A successful video game should have qualities such as an engaging plot, exceptional graphics, entertaining gameplay, and game physics that align with the game’s story. Today, players can immerse themselves in a game and feel like they are playing in the real world due to the life-like game physics.
When the physics in a game world doesn’t make sense, the player’s immersion in the game can be easily broken. Therefore, programmers must understand physical science equations to apply them to the game code accurately.
What Is Game Physics?
Physics in gaming refers to the laws of physics that govern how objects interact in the game world. It is crucial for creating realistic game elements, including collisions, missile trajectories, and cornering dynamics in speeding cars. Using the laws of physics, game developers can model everything that moves in games, from bouncing objects to flying, rolling, and sliding objects, to create compelling and believable content.
But how do game developers incorporate physics into their designs?
Game Physics Engines
First, game developers don’t usually write complex physics formulas in their games. One of the primary strategies for implementing realistic game physics is to use physics engines. They rely on pre-made physics engines or extensions for the software package they use to supply the game’s physics.
An engine or extension is a library of commands and functions a developer adds to the software to accomplish different actions.
These engines allow game developers to create complex physical simulations without coding everything from scratch. Several game physics engines are available, such as Havok, PhysX, and Box2D, that game developers can use to create realistic physics in their games.
Game developers use real-time physics engines because they don’t require highly detailed calculations; they need quick calculations to make a game look real for the player.
Different Types Of In-Game Physics
Game developers have to use physics when dealing with the effects of gravity, elasticity, sound, and the interaction of light with objects. Typical physics engines and extensions employ the following techniques to address a variety of situations that depend on physical laws:
- Collision Detection – Checks for collisions and then respond to collisions.
- Ragdoll Physics – Creates animations that depict a character’s death or when a character picks up a limp object. Ragdoll physics is the simulation of the movement of a character’s body when it is not animated. When a character is killed or knocked down in a game, the ragdoll physics takes over and simulates the character’s body movement based on the laws.
- Deformable Bodies – Gives objects the ability to deform and shatter.
- Soft-Body Physics – One of the most popular ways to implement realistic physics in games is through the use of soft-body physics. Soft body physics refers to the simulation of objects that are not rigid, such as cloth, hair, and liquids. Soft body physics is often used in games that involve characters with flowing hair, capes, or clothing. The physics of these objects can be simulated in real-time, allowing them to react realistically to the environment and the characters’ actions.
Each of these techniques uses various algorithms, or a list of coded instructions, to perform calculations based on physical laws and modeling methods, to perform the simulations.
Motion Capture
Game developers can also use motion capture technology to create realistic movements. Motion capture records real-life movements to create animations for games, often used in sports games like FIFA and NBA 2K for realistic player movements.
Procedural Animation
Finally, game developers can use procedural animation to create realistic game movements. Procedural animation involves creating animations in real-time based on the player’s or environment’s movements. This technique is often used in open-world games like Assassin’s Creed or Red Dead Redemption 2 to create realistic and believable movements for characters and animals.
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