Hi all,

I've just completed my 'paper-work' for a motorcross-like game. (In 3D) Now I've come to the actual programming. For the physics, do you recommend I use ODE, Newton, or another library? (DarkPHYSICS is not an option, because I'm using Win 2K)

I would rather not use Newton, because of its syntax, but heck, I can try to get over it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
G2L

Definately Newton. Its a little bit wierd using vectors but its definetly the most powerful option available besides dp and its what I use.

Hmm... let's see. You've ruled out DarkPHYSICS and you'd rather not use Newton. That leaves one. So, why bother asking?

@The ARRAYinator: Thanks for the reply, I'll look into Newton once again.

@Scraggle: No, it leaves two. ('Another library' )

Any other suggestions?

Thanks,
G2L

I made a very simple one, it only supports spheres, but it's very realistic and useful I think. Has awesome collision, bouncing, sliding, etc.

I don't think Newton is all that hard once you get used to it. I mean... if I can do it... ?

I'm unfamiliar with the vehicle portion of it, though, if that's what you're after I don't know too much about it. Although there is a vehicle demo for you to play with.

Newton's not terrible but it does take some getting used to as far as the syntax goes. I'm having some trouble myself getting characters to move properly, but as far as handling gravity and polygon collision goes, it's my favorite. I used Nuclear Glory at first and found it to be almost too basic to be as effective as I'd have liked. Newton is amazing, if I could just figure out how to get my character to move more like the DBPro "move object" controls.

I tried for a long time to make it work with characters. I used an upright joint, but the turning wasn't controllable. I struggled with it myself for a long time, then I turned to the Walaber's forum for help, but they didn't know how to solve the problem.

With Dark Physics it is easy to set the position and rotation of a physics body, which is necessary for a character controller. Newton is not the same - I read several times that this was because such behavior was not possible in the real world, thus not in Newton either. That's not good for a game.

Dark Physics is faster than Newton anyway, and the syntax is far simpler.

Nuclear Glory alone is slower than Dark Physics + Sparky's collision, and it isn't nearly as good as Sparky's.

With Dark Physics it is easy to set the position and rotation of a physics body

I don't think any physics system recommends you manually set the rotation and position of an object (except upon startup), do they? Unless you're doing teleportation or something... Manually changing the position/rotation has the chance to not allow the physics system to work properly. For instance, if you control the rotation and position of the object directly and not use forces, you may disrupt the behavior of the spinner tile the player is standing on, etc. Or perhaps the player spinning in the air from an explosion.

I read several times that this was because such behavior was not possible in the real world, thus not in Newton either.

I can see that being said on the Newton forums. That's kind of snobby physics talk for "use the system as intended".

But alas I haven't tried to control a 3rd person character in a game with physics. My character is a sphere I rotate. Perhaps it is too impractical to suggest that behavior through forces on an actual character with animations, etc.

Since he is creating a motorcross style game, does anyone know if newton supports vehicles with 2 wheels only? Because i use DP and i can tell you it does not...