Science in video games

[Lord Contaminous]

OK I'm bout to take y'all back to your high school/college days :evil:

When I was at last night's math class, we were talking about physics, and something clicked in my head to make this thread.

Name some games or some segments in games where the science of physics puts up a challenge. Here's a few that come to mind.

>First off Konami's "Track and Field" series relies on many ranges of physics such as centrifugal force, velocity etc.

>Bionic Commando, Super Castlevania IV - the more you increase your range during swinging, the further and faster you get when you let go to land.

Sonic the Hedgehog series - Manipulating the rotating gears in the Scrap Brain zone or the Carnival Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 mix centrifugal force and geometry

>Rockman & Forte/Megaman & Bass - The first boss battle in King's Fortress. You're using the weight and balance and I forget what that thing is but when you're standing on a platform that moves down and when you shoot the bullets go up, or if the platform moves up the bullets go down

[sisko]

Worms!

Angle, initial velocity, resistance etc etc

It's the physics that make the game :)

[rbudrick]

Solar Wars!

Well, sure it's based on other games like it, but still.

-Rob

[pragmatic insanester]

this thread needs to show equal interest in games with Intelligent Design in them.

[googlefest1]

beat'em and eat'em -- Line Of Sight

[bargora]

I ran into a mountainside with physics last night. Or rather, my shot did. I was piloting an artillery unit in Steel Battalion: Line of Contact. There was a mountain between me and the area that I wanted to bomb.

Since the game implements a realistic physics model, artillery works like this: All shots fired from my 370 mm howitzer have the same muzzle velocity. Changes in range are achieved by increasing or decreasing the elevation of the barrel.

So I fired a first shot to land just on the other side of the mountain. Using the missile cam I watched as the shot gracefully arced over the rocks and rained cluster munition bomblets over the target area. Then I tried for a shot further away. The angle of barrel with respect to the ground decreased, and so I watched as the shot ricocheted harmlessly off the mountainside, making an audible "thunk".

Bah. Physics.

[suckerpunch5]

Bah. Physics.

As a physicist, I must say this thread thrills me. But, don't all games rely on physics? They all have physics engines that determine how everything in the game world behaves.

[bargora]

Bah. Physics.

As a physicist, I must say this thread thrills me. But, don't all games rely on physics? They all have physics engines that determine how everything in the game world behaves.
I think Lord C was getting at games where you actually have to think about the physics engine to better accomplish your in-game goals.

I mean, Halo XVII might have a really excellent "ragdoll" physics engine that makes your slain enemies crumple quite realistically, but you don't really need to contemplate its beauty to get on with the killin'.

In the example I mentioned in my previous post, I actually had figured that my second shot would probably bounce off the mountain instead of making it to the target. But what the hey--I gots 50 shots in the magazine, and (fortunately) there was no danger of the shell bouncing back and raining friendly fire all over me.

Disclosure--I actually dig Newtonian mechanics.

[suckerpunch5]

Bah. Physics.

As a physicist, I must say this thread thrills me. But, don't all games rely on physics? They all have physics engines that determine how everything in the game world behaves.
I think Lord C was getting at games where you actually have to think about the physics engine to better accomplish your in-game goals.

I mean, Halo XVII might have a really excellent "ragdoll" physics engine that makes your slain enemies crumple quite realistically, but you don't really need to contemplate its beauty to get on with the killin'.

In the example I mentioned in my previous post, I actually had figured that my second shot would probably bounce off the mountain instead of making it to the target. But what the hey--I gots 50 shots in the magazine, and (fortunately) there was no danger of the shell bouncing back and raining friendly fire all over me.

Disclosure--I actually dig Newtonian mechanics.

Ohhhhhhh. I see. Duh! Ok, then the game that comes to mind is "Defender of the Crown." When you lay seige to a castle, there is a mini game where you have to decide how far back to pull the catapult in order to hit the castle wall with a boulder.

[Jumpman Jr.]

I have no idea what the name of the game is, but I remember in computer class a while back, the computers had a game that could run off of DOS (I think it was DOS). All I can remember is that you were monkeys (I think we were monkeys, maybe we were human, I'm not 100% sure) and you would have to shoot the other person at the other side of the screen with a bomb. But, in order to do so, you would need to specify what angle, launch veloctiy, and other things.
100 Meseta for the person who can tell me the name of that game.

[Milk]

Pong/Breakout clones! Banking shots and putting english on the ball are huge in those.

[Gapporin]

I have no idea what the name of the game is, but I remember in computer class a while back, the computers had a game that could run off of DOS (I think it was DOS). All I can remember is that you were monkeys (I think we were monkeys, maybe we were human, I'm not 100% sure) and you would have to shoot the other person at the other side of the screen with a bomb. But, in order to do so, you would need to specify what angle, launch veloctiy, and other things.
100 Meseta for the person who can tell me the name of that game.

Gorilla! I loved that game. You indeed were monkeys, but the bombs were bananas. There's an updated version of that game for Windows somewhere, I believe.

[MrSmiley381]

Super Smash Bros. Melee had an interesting physics engine. Weight played into how far people went flying, and you could argue that damage was equivalent to having body parts knocked off to go with this theory. Heheh.

[Joker T]

Half-Life 1 and 2.

[evildead2099]

Fallout I & II

[Haoie]

It's weird, in Star Trek: Invasion, when your ship moves by thrust, it stays that way. The only way to slow down or stop is to apply reverse thrust.

Something about movement in space, you'll continue forever unless something intervenes.

[BrokenFlight]

It's weird, in Star Trek: Invasion, when your ship moves by thrust, it stays that way. The only way to slow down or stop is to apply reverse thrust.

Something about movement in space, you'll continue forever unless something intervenes.

There's no air in space to give a resistive force which would otherwise slow a moving object down unless extra force is exerted.

[Jumpman Jr.]

I have no idea what the name of the game is, but I remember in computer class a while back, the computers had a game that could run off of DOS (I think it was DOS). All I can remember is that you were monkeys (I think we were monkeys, maybe we were human, I'm not 100% sure) and you would have to shoot the other person at the other side of the screen with a bomb. But, in order to do so, you would need to specify what angle, launch veloctiy, and other things.
100 Meseta for the person who can tell me the name of that game.

Gorilla! I loved that game. You indeed were monkeys, but the bombs were bananas. There's an updated version of that game for Windows somewhere, I believe.

100 meseta coming your way ;)

[Pantechnicon]

Star Trek: 25th Anniversary for PC had this one mission wherein you're exploring an old outpost that belonged to an alien race that did everything in a base 3 number system. So everytime you came to a locked door or had to turn on a machine, etc Mr Spock would give you the combination in base 10 and you had to convert it to a base 3 equivalent. You'd think Mr Spock - of all people - could do these sorts of conversions in his head but what fun would that have been? Suffice to say this mission was pretty :frustrated:

[NoahsMyBro]

The Incredible Machine comes to mind.

[Graham Mitchell]

This thread I started a few months ago may be of interest to you guys:

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=62867&highlight=snatcher

[Jorpho]

'Twas quite nifty in SMB3 when you have to negotiate with mushroom physics. You know, where if you hit the block on one side, the mushroom will fall to the other side, as if the block had been "tilted".

[sealboy6]

The game that comes to mind first is Joint Operations for the PC. When my bro is sniping (I don't play...), you lead the person into the bullet, and the bullet slows down over time. Also, the bullet drops because of drag, so you have to put that into effect. Neat.

On the physics part of this post, what game do you think actually has the best physics engine. I would guess Half Life 2, but I don't know.

[pacmanhat]

Okay I'm an IDIOT but

Half-Life



pretty scientifc in a wierd way but Half-Life seems belivable

HL2 had amazing physics with the gravity gun and used for puzzles not just as a mindless weapon. The whole game relies on physics and balancing, etc.

HL1 and HL2 you play as Gordan Freeman who is a scientist

HL1 and HL2 filled with scientists who say all types of stuff
that could be considered scientific DUH

Not to mention the name Half-Life has to do with radiation and stuff I don't understand LOL

I think the most impressive thing in HL2's various science wonders is what happens when you look into a magnifying glass in the doctor's lab near the beginning of the game. At ANY angle, it has the EXACT properties that a real magnifying glass would have in that same environment. It's not interactive in any way other than looking through it, but it's still an amazing little piece of science. :)

[kevincure]

Proper science isn't necessarily good - anyone remember the brutally awful Trespasser or the difficult-to-the-point-of-insanity Grand Prix Legends? The phsyics models in both were supposedly very accurate.

And has this thread gone this long without a mention of gaming's grandfather, Computer Space/SpaceWar? The benefit of having games originate in a tech school lab are that physics models tend to be included :-).

Pikmin has a sort of biological evolution going on, and Seaman goes through the lifecycle, right?