Physics in a gameDev School

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2 comments, last by BlackWind 14 years, 5 months ago
Hi, which topics should a 8 months physics class cover in a game dev school? can you name it in order, and why? thank you.
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The IGDA has developed a curriculum framework aimed at helping schools to define game development-related curriculums. You can find the framework here:

IGDA Curriculum Framework

It is pretty high level, but you may find it useful. Section 3.4 (Game Programming) highlights important high-level physics concepts.

I would further recommend using or adapting (but check on the legalities of reusing this first) the essential math tutorials, which can be found here:

Essential Math Tutorials

They are an excellent set of presentations, made by industry veterans, related to implementing physics for games. They start high level, but do get into *some* dirty details...physics can be messy to implement. The tutorials are intended for physics newbies, and though they are visual aids meant to go with a live presentation, they are somewhat self explanatory for someone who already understands basic concepts of 3D geometry and things like keyframe animation. These could have a very nice place as introductory lecture material when you start various topics.

One thing I would include, strongly recommend, which is not really covered by the above, is some discussion of the content pipeline for creating game levels with physics. You should be able to find some tutorials related to the Unreal engine's physics capabilities, for example, and how to use the content tools provided with that engine. Other engines also, such as Torque and Unity, probably have available physics content tutorials.
Graham Rhodes Moderator, Math & Physics forum @ gamedev.net
great answers.
Thank you

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