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I recently started playing around with a physics engine library and it quickly became clear to me that I had no business attempting to build my own. I thought I

I recently started playing around with a physics engine library and it quickly became clear to me that I had no business attempting to build my own. I thought I was "close" with my DIY attempt and then read docs like the following: https://github.com/bepu/bepuphysics2/blob/master/Documentation/ContinuousCollisionDetection.md https://github.com/bepu/bepuphysics2/blob/master/Documentati... Configuring mandatory basics like "solver iterations" sent some strong signals to me that I was attempting to fight a dragon I couldn't even fully see.

9dev 3y ago
The most important part of this feeling is not giving in to being intimidated. By realising there is a dragon, you’ve already made a big step! Others could fight the dragon because they made the same first step at some point, not because they are so much smarter than you.
- kqr 3y ago
  Indeed. I've discovered with experience that one can learn surprisingly complicated things by taking one methodical step at a time and just giving it lots of time and effort. If you want to do it, go for it! Just don't expect results on day 1.
rikroots 3y ago
I've tried a number of times to build a physics engine for my 2D canvas library - the one thing that's defeated me every time has been the collision detection. In the end I gave up on building the whole thing and settled on just doing the particle part of the job; it's enough for my purposes without over-complexifying the library[1]. If people need collision detection for their canvas animation they can include a 3rd party library that does the job properly[2]. But it was definitely worth making the attempt - an excellent learning experience into an area of computing I never want to visit again! [1] - Some examples: A particle emitter - https://scrawl-v8.rikweb.org.uk/demo/particles-003.html https://scrawl-v8.rikweb.org.uk/demo/particles-003.html Emulate a flag with a net of particles - https://scrawl-v8.rikweb.org.uk/demo/particles-008.html https://scrawl-v8.rikweb.org.uk/demo/particles-008.html Position things using particles - https://scrawl-v8.rikweb.org.uk/demo/particles-012.html https://scrawl-v8.rikweb.org.uk/demo/particles-012.html [2] - My favourite JS physics library is MatterJS - https://brm.io/matter-js/ https://brm.io/matter-js/ . I want to like Rapier, which is coded in Rust and can be imported into the browser via WASM, but I haven't had the time to properly play with it - https://rapier.rs/docs/user_guides/javascript/getting_started_js/ https://rapier.rs/docs/user_guides/javascript/getting_starte...

9dev 3y ago

The most important part of this feeling is not giving in to being intimidated. By realising there is a dragon, you’ve already made a big step! Others could fight the dragon because they made the same first step at some point, not because they are so much smarter than you.

kqr 3y ago
Indeed. I've discovered with experience that one can learn surprisingly complicated things by taking one methodical step at a time and just giving it lots of time and effort. If you want to do it, go for it! Just don't expect results on day 1.

rikroots 3y ago

I've tried a number of times to build a physics engine for my 2D canvas library - the one thing that's defeated me every time has been the collision detection. In the end I gave up on building the whole thing and settled on just doing the particle part of the job; it's enough for my purposes without over-complexifying the library[1]. If people need collision detection for their canvas animation they can include a 3rd party library that does the job properly[2]. But it was definitely worth making the attempt - an excellent learning experience into an area of computing I never want to visit again! [1] - Some examples: A particle emitter - https://scrawl-v8.rikweb.org.uk/demo/particles-003.html https://scrawl-v8.rikweb.org.uk/demo/particles-003.html Emulate a flag with a net of particles - https://scrawl-v8.rikweb.org.uk/demo/particles-008.html https://scrawl-v8.rikweb.org.uk/demo/particles-008.html Position things using particles - https://scrawl-v8.rikweb.org.uk/demo/particles-012.html https://scrawl-v8.rikweb.org.uk/demo/particles-012.html [2] - My favourite JS physics library is MatterJS - https://brm.io/matter-js/ https://brm.io/matter-js/ . I want to like Rapier, which is coded in Rust and can be imported into the browser via WASM, but I haven't had the time to properly play with it - https://rapier.rs/docs/user_guides/javascript/getting_started_js/ https://rapier.rs/docs/user_guides/javascript/getting_starte...