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User guide and WASM demos for nphysics: Rust physics engine with multibodies

100 points by sebcrozet 8y ago

k__ 8y ago
Can't open the nested menus on mobile.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
orthecreedence 8y ago
This is really cool, and thanks for putting the time in to create working demos. I haven't done any game programming in Rust yet, but I will definitely reach for this if I do.
heavenlyblue 8y ago
I don’t want to sound too grumpy and all; but it’s probably a fifth n-body project in wasm I see here on Hacker News. On the other hand the big elephant in the room is the UI on the web. Why is noone doing it? I’ve only seen a single half-baked UI toolkit for wasm+canvas (or however you call the combination of 3d and wasm). I understand there are ways to build interfaces on the web, but it seems a good UI toolkit is something a lot of startups would find incredibly exciting in the long run.
- KenanSulayman 8y ago
  Because people build these projects in their spare time. Just like you have observed there's no perceived business value to managers yet in WebAssembly etc. for companies yet that aren't directly involved with 3D (like AutoCAD Web, game engines, ...) or other visual rendering (like PDFKit), so most of the things that are being created are just cognitively stimulating for the developers creating them, and that's not necessarily creating UIs. Building things like this physics engine is like playing Lego for adults. When you create UI, people always have opinions and you suddenly need to justify why things work differently than what they think is how things should work. That's exhausting. You could make a startup out of it..
- krapp 8y ago
  Wait for the spec to mature a bit more, and for better tooling to emerge, and even then chances are the solution will be a port of QT.
gitgud 8y ago
It's amazing what can be achieved with an Android browser these days. http://nphysics.org/demo_trimesh3/ http://nphysics.org/demo_trimesh3/ Hundreds of objects with gravity and collision-detection falling on uneven terrain.
ghusbands 8y ago
I wonder where one can find a physics engine that can stack boxes without them flexing, wobbling and falling in a very unrealistic way [1]. It seems very common. [1] http://nphysics.org/demo_boxes2/ http://nphysics.org/demo_boxes2/
- sebcrozet 8y ago
  Well most physics engine, including nphysics, bullet, box2d, are able to achieve much more realistic simulations: just increase the number of iterations for the constraints solvers, and reduce the timesteps length. Of course this will no longer be real-time but will be suitable for generating animations. In the end, it always boils down to a compromise between performances and realism unfortunately.

100 points by sebcrozet 8y ago

k__ 8y ago

Can't open the nested menus on mobile.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

orthecreedence 8y ago

This is really cool, and thanks for putting the time in to create working demos. I haven't done any game programming in Rust yet, but I will definitely reach for this if I do.

heavenlyblue 8y ago

I don’t want to sound too grumpy and all; but it’s probably a fifth n-body project in wasm I see here on Hacker News. On the other hand the big elephant in the room is the UI on the web. Why is noone doing it? I’ve only seen a single half-baked UI toolkit for wasm+canvas (or however you call the combination of 3d and wasm). I understand there are ways to build interfaces on the web, but it seems a good UI toolkit is something a lot of startups would find incredibly exciting in the long run.

KenanSulayman 8y ago
Because people build these projects in their spare time. Just like you have observed there's no perceived business value to managers yet in WebAssembly etc. for companies yet that aren't directly involved with 3D (like AutoCAD Web, game engines, ...) or other visual rendering (like PDFKit), so most of the things that are being created are just cognitively stimulating for the developers creating them, and that's not necessarily creating UIs. Building things like this physics engine is like playing Lego for adults. When you create UI, people always have opinions and you suddenly need to justify why things work differently than what they think is how things should work. That's exhausting. You could make a startup out of it..
krapp 8y ago
Wait for the spec to mature a bit more, and for better tooling to emerge, and even then chances are the solution will be a port of QT.

gitgud 8y ago

It's amazing what can be achieved with an Android browser these days. http://nphysics.org/demo_trimesh3/ http://nphysics.org/demo_trimesh3/ Hundreds of objects with gravity and collision-detection falling on uneven terrain.

ghusbands 8y ago

I wonder where one can find a physics engine that can stack boxes without them flexing, wobbling and falling in a very unrealistic way [1]. It seems very common. [1] http://nphysics.org/demo_boxes2/ http://nphysics.org/demo_boxes2/

sebcrozet 8y ago
Well most physics engine, including nphysics, bullet, box2d, are able to achieve much more realistic simulations: just increase the number of iterations for the constraints solvers, and reduce the timesteps length. Of course this will no longer be real-time but will be suitable for generating animations. In the end, it always boils down to a compromise between performances and realism unfortunately.