Trigger Happy
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processor-cheap physics in his or her applications. If a
game company is writing a racing game, for instance,
using a kit like Mathengine’s the car can be defined as
a certain mass resting, through a suspension system, on
four wheels, which have a certain frictional relationship
with the road. From this very simple mathematical
definition, it turns out that “realistic” car behavior, such
as oversteer and understeer, loadshifting and tilting,
comes for free. Whereas games developers used to have
to “kludge” the physics, to laboriously create something
that approximated to realistic behavior, physical
modeling makes it all happen as behavior emerging
from a simple set of definitions.
And this process directly affects the videogame
player’s experience. As Mathengine’s product manager
Paul Topping puts it, “Dynamic properties are a very
intuitive thing.” We are used to handling objects with
mass, bounce and velocity in the real world, and we can
predict their everyday interactions pretty well. You
don’t have to be Paul Newman to know roughly how a
pool ball is going to bounce off a cushion; you don’t
have to be Glenn Gould to know that striking a piano
key with force is going to produce a louder sound than
if you’d caressed it. And anyone who plays tennis is
