Hi all,
I''m trying to implement a rigid-body physics engine using VB.NET SP2 as the prelude to a game engine, and have a couple of questions:
1. Matrices: row, column or column, row?
Not sure if this question really matters, but I''ve seen some people refer to their matrices by the former, others by the latter. I assume it does matter (particularly for transformations and other matrix operations), anyone got any comments on this? Is there a "standard"?
2. Momentum or velocity?
I need to keep track of my rigid body''s movement (bad choice of word, but anyway), but is it better to track the momentum of the object (i.e. linear momentum is a function of the mass and linear velocity?) or the velocity of the object? I''ve read conflicting reasons for both and wondered if someone who had actually built a physics engine could advise me on this...
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I assume this would also be the case for angular momentum vs angular velocity...
3. Done it all before?
I''m trying to catch up on my vector and matrix math, and also my Physics knowledge (wow... ten years off and I have forgotten sooooo much
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, so I''m building it all from scratch i.e. coding my own vector and matrix routines, rather than relying on DirectX functions. Has anyone done a physics engine in VB(or VB.NET) before? I''m not looking for the code, just interested to know if people have done it - I''ve been converting code fragments of C++ and boy does it look ugly in VB.NET ;>
I''m hoping to complete it and post it as an Open Source mini-engine for other VB-minded people out there, who are likewise embarking on the fast-track physics road.
Sources: I''ve pretty much scoured gamedev.net (man this site rocks!), gamasutra, and gamegarage.com for articles, etc. while building my (their?) engine.
Blight
P.S. Yes, I know VB is slower/hamstrung compared to C++, but I don''t know/am not interested in learning C++.
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