Physics for Game Developers or Practical Dojo Projects

Physics for Game Developers

Author: David M Bourg

Colliding billiard balls. Missile trajectories. Cornering dynamics in speeding cars. By applying the laws of physics, you can realistically model nearly everything in games that bounces around, flies, rolls, slides, or isn't sitting still, to create compelling, believable content for computer games, simulations, and animation. Physics for Game Developers serves as the starting point for those who want to enrich games with physics-based realism.

Part one is a mechanics primer that reviews basic concepts and addresses aspects of rigid body dynamics, including kinematics, force, and kinetics. Part two applies these concepts to specific real-world problems, such as projectiles, boats, airplanes, and cars. Part three introduces real-time simulations and shows how they apply to computer games. Many specific game elements stand to benefit from the use of real physics, including:

• The trajectory of rockets and missiles, including the effects of fuel burn off
• The collision of objects such as billiard balls
• The stability of cars racing around tight curves
• The dynamics of boats and other waterborne vehicles
• The flight path of a baseball after being struck by a bat
• The flight characteristics of airplanes

You don't need to be a physics expert to learn from Physics for Game Developers, but the author does assume you know basic college-level classical physics. You should also be proficient in trigonometry, vector and matrix math (reference formulas and identities are included in the appendixes), and college-level calculus, including integration anddifferentiation of explicit functions.

Booknews

This book shows how to create believable content in computer games, simulation, and animation by applying the laws of physics to moving objects in the game. Early chapters review basic concepts of rigid body dynamics, covering kinematics, force, and kinetics, and later chapters apply these concepts to real-world problems with projectiles, boats, airplanes, and cars. Final chapters introduce real-time simulations and show how they apply to computer games. A college level understanding of physics is assumed, plus proficiency in trigonometry, vector and matrix math, and calculus. Bourg is professionally involved in computer game development and consulting. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Book about: Health Hazards Manual for Artists or HOW TO FIND WORK THAT WORKS FOR PE

Practical Dojo Projects

Author: Frank Zammetti

The era of professional JavaScript development has arrived! Gone are the days when writing all the client–side code for your applications by hand yourself was the norm. Gone are the days when scrounging around the Internet to find a snippet of code to do something you need could lead to either decent code or utter garbage that you’d surely regret using later.

No, writing high–quality JavaScript these days is a whole lot easier with the advent of top–notch libraries that save you time and effort, and one that stands out from most others is Dojo.

Dojo is a library like few others: written by some of the best JavaScript coders around today, providing nearly everything you’ll need to write modern Rich Internet Applications, all in one place. From Ajax to widgets, to client–side persistence and language extensions, and many points in between, Dojo has it all.

In Practical Dojo Projects, you’ll learn all about what Dojo has to offer. You’ll see it in action in the form of five fully functional applications, which include

A contact manager for storing info for all the important people in your life

A code cabinet: a place to store, index, and get code snippets from

A stock tracker to keep track of your stock portfolio

A message forum for open discussions on topics you define

Even a fun little game!

By the time you’ve finished reading, you’ll have a firm grasp on what Dojo is all about, and you’ll have the preparation you need to begin to use it yourself in your own projects. See you inside!

What you’lllearn

Uncover the fundamentals of Dojo, its core, Dojo Widgets, and DojoX.

Build sophisticated JavaScript/Ajax–based applications starting with a Dojo contact manager.

Create a code cabinet, a place to store snippets of code for later reuse using Dojo and Dojo Offline (based on Google Gears).

See how to build an interactive and fun came application using Dojo.

Build a stock watcher application, which allows you to enter ticker symbols and will show you real–time updates using some available web service; show net gain/loss over various time periods (hourly/daily/weekly/monthly/yearly) with various charts and graphs.

Take Dojo into social networking by building a messaging forums application.

Who is this book for

Web application developers, senior projects leads, and application architects

About the Apress Practical Series

The Practical series from Apress is your best choice for getting the job done, period. From professional to expert, this series lets you apply project–motivated templates (or frameworks) step by step in a very direct, practical, and efficient manner toward current real–world projects that may be sitting on your desk. So whatever your career goal, Apress can be your trusted guide to take you where you want to go on your IT career empowerment path.