......and it also makes the programming of physical simulations one whole lot easier!

I could not imagine me doing this stuff without a physics engine on hand. I remember, not so long ago, the pain of collision detection using the traditonal software methods........lots of maths,vertices,vectors and matrices.......AND valuable TIME.

Now, we can fire a projectile in the air without any need for calculating its trajectory.If some object is in its path, so what........the collision will take care of itself! In my 1st person game, I am free to bump against walls,climb over obstacles,pick up and interact with objects, enable realistically moving machinery.........all with the aid of a GOOD physics engine.However, if the physics engine is NOT all that good, then one will get unrealistic performance and time will be spent trying out all kinds of workarounds to achieve the effect required.

An example of collision between two rigidbodies can be seen in the Eureka project, where the spring balance hook has to catch and hold onto the handle of the block "bodies". In the case of 3D Rad, if you plan the distribution of your spherical collision bodies and mass bodies correctly, then everything should go according to plan.

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Eureka! update 10/25/2009
 
I've completed all skinmeshes needed for the project and updated the relevent page. Now comes the exciting part......integrating the actual physics to make it all work to Archimedes' satisfaction!
I can see that I'll have to brush up on some special effect tricks with particles to simulate overflowing water pouring into the beaker (all suggestions welcome!)
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Quaternions! 10/22/2009
 
Prior to making 3D Rad my engine of choice, I would avoid "quaternions" at all costs. The name alone is enough to strike a little stroke of fear into anyones' heart (are they some kind of radioactive sub-atomic particle, or what?). I was brought up on matrices and vectors to manipulate 3D vertices, so changing over to quaternions  was a major shift for me.
So, today, when a Forum member came up with a quaternion problem, I was in two minds whether to step in and have a look. I spent most of the day trying to figure out what was happening, and eventually I reached a "Eureka!" moment when things fell into place. So......I guess the moral of the story is tackle your problems with persistance, and all will come right! I might add, that without the RAD part of 3D Rad, I would probably still be buggering around with the problem  (or perhaps given up)
Anyway, tomorrow will be a new day, and its on with the Eureka! project......I hope to have a spring balance in place by the end of the weekend. 
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Trying to search for free content on the 3D model sites is extremely frustrating and time-consuming, especially for the kind of non-standard stuff I'm after.......try looking for "spring balance" and "weigh scale". Also free stuff mainly has the title "Free" which also adds to the problem.And the stuff that is not free? Well, I haven't got pockets that deep!
 In the end, I decided to model my own stuff in my own crude manner........what the hell.....as long as its recognizable and functional!
Since this is a new task and a new website, I decided to give some progress reports (which I'll try to keep updated regularly) on the appropiate project page Task 5: Eureka!
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Eureka! 10/19/2009
 
This is going to be the title of the next task in My Virtual Workbench series. It's the cry of  enlightenment made by that famous Greek scientist ,Archimedes, when he flopped into his very full bathtub of water, and a large amount of the water spilled over onto the floor ! It inspired him to come forth with his very famous Principle "When a body is immersed in a liquid there is an apparent loss of weight, and this loss of weight is equal to the weight of liquid displaced by the body"
For the experiment, I'm going to have to put together some virtual apparatus :- a tank of water, a spring balance, a beaker to catch displaced water, a weigh scale, and a couple of bodies (of the non-human variety). These will have to be modelled (or perhaps I can pick up something free from TurboSquid) and then I'll have to see if 3D Rad can provide the physics and effects.
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Added some files previously contributed to the 3D Rad Community Forum:
Mouse Manipulation of Rigidbodies
Imposter Grid Editor and Conway's Game of Life
Video showing Interacting Rigidbodies
Andro Ragdoll Demo
Rope Demo  
Cloth Flag Demo
Buoyancy Demo
Demo2 from The Handy Gesture Maker
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This website had its intial launch today !
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First Post! 10/13/2009
 
Nothing special. Just gathering together all my current material for this new website, setting up the main headings, and uploading content files.
Getting ready to publish to the web.
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