Constraint Physics

hi.

It looks like it's a code snippet that tries to keep two points at relative distances with each other (constrained as you said)

Quote:

d.x = (point1.x - point2.x) d.y = (point1.y - point2.y) speed = Sqr((d.x * d.x) + (d.y * d.y))

It finds the distance between the 2 points but mistakenly (?) calls it speed!
(This could be interpreted as speed, if-f point1 was point2's position in the previous frame, but then again, it would have to be divided by dt, the time delta between two consecutive frames)

Quote:

f = ((speed - connection.speed) / connection.speed) * 0.45

It calculates an arbitrary linear factor, sth like the amount of a force, to apply later on to the points. If the two points originally coincided, this is 0.45
If the distance between the points was 10 (speed==10) the it is 4.5*speed/connection.speed (== const*speed, thus linear to 'speed'), etc.

Quote:

point1.x = point1.x - f * d.x point1.y = point1.y - f * d.y point2.x = point2.x + f * d.x point2.y = point2.y + f * d.y

It pulls the points closer along their direction, based on the factor f.

As I said the name "speed" is somewhat baffling, but it's pretty much an implementation of a "spring" attached to those two points (since the force is linear to their displacement)

If 'f' is supposed to be force- it shouldn't be added to the points' positions just like that.

This could only be conceptually correct, if 'speed' was speed indeed and the '0.45' factor was time delta.
Then f would be sth like a "displacement delta" between the objects , and it could be added their positions *if turned to the appropriate direction* with the appopriate unit vector ( normalize(d.x,d.y) )
Still, though, f is multiplied by a vector of arbitrary length (d.x, d.y) and is then added to the positions.

That would be my fault on calling it speed, because when I seen the 'Sqr((d.x * d.x) + (d.y * d.y))' part, to me that's the formula which calculates the magnitude which is used for speed.

I was playing around with the 0.45 value, and if I set it too much, the polygon is stretched all over the screen, if I set it really low, the polygon's points are bouncy and unstable.