodied Interactions

Developed by a team of university students, the KinectMath software program encourages junior high and high school students to master abstract algebraic functions through embodied interactions using popular game-playing technology. The Web extra at http://youtu.be/KVoRVIg7U40 is a video segment showing UW Bothell students working with a professor to develop a teaching tool for mathematics by using the Microsoft Kinect.

Introduction to 2D Game Physics Engine Development

Physics engines play an important part in many types of games. A believable physics interaction between game objects has become a key element of most modern PC and console games as well as, more recently, browser and smartphone games. The range of topics within physics for games is broad and includes, but is not limited to, areas such as rigid body, fluid dynamics, soft-body, vehicle physics, and particle physics. This book will cover the fundamental topics needed for you to get started in understanding and building a general purpose, rigid body physics engine in two dimensions. The book also aims to provide you with a reusable game physics engine, which can be used for your own games, by guiding you through the process of building a physics engine step-by-step from scratch. This way you will gain a foundational understanding of the concepts and components required for a standard 2D rigid body system.

Implementing the 2D Physics Engine Core

In the previous chapter, you implemented functionality to support basic drawing operations. Drawing is the first step to constructing your physics engine because it allows you to observe the output while continuing to expand the engine’s capabilities. In this chapter, two critical components for 2D physics simulations, the core engine loop and rigid shape class, will be examined and added to the engine. The core engine loop, or the engine loop, allows the engine to control and handle the real-time interaction of game objects, while the rigid shape class abstracts and hides the detailed information such as positions and rotation angles that are required for future physics calculations.

Completing the Physics Engine and Rigid Shape Component

In the previous chapter, you have implemented algorithms to detect collisions between rigid circles and rectangles. In addition to the Boolean condition of whether a collision has indeed occurred, the algorithms you have implemented also computed information that tells you important details—the collision information, which includes the interpenetration depth and normal direction. In this chapter, you will further expand the physics engine by using the collision information to correct the interpenetration condition, and learn about simulating collision responses that resemble real-world rigid shape behaviors. Initially, your responses will be in linear motion, and finally you will support objects rotating as a result of collisions.

Incorporating Collision Detection

In the context of 2D video games, the fundamentals of a physical simulation involves movements of rigid shapes, collisions of the moving shapes, and responses after the collisions. In the previous chapter, you defined the rigid shape classes and a core engine loop to support basic drawing, update operations, and simple movements of rigid shapes. In this chapter, you will learn about and implement the detection of rigid shape collisions and compute the necessary information, such that in the next chapter you can begin resolving and implementing implement the responses to the collisions. The proper implementation based on these concepts enables believable scenarios when objects physically interact with each other in the simulated world.

Summarizing the Physics Engine

Congratulations! You have learned the basic ideas and concepts behind and completed the implementation of a 2D physics engine. This chapter will summarize all of your work done from Chapter 1 to 4, what you should understand and take away from this book, and highlight improvements or future explorations on the physics engine that you have created.

Introducing 2D Game Engine Development with JavaScript

Video games are complex, interactive, multimedia software systems. These systems must, in real time, process player input, simulate the interactions of semi-autonomous objects, and generate high-fidelity graphics and audio outputs, all while trying to engage the players. Attempts at building video games can quickly be overwhelmed by the need to be well versed in software development as well as in how to create appealing player experiences. The first challenge can be alleviated with a software library, or game engine, that contains a coherent collection of utilities and objects designed specifically for developing video games. The player engagement goal is typically achieved through careful gameplay design and fine-tuning throughout the video game development process. This book is about the design and development of a game engine; it will focus on implementing and hiding the mundane operations and supporting complex simulations. Through the projects in this book, you will build a practical game engine for developing video games that are accessible across the Internet.

Introducing 2D Game Development in C

C#, a modern object-oriented programming language from Microsoft, is one the easiest languages to develop applications with. When developing C# applications within the Microsoft Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE), programmers are especially empowered with near-transparent application programming interface (API) access, friendly editor-assisted code completion, and almost instantaneous compilations. For these reasons, C# is one the best programming languages for prototyping sophisticated ideas and for learning and experimenting with difficult concepts.