MSDN .NET Documentation

Introduction to the .NET Physics Engine

The .NET Physics Engine provides a robust and efficient framework for simulating realistic physical interactions within your applications, games, and simulations. Built with performance and extensibility in mind, it leverages modern C# features to offer a developer-friendly experience.

This documentation will guide you through its core concepts, implementation details, and advanced features, enabling you to integrate sophisticated physics into your .NET projects.

Core Concepts

Understanding the fundamental principles is key to effectively using the physics engine:

• Rigid Bodies: Objects with mass, inertia, and collision shapes that interact according to physical laws.
• Colliders: Geometric shapes defining the boundaries of rigid bodies for collision detection.
• Forces and Torques: Applied vectors that cause acceleration and angular acceleration, respectively.
• Constraints: Mechanisms that limit the motion of rigid bodies, such as joints or hinges.
• World: The simulation environment where all physics objects reside and interact.

Getting Started

To begin, ensure you have the necessary NuGet package installed. You can add it to your project via the NuGet Package Manager or the .NET CLI:

dotnet add package Microsoft.Net.PhysicsEngine

Here's a basic example of setting up a physics world and adding a simple object:

using Microsoft.Net.PhysicsEngine;

// Create a new physics world
var world = new PhysicsWorld();

// Create a rigid body (e.g., a sphere)
var sphereBody = new RigidBody
{
    Mass = 1.0f,
    Position = new Vector3(0, 10, 0),
    Shape = new SphereCollider(0.5f) // Radius of 0.5
};

// Add the body to the world
world.AddBody(sphereBody);

// To simulate, you would typically call:
// world.Step(deltaTime);
// where deltaTime is the time elapsed since the last step.
                

Collision Detection

The engine supports broad-phase and narrow-phase collision detection algorithms to efficiently identify potential and actual collisions between objects. Common collider shapes include:

• BoxCollider
• SphereCollider
• CapsuleCollider
• MeshCollider (for complex shapes)

Collision events can be subscribed to, allowing you to react to impacts, such as playing sounds or applying game logic.

Rigid Body Dynamics

The core of the engine handles the simulation of motion and forces acting upon rigid bodies. This includes:

• Integration: Algorithms like Euler or Verlet integration are used to update position and velocity over time.
• Force Application: Applying linear forces and angular torques to bodies.
• Friction and Restitution: Simulating surface interactions.

You can apply forces using methods like AddForce() and AddTorque() on a RigidBody instance.

Constraints

Constraints allow you to define relationships between rigid bodies, simulating mechanical connections:

• Hinge Constraint: Simulates a door hinge.
• Ball-and-Socket Constraint: Allows free rotation around a single point.
• Fixed Constraint: Locks two bodies together.

Constraints are added to the physics world and configured with the bodies they affect.

Integration with Game Engines

The physics engine is designed to be easily integrated with popular .NET game development platforms like Unity and Godot (via C# bindings). Typically, this involves mapping game objects to physics bodies and synchronizing their transforms during the simulation loop.

Performance Optimization

To maximize performance:

• Use the simplest collider shapes that accurately represent your objects.
• Optimize the number of active rigid bodies.
• Utilize broad-phase optimization techniques.
• Consider using multithreading for parallelizing physics calculations where appropriate.

API Reference

For detailed information on classes, methods, and properties, please refer to the dedicated API Reference.