Engine Screen 04

Last time I said you could expect an update every week. I may have to revise that. Maybe not every week. But often enough. :)

I've been working on the next engine prototype, and there's a lot of new stuff along with it. The physics code hasn't changed, but the interface is entirely different.

Instead of a ragdoll to move around, you get to draw lines with the mouse, and move them around and connect them together. What I'm working on now is the ability to pin them to the background so you can make more interesting structures.

Check back soon for the finished prototype!

Engine Prototype 03

Full View

This is my third prototype of the Dejeweled physics engine. Now the engine supports rod, pin, and door constraints, in two flavors: rigid and springy. And believe me, those springy door constraints weren't easy to make. :p

This ragdoll is just like the one from Engine Prototype 02, with a staff instead of a sword. The new door constraints let the ragdoll hold the staff at a certain angle, instead of just spinning freely.

Click the window to start. Then use the arrow keys to move the stick figure around.

left - rotate left
right - rotate right
up - raise arms
down - spread legs

For slow motion, hold down the space bar. Click the meters to adjust the physics settings.

Let me know if you find anything interesting. ;)

Engine Screen 03

I've had to put this project on hold for a while, but now I'm back. I'm going indie, and Dejeweled is the big, ambitious project I'm working up to. You can expect to see a new update every week or so.

I've been working on door constraints - angular constraints based on a dot product instead of an angle. The ragdoll has a staff. And a door constraint is what's keeping it from spinning around in the ragdoll's hands. It works pretty well.

But what I really want is to make the staff rotate in a sort of bouncy, springy way. And I've been having a lot of trouble getting that to happen. It just spazzes out no matter what I try, which means that my math is wrong. This vector calculus has been kicking me in the head, repeatedly, for several hours straight.

But I'll figure it out. And I'll release the next engine prototype with an excellently springy and responsive staff. And of course, this will all happen by tomorrow. I hope. :)

Engine Prototype 02

Full View

This is my second prototype of the Dejeweled physics engine. Now the engine supports both rod constraints and pin constraints, in two flavors: rigid and springy.

This ragdoll is just like the one from Engine Prototype 01, except now it has a sword! With pin constraints, the ragdoll can grab any point along the weapon, not just the ends. This opens up a lot of possibilities, as you'll see in the next few prototypes.

Click the window to start. Then use the arrow keys to move the stick figure around.

left - rotate left
right - rotate right
up - raise arms
down - spread legs

For slow motion, hold down the space bar. Click the meters to adjust the physics settings.

Let me know if you find anything interesting. ;)

Engine Screen 02

It has been several months since the last update. I'm sorry.

Here's a screen shot of what I've just been working on. Now the ragdoll has a sword! Fun. The real point, though, is that the sword is connected to the ragdoll with a pin constraint. Notice how the ragdoll grabs the sword not at the very end, but part of the way up the hilt. That's because of pin constraints. Nifty!

It's a small update, but I could go ahead and release a new engine prototype with this sword-wielding ragdoll. Would you like that?

Engine Prototype 01

Full View

This is my first prototype of the Dejeweled physics engine. So far the engine supports simple rod constraints in two flavors: rigid and springy. Next up are pin constraints.

The ragdoll here is a slightly modified version of the one from my earlier Ragdoll Control Prototype, with a new physics engine and some shiny new graphics in the Dejeweled style.

Click the window to start. Then use the arrow keys to move the stick figure around.

left - rotate left
right - rotate right
up - raise arms
down - spread legs

For slow motion, hold down the space bar. Click the meters to adjust the physics settings.

Let me know if you find anything interesting. ;)

Engine Screen 01

Here's a quick screen shot of what I've been working on. I've just refitted my old Ragdoll Control Prototype with a shiny new physics engine, the Dejeweled Engine. So far I've got both rigid and springy rods working, as well as some decent slow motion. Next up are pin constraints, and then collisions.

As you can see in the picture, I've been playing with some graphical effects. There's a white inner glow on the ragdoll body, some glow on the blue lines, and a sort of reflection or shadow below. I'm trying to get it to feel more like a 3D figure in an endless white field, rather than of a 2D bunch of lines on a computer screen. Not sure if any of this will end up in the final game, but for now I'm just playing around. It's fun. :)

Once I add pin constraints and make the physics settings adjustable, I'll release the prototype here.