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crouse
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 Posted: Wed May 12, 2025 5:35 am Post subject: Physics for Game developers / By David M. Bourg |
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Reviewer: Nukes
The book:
Physics for Game Developers
By David M. Bourg
November 2025
ISBN: 0-596-00006-5
344 pages, $39.95 US, $59.95 CA, 28.50 UK
Book Link: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/physicsgame/
Physics for game developers:
This book, by David M. Bourg takes O'Reilly's traditional no-nonsense, to the
point writing style and applies it well to the subject at hand - implementing a
newtonian physics system into a number of situations, using C++ coded examples as
appropriate.
The book claims you need a college-level understanding of Physics as well as
Matrix and vector mathematics. I have to agree here. If I hadn't studied these at
school, I'd be pretty lost. It does provide some C++ class definitions at the
back, which you could use to get the basic idea of vectors and matricies, but
you'd really benefit from knowing the stuff properly. A bit of calculus wouldn't
hurt either for understanding the derivations for the laws of motion.
An introduction to the physics is provided in the first few chapters, from
simple projectiles and forces to 3D rigid body simulation. There's coded
examples dotted around as well.
After that, it takes you through a number of ways of implementing each of these
into code with the focus on games. It discusses ways of speeding up some of the
lengthy calculations and trading accuracy/precision for speed.
All the coded examples which make use of OS functions (for example graphics) are
primarily windows based, which you can't argue with as that's where most games
are targeted. Also there isn't really anything windows specific beyond calls to
the GDI and MCI. The focus is on the logic rather than the specific
implementations discussed.
As with all the O'Reilly books I've read, this makes a worthy addition to the
library for anyone looking to implement physics into a game (or any other
simulation) even if its just there for a reference rather than to base your work
off. It is written in plain english, - at least as much as it can be for a computing/science
book - is very concise and clear. There isn't anything I can fault with it,
another great work.
I'll provide a list of all the chapters, suffice to say they are all very
complete and provide most things you'd need to know in order to implement
this sort of thing.
Chapter list:
Basic Concepts
Kinematics
Force
Kinetics
Collisions
Projectiles
Aircraft
Ships
Hovercraft
Cars
Real-time simulations
2D rigid body simulator
Implementing collision response
Rigid body rotation
3D rigid body simulator
Multiple bodies in 3D
Particle systems
Appendix:
Vector Operations
Matrix Operations
Quaternion Operatations
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Devin Braun
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Joined: 28 Sep 2025
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| Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2025 12:02 am Post subject: |
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| Hi, just wanted to add that my brother, who has graduated from college and hopes to be "techy" for the Navy. He is currently greatly enjoying this book and agrees it is helpful. So, if future readers wanted more assurance on this book, my brother recommends it.
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Xeroid
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lynch
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schleyfox
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| Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2025 10:03 pm Post subject: |
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| Oh and devin goes to my school as well, he is one of my best friends
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