Re: [pygame] The introduction of my Google Summer Code Project

[Devon Scott-Tunkin <djvonfunkin@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- Chris Hager <chris@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hey,
> 
> We are a team also working on 2d physics for python,
> and I thought I
> could maybe post a useful comment :) Congratulations
> for your GSoC
> project btw!!
> 
> First of all, I think it's extremely ambitious to
> write an own physics
> engine, especially considering the quality of Box2d
> and Chipmunk. They
> are stable, quick and fully featured -- especially
> Box2D being grown up
> since a while and actively developed and driven by a
> large community. I
> think it will take a few man-years to get to that
> point in terms of
> stability, speed and functionality, although maybe
> not all functions are
> required.
> 
> There are Python ports for both, Box2D and Chipmunk.
> One is "pyMunk"
> which is a CTypes Interface to the Chipmunk physics
> engine
> (http://code.google.com/p/pymunk/).
> 
> The other project is called "Elements". It's on the
> one side a python
> port of Box2D with a SWIG Interface, on the other
> side an API for easy
> usage of Box2D (even for kids), and a lot of
> examples and demos. We
> spent a lot of time on the SWIG Interface and on
> speed optimisations, as
> we also run it successfully on the XO Laptop. We
> also ported the (as of
> yesterday) current Box2D testbed demos to python and
> pygame as well as
> opengl. I hope you can find a few inspirations from
> our code:
> 
> "svn co http://svn2.assembla.com/svn/elements";.
> Absolutely use "python
> -O ..." -- it improves the performance a lot with
> these demos (up to
> 100% with opengl).
> 
> I also worked with Chipmunk and did speed tests with
> both engines
>
(http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Physic_Engines/Speed_Tests).
> Box2D (C++) is a
> lot faster with Python (SWIG Interface), compared to
> Chipmunk (C) with
> CTypes Bindings.
> 
> Another thing: Current 2d physic engines have
> problems with concave
> polygons ([1], [2]). We detect and support both,
> with breaking a concave
> poly up in rectangles. (Not very efficcient, but
> it's very hard to find
> open tessellation algorightms; many developers seem
> to use the OpenGL
> Tessellater ([2]), but it has a strange half-free
> license [3]).
> 
> Also the "Elements" project supports drawing with
> pygame, opengl and
> cairo, and we have compiled box2d libraries with
> python swig interface
> for windows, linux 32 and 64 bit (+ instructions for
> the other
> platforms). You can just copy them and start playing
> around! :)
> 
> Best,
> - Chris
> 
> [1]
> http://www.box2d.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=83
> [2]
> http://www.box2d.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=719
> [3]
>
http://www.box2d.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=719&p=4200#p4223
> 
> --
>  \___/    Chris Hager
>  |___|    GSoC '08 Mentor for OLPC --
> http://wiki.laptop.org
>   \___\   Elements Developer --
> http://elements.linuxuser.at
> 
> 



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