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Is knowledge of physics necessary to design quality games? How important is it? Be realistic and explain a few novice examples of how's mandatory. What kind of physics is necessary, non-calculus-based or calculus-based? Do I need to know Physics III (modern, heat, light, waves)? In summary, what part (and level) of physics must one know? |
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As stephelton said in the comments to your question, vector math is extremely important for pretty much any 2D or 3D game. However, physics knowledge isn't necessary for a lot of simple games. There are physics-like concepts you should understand a bit about, like collision, but you won't need calculus or physics classes for that as long as you keep it simple. A lot of things you may want to do can be simulated simply enough that players won't care much, like friction, or sliding, or gravity. A decent grasp of physics will likely help in many situations though. |
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You can write complete games without any physics knowledge depending on the type of the game. For example puzzle games rarely have any physics. If you want to have physics simulation you can use existing physics engines, but then you need some basic knowledge of the physics, e.g. about mass, inertia and impulses. You don't need to do the math, but you need to understand the concepts. Knowing the underlying math helps even more. On the other hand in game development you can utilize almost any kind of physics if you want to and you have an idea where to use it. This can include rigid bodies, soft bodies, lighting, heat simulation, water pressure or theory of relativity for a game in space. It's up to you, but no physics knowledge is mandatory in general. Math is important though. You can hardly avoid that, as it's everywhere. |
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Physics isn't really necessary unless you want to have physics in your game. While a good general knowledge of physics is recommended, it's not necessary if you're using someone else's physics engine (which I would recommend). Also, calc based physics will get you farther. And, you really only need to know mechanics but the other things don't hurt. All in all though, it depends on what you're doing. |
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It depends. There are many areas of game development, just as there are many areas of physics. First, you will only need to know physics for games that require physics, obviously!If you're making an MMO, for example, you probably wont need physics. But, as soon as there is any falling, velocities, acceleration and things like that involved, you'll need physics. Mostly, it's just movement stuff, m1v1 + m2v2 = m1v3 + m2v4, dS = V*dT, and your regular formulas you already know. I doubt that you will need anything more complicated from that, at least for now. What is the problem, though, is applying physics. Collision detection isn't really an area of physics (or at least until you get to the subatomic level), but you still need it in your physics engine. |
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There anything that you need to know in order to develop games. It depend what's your better knowdledge, that you should make some kind of game of another. Or depends of your traits, you should make a part of another in a game studio. How do you see yourself?
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