Simulator
This is my implentation of rigid body physics in a little space world. It is completely built from scratch using C++ and OpenGL. Use the arrow keys to control the spaceship. Press 1, 2, 3 or 4 for different cameras. Collision with the other spaceship is working! But be carefull: do not collide with the big yellow planet in the middle as you will be thrown in the underworld and there is currently no way to get out of there :)
Download the Simulator!Rigid Body Dynamics
Rigid Body Dynamics - Short Overview
This page is about my experiences and foundings about rigid body dynamics simulation.
Searching the web I found several very usefull documents and pages,
unfortunately some were rather long to read,
so it took me some time to get together the formulas I was looking for.
The following is intended to be a minimalisitic summary of the topic,
not a complete explanation.
If you are interested in more details ie. how these formulas are established and linked together,
I recommend you to read the documents and pages listed at the bottom.
Interesting Links
http://www.myphysicslab.com/collision.html
Good to get a first impression, has got really nice java animations.
http://chrishecker.com/Rigid_Body_Dynamics
Here you find everything you need to get started, take a sheet and a pencil to write down the formulas and try them out.
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~baraff/sigcourse/
A more advanced paper, handles 3D with matrices and quaternions.
http://www.euclideanspace.com/physics/kinematics/index.htm
Pretty complete page about rigid body movement but also about physics in general.