I thought you might find the part about the physic engine in the new Epic engine interesting. http://gamespot.com/gshw/stories/news/0,12836,2857571,00.html

Yeah, cool stuff. They''re using MathEngine''s Karma toolkit, a commercially licensed physics engine that you can find out more about (and download demos!) at:

www.mathengine.com

Their primary commercial competitor in the games industry is Havok.com:

www.havok.com

Both of these companies have some cool videos and demos you can download!

Graham Rhodes
Senior Scientist
Applied Research Associates, Inc.

this makes me very sad and pissed off... i know i wasn''t the 1st one to come up with this idea (Hitman: Codename 47 had it) of what they call "ragdoll" physics. it''s how characters die, for example, all their limbs are like independent, but connected. that way, a character can roll down the stairs very realistically, and not lie on invisible ledge, only with his legs touching ground. a game that i had an idea for, which i''m planning to make when i grow up (i''m 15) and become a game developer. but i now am realizing that by the time that happens, all my ideas that are currently unique, and not invented/utilized in games yet will be. so by the time my game comes out - it won''t be all that different from any others.

i wish i was older...

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umm... bah?

well what will you have when you''re older that''s stopping you right now? The only thing I can think of is experience, but how do you get that.

quote:

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Original post by shurcool
this makes me very sad and pissed off... i know i wasn''t the 1st one to come up with this idea (Hitman: Codename 47 had it) of what they call "ragdoll" physics. it''s how characters die, for example, all their limbs are like independent, but connected. that way, a character can roll down the stairs very realistically, and not lie on invisible ledge, only with his legs touching ground. a game that i had an idea for, which i''m planning to make when i grow up (i''m 15) and become a game developer. but i now am realizing that by the time that happens, all my ideas that are currently unique, and not invented/utilized in games yet will be. so by the time my game comes out - it won''t be all that different from any others.

i wish i was older...

---

Much older than hitman, using inverse kinematics (The proper name of that style of limb positioning, btw) 3DS Max has it built in, and the first time I remember seeing it real-time in a game was Virtua Fighter 1.

quote:

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Original post by shurcool
this makes me very sad and pissed off... i know i wasn''t the 1st one to come up with this idea (Hitman: Codename 47 had it) of what they call "ragdoll" physics. it''s how characters die, for example, all their limbs are like independent, but connected. that way, a character can roll down the stairs very realistically, and not lie on invisible ledge, only with his legs touching ground. a game that i had an idea for, which i''m planning to make when i grow up (i''m 15) and become a game developer. but i now am realizing that by the time that happens, all my ideas that are currently unique, and not invented/utilized in games yet will be. so by the time my game comes out - it won''t be all that different from any others.

i wish i was older...

---
umm... bah?

---

You know, I feel the same way sometimes. So many tens of thousands of people are working on technology that I like to develop (games, physics, graphics) that there is no way I can be king of a discipline. And often they have more money, bigger teams, and a few years head start. It can be frustrating.

But I''ve come to terms with that. I''ve decided that its a great accomplishment if I develop the same technology that some other big team developed and commercialized. Its the content that matters. The games and demos matter. And, although the game development market is highly highly competitive, there is always the possibility of developing something unique if you explore your imagination. Whether it is unique gameplay, or simply a unique character, story, and game world. Put good technology----even if that technology is not unique----behind a unique game, and you have something unique. Something you can be proud of.

In any case, you certainly can be proud of the technology you develop as well, even if you weren''t the only one!

Graham Rhodes
Senior Scientist
Applied Research Associates, Inc.

quote:

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Original post by grhodes_at_work
You know, I feel the same way sometimes. So many tens of thousands of people are working on technology that I like to develop (games, physics, graphics) that there is no way I can be king of a discipline. And often they have more money, bigger teams, and a few years head start. It can be frustrating.

But I''ve come to terms with that. I''ve decided that its a great accomplishment if I develop the same technology that some other big team developed and commercialized. Its the content that matters. The games and demos matter. And, although the game development market is highly highly competitive, there is always the possibility of developing something unique if you explore your imagination. Whether it is unique gameplay, or simply a unique character, story, and game world. Put good technology----even if that technology is not unique----behind a unique game, and you have something unique. Something you can be proud of.

In any case, you certainly can be proud of the technology you develop as well, even if you weren''t the only one!

Graham Rhodes
Senior Scientist
Applied Research Associates, Inc.

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you''re right about that! gameplay is all that matters. everything else can make it better, but they can''t really break it (unless you''re trying to on purpose). and i''m pretty sure i got a strong one in my head. thanks for reassuring me.

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umm... bah?

I''m 16 now and still learning

But if I could make a clone of Quake 3 then I would be happy :D
They have done it but if I could do it it would be great for me

And when you have grown up and you have the experience and the knowledge then you get new ideas So you could always develop new and cool technologies..

Thnx for the link for the article I shall read it tomorrow(it''s now almost bed time here :D)

quote:

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Original post by Scheermesje
But if I could make a clone of Quake 3 then I would be happy :D

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Good for you!

Graham Rhodes
Senior Scientist
Applied Research Associates, Inc.

Don''t worry shurcool, you''re not the only one who worries about what they can contribute and whether it will be good enough. In my research career, particularly when I was starting out, I would look around at other researchers (and read their publications) and think that there was no way I could ever compete with them. They had so much more knowledge than I and it seemed that they were just plain smarter than I...

... and then I got my first publication. It didn''t seem like much to me... I was excited that I had come up with something that those around me hadn''t considered, but it seemed kind of obvious to me. I sent it off to a conference and not only did it get accepted, but it ended up winning Best Paper for that conference... it also went on to win me the Prize for Best Paper by a new researcher at my University! That certainly instilled me with confidence. What had seemed quite obvious to me - because I had arrived at the result incrementally - turned out to be very important to other people, because not only did they not think of it, but they believed they wouldn''t have thought of it!

Take heart. As the years pass, you will have even more ideas and learn more skills. You WILL be able to apply these to create something new and novel. It might not set you up for life, but you will be proud of your achievements and so will those around you.

Good luck,

Timkin