Physics engines. We may not understand most of the maths and skill that goes into developing one, but many of us appreciate their use in the latest games across consoles and PC.

While game engines like Unreal, Source, and id Tech 5 may have very capable physics engines built-in, that doesn’t stop new engines appearing, and in this case blowing us away with the quality of the physics on show.

The Lagoa Multiphysics 1.0 engine has been developed by Thiago Costa, who currently works as Lead Technical Director at Ubisoft Digital Arts in Montreal. He’s also worked on a smoke simulator which can be seen in the video below: (na sajtu)

Matthew’s Opinion

Some of this tech could already be in use as part of Ubisoft’s internal engine, or we could be looking at physics coming to games next year. I don’t think I have ever seen more realistic physics in action though, with the charcoal first example being the best.

I think for games we are all used to, and expect very high quality HD graphics, but it’s still easy to spot shortcomings in the physics effects being fired off. There’s still slowdown, repeat effects we notice, and a limit to just how much physics can be playing at any one time. That’s purely down to the fact that physics is processor intensive and therefore limits must be in place. You could have very realistic water flow using the full capabilities of a PS3, but then there’s no room for the rest of a game to run. The same is true of any physics-intensive effect.

Thiago is clearly a very talented programmer, and Ubisoft will definitely benefit if the tech from Lagoa makes it into their games.

Izvor: Geek.com ThiagoCosta.net