Tell me more ×
Game Development Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for professional and independent game developers. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 1 down vote favorite
1

I'm hoping this is the correct place to ask this question as it is video game related and can be seen as a key ingredient in modern game development.

Does anyone know of a peer reviewed article that details the benefits of incorporating a physics simulation into interactive media (such as video games)?

I can find books with a few remarks in their introduction (no more than a couple of sentences) but nothing substantial.

share|improve this question
Pretty much all major games are, essentially, physics simulations. So are you talking about the benefits of incorporating a 3rd party physics library as opposed to creating one yourself? Or the benefits of attempting to simulate physics accurately rather than via simple approximations? Or the benefits of having any sort of physics in a game? (Which is somewhat circular because as my first sentence states, often the game is designed to simulate some aspect of a real of fantasy world, making it intrinsically a physics simulation of sorts.) – Kylotan Jan 8 at 14:28
Or maybe you are refering to projects like this one ? – Grieverheart Jan 8 at 14:41
2  
I think you're having trouble because, like Kylotan has pointed out, your question isn't very specific and in general, a peer reviewed piece will be very focused. Who's benefiting from it? What kind of study are you looking for? An article about physics, psychology, etc. What are the books you found? Those might be a good example as to what you're looking for exactly. – Tony Jan 8 at 14:47
1  
Suggesting that physics is used to "improve" various features is like saying meat is used to improve hamburgers. Either a physically simulated aspect was required or it wasn't. You can't make Super Mario without jumping forces and gravity, and you can't make realistic racing games without velocity and momentum. To that extent simulated physics makes certain types of game possible but that's a bit self-evident for a peer-reviewed paper. I'm sure there are many physics papers out there but it's not going to be about "pros/cons of adding physics to a game". – Kylotan Jan 8 at 19:04
1  
show 9 more comments

closed as not a real question by Josh Petrie, Maik Semder, Trevor Powell, michael.bartnett, Nate Jan 14 at 17:36

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.

1 Answer

up vote 1 down vote

You should check the proceedings of the relevant conferences in the area of Computer Graphics such as SIGGRAPH, SIGGRAPH Asia, SCA and I3D. They all have tracks about physically based animation and most of the papers will have an introduction / related work about physically base animation.

To make things easier, this website does actually links the most relevant papers about physically based animation in the conferences I mentioned.

You could also look for surveying papers about physics simulations in fluids and character animation, they should contain information about the benefits of this approach. Here you have two that might help you: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~jtan34/downloads/scienceInChina.pdf and http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/07/32/49/PDF/RR-3441.pdf

share|improve this answer
Thank you. Physically based animation is only one aspect dramatically improved in terms of the evolution of physics simulations. The first article you linked in the comments to my post has an excellent introductory review and should suffice in this regard. – user1423893 Jan 9 at 1:05

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.