Quote:Original post by Zyberant
I had an overlook of wikipedias explanation of the RK4. I have this question. Does the RK4 method also work with changing forces? Like if you attractor is moving.
I haven't tried this, but what you could in principal is to let f(t,y) depend on t in such a way that the attractor moves. I have no experience in building a full scale physics engine, so I have no good idea of how this would be implemented.
Quote:Original post by Anonymous Poster
did read this entire thread but RK4 doesnt matter unless your have things like springs (oscillations) or very large time steps. Otherwise it is just a waste of computational time. Most computer games do not need them IMO because you do not use springs (useful for a driving suspension for example).
Quote:Original post by oggialli
Yeah, basic linear movement and rotation won't need RK4 over Euler at all. Also, for things needing more precision than Euler, there are other alternatives - Verlet, for example.
Good points. For linear movement RK4 is overkill. For one level more complex physics simulations though, Euler is not good enough. I wanted to provide a customizable demo so people could quickly get a feel for the difference in accurcy between these two methods.