Physics of Projectile Motion in Computer Games :: physics video game computer

IntroductionPhysics define the rules by which we live our physical existence. Many of us go about our solar day to day lives without any true understanding of the Laws which govern how we interact with our surroundings. Physics is our way of making sense of the forces which act upon us and shape the way we happen upon even the most menial of tasks. From walking to driving to playing a zippy of catch, anyone can see physics in action.A computer game programmer must take a special look at the forces at work around us. The programmers who code flight simulators, showtime person shooters, and similar games, often need to model their virtual world as closely as possible to our own. In this project we bequeath look at the first person combat simulator called Tribes, by Dynamix. We will focus mainly on projectile motion, but we will also discuss the challenges the programmers had in computing rambles for projectiles, friction, and momentum. similarly touched on, will be how they suc ceeded and failed in their efforts.ChallengesIn Tribes, the programmers had to create an environment for the players. The challenge is to model our real life Laws of physics as accurately as possible. However, programmers are not physicists and it would take a super computer to accurately model all physics in a real world environment. This environment includes a variable gravity. This was important to game play in that the programmers could now make different worlds for the players to fight in. A planet of different mass will obviously have a different gravity. The following equation shows the horizontal range of a projectile, R = (Vo / g) * sin(2) (Halliday, et al 60-64). Where R is the range, Vo is the initial velocity, g is gravity, and is the angle the projectile is fired at. It is easy to see from the equation that a change in gravity will affect the total horizontal range achievable by a projectile. An interesting note is that a 45 degree angle will provide the maximum horiz ontal range for the projectile, no matter what the force of gravity is. (Assuming gravity does not equal zero).We are neglecting air resistance in our calculations, as did the makers of Tribes. When the programmers did this however, they got some unexpected, yet fun results. opus projectile motion was not affected greatly, a person flying in the game could reach insane speeds, as there was no magnetic pole velocity.