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Product Description
Physics for Game Programmers shows you how to infuse compelling and realistic action into game programming even if you dont have a college-level physics background! Author Grant Palmer covers basic physics and mathematical models and then shows how to implement them, to simulate motion and behavior of cars, planes, projectiles, rockets, and boats.
This book is neither code heavy nor language specific, and all chapters include unique, challenging exercises for you to solve. This unique book also includes historical footnotes and interesting trivia. You’ll enjoy the conversational tone, and rest assured: all physics jargon will be properly explained.
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
I would concur with the first reviewer, this book is quite poor and does not help the reader develop their own programs. My maths is pretty good up to the point when it hits calculus where I get very lost, unfortunately this book is very poor at explaining diferentials equationals and the code that is provided uses it alot. I'm now thinking about buying a book about calculus and working up to this one.
In short - try another book.
In short - try another book.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Not a well written book, you will need to spend a good deal of time checking other sources to understand the equations.
Logical progression from one idea to the next is non-existent.
The overall idea of the book is: Grant Palmer tells you the equation and you have to blindly believe it.
It is only marginally better than Wikipedia.
You will need a good basic understanding of mathematics, calculus and physics before reading this book.
The mathematical notation used is confusing - where there is a simple clear way of expressing an idea - Grant Palmer does *not* use it.
Try and find a better book.
Logical progression from one idea to the next is non-existent.
The overall idea of the book is: Grant Palmer tells you the equation and you have to blindly believe it.
It is only marginally better than Wikipedia.
You will need a good basic understanding of mathematics, calculus and physics before reading this book.
The mathematical notation used is confusing - where there is a simple clear way of expressing an idea - Grant Palmer does *not* use it.
Try and find a better book.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
13 reviews
32 of 32 people found the following review helpful
More of an engineer's viewpoint of game physics
22 Feb 2006
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The book is divided roughly into two parts. The first part deals with general physical concepts, such as object collision, the equations governing projectiles, and a general review of Newtonian physics. One of the more interesting topics in this section of the book was the aerodynamic effect of spin on projectiles.
The second part of the book is about applied game physics. There are chapters on things like how to model cars, boats, airplanes and projectiles, using the principles outlined in the first part of the book, which is pretty much the same approach taken in David Bourg's book on the same subject, "Physics for Game Developers". There is extra material here though, that is not mentioned in Bourg's book such as the presentation of damage models for armored vehicles, an entire chapter dedicated to the physics of lasers, plus a chapter on sports simulation that includes such things as modeling a golf game.
The style of the book is thorough yet not verbose. Thus the book is only 400 pages versus the hefty size of David Eberly's weighty tome on the subject. There are a couple of places where I might have liked to see a bit more treatment of a particular subject. For instance, the author punts on the topic of 3D collisions of rotating objects. Still, there's enough related material included that I could likely work it out from what was presented.
Like Bourg's game physics book, this is more a book about physics and simulation than about game programming. The examples shown are simple demo programs, because the purpose is to give you the idea of how to code this material, not present a full-blown application. The source code presented in the book is in Java, and can be downloaded from the book website at Apress.
I would say overall this book is on par with David Bourg's book on the subject, and chances are if you are really planning to get into game physics it wouldn't hurt to own both books. I liked this book better than Bourg's because the author covered more topics and his code is Java based as opposed to Bourg's more Windows-centric solutions. However, Bourg's book is better at staying on topic, is better organized, and does not have the extraneous information on such things as the history of the devices being modeled as this book has. The table of contents is as follows:
1. Adding Realism to Your Games
2. Some Basic Concepts
3. Basic Newtonian Mechanics
4. Basic Kinematics
5. Projectiles
6. Collisions
7. Sports Simulations
8. Cars and Motorcycles
9. Boats and Things That Float
10. Airplanes
11. Rockets and Missiles
12. The Physics of Solids
13. Explosions
14. Lasers
15. Probabilistic and Monte Carlo Simulations
The second part of the book is about applied game physics. There are chapters on things like how to model cars, boats, airplanes and projectiles, using the principles outlined in the first part of the book, which is pretty much the same approach taken in David Bourg's book on the same subject, "Physics for Game Developers". There is extra material here though, that is not mentioned in Bourg's book such as the presentation of damage models for armored vehicles, an entire chapter dedicated to the physics of lasers, plus a chapter on sports simulation that includes such things as modeling a golf game.
The style of the book is thorough yet not verbose. Thus the book is only 400 pages versus the hefty size of David Eberly's weighty tome on the subject. There are a couple of places where I might have liked to see a bit more treatment of a particular subject. For instance, the author punts on the topic of 3D collisions of rotating objects. Still, there's enough related material included that I could likely work it out from what was presented.
Like Bourg's game physics book, this is more a book about physics and simulation than about game programming. The examples shown are simple demo programs, because the purpose is to give you the idea of how to code this material, not present a full-blown application. The source code presented in the book is in Java, and can be downloaded from the book website at Apress.
I would say overall this book is on par with David Bourg's book on the subject, and chances are if you are really planning to get into game physics it wouldn't hurt to own both books. I liked this book better than Bourg's because the author covered more topics and his code is Java based as opposed to Bourg's more Windows-centric solutions. However, Bourg's book is better at staying on topic, is better organized, and does not have the extraneous information on such things as the history of the devices being modeled as this book has. The table of contents is as follows:
1. Adding Realism to Your Games
2. Some Basic Concepts
3. Basic Newtonian Mechanics
4. Basic Kinematics
5. Projectiles
6. Collisions
7. Sports Simulations
8. Cars and Motorcycles
9. Boats and Things That Float
10. Airplanes
11. Rockets and Missiles
12. The Physics of Solids
13. Explosions
14. Lasers
15. Probabilistic and Monte Carlo Simulations
24 of 27 people found the following review helpful
simple physics
20 May 2005
Format:Paperback
The level of physics here is around a typical first year undergraduate physics course. Concentrating on kinematics. Unsurprisingly, because most videogames depict things in motion. Hence, if you've already had that amount of physics, you are in good shape for the book. You can now focus on the coding aspects.
The entire book is about simulations. The code isn't that difficult to grasp. Perhaps the hardest aspect to some readers will be reconciling the two mindsets. How do you map from a set of physics equations to a computational representation?
The book also slides into object oriented programming. Useful if you are new to this idea. The simulations of various bodies lends to a very natural projection of a code object (a "class") onto a physical object that it simulates. Good pedagogy.
The entire book is about simulations. The code isn't that difficult to grasp. Perhaps the hardest aspect to some readers will be reconciling the two mindsets. How do you map from a set of physics equations to a computational representation?
The book also slides into object oriented programming. Useful if you are new to this idea. The simulations of various bodies lends to a very natural projection of a code object (a "class") onto a physical object that it simulates. Good pedagogy.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
This book rocks
6 Mar 2006
Format:Paperback
I used the equations in the "Cars" chapter of this book to write a sweet street racing game for my senior project. I'm not real good at math or physics but I could easily follow the explanations. It was the only game physics book I could find that gave the equations for acceleration based on engine torque. Great book.
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