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I am a beginner and trying to learn game development using Phaser. Currently Phaser is providing three physics systems namely Arcade, P2 and Ninja. But I don't know the differences between them and I would also like to know in which scenario we should use a particular physics system?
Please give me some insight for these physics systems.
As mentioned in the comments, their site already explains what the three systems are and what they can be used for.
Arcade Physics is for high-speed AABB collision only.
AABB means axis-aligned bounded rectangles; it means you have objects without rotation, and you're only checking if the image (which is a rectangle) overlaps with another image (so there's a potential collision). This is cheap to compute, and fast, which is probably why they recommend it for high-speed collisions.
One issue with AABB is that it doesn't guarantee that there really is a collision; you may have a completely transparent area overlapping.
Ninja Physics allows for complex tiles and slopes, perfect for level scenery, [...]
Remember how AABB is non-rotated? Ninja Physics will handle rotations (so it can do slopes and complex tiles). This is a more flexible (and probably more accurate) physics model; it's probably slower.
[...] P2.JS is a full-body physics system, with constraints, springs, polygon support and more.
If you need to model springs (eg. something swinging like a pendulum), constraints on forces, and arbitrary polygon shapes (eg. tetrahedron), this sounds like what you want. If you want a frame of reference, think of something like Angry Birds.
Based on your game, you can pick which is the best-fit to your needs. It sounds like a spectrum of speed versus accuracy/complexity (Arcade Physics being the fastest but simplest).
