Pocket Physics v0.2 - Now with pins!

[wraggster]

Updated release from Oxtob (http://blog.dev-scene.com/0xtob/2008/01/03/pocket-physics-v02-now-with-pins/)

http://tobw.net/projects/pocketphysics/seesaw.png


I really like the idea of the popular minigame Crayon Physics: You draw an object on the screen and it instantly becomes physical and interacts with other objects. The first thing that sprung to my mind when seeing it was "This would be awesome on the DS!" And Pocket Physics is what I came up with after two weeks. It isn't really a game, but more of a physical construction kit for your pocket. You can design scenes freely by drawing things with the stylus. Things can be solid, like ramps and floors, or dynamic, like balls or boxes. Like in The Incredible Machine, you can reset the scene, change it, and start the simulation again. It's even more fun if you have a DS Motion, which can be used to control gravity!

v0.2 (2008-01-03)
Pins! Pin things to the background or pin two things together
Numerical fixes in Box2d => (Hopefully) better stability
Removed dynamic timestep adjustment => Subjectively slower, but more reproducible results
Standby mode

Download and Give feedback Via Comments

[masterchief929]

it looks interesting. ill give it a try.

[mariocdl]

Wow! This is one cool app! Works really well. Next time it would be nice for a bigger playing area.

[gronne]

Crayon physics itself is really awesome, so this may be neat too! Nice initiative.

[iofthestorm]

Very cool, if he makes a bigger playing area and some objectives like in Crayon Physics it will be great. I'll show this to my Physics teacher, hehe.

[MagNetCZ]

Ah yes seems much more stable than the last version. I managed to freeze it but it took quite an effort. Also the pins are neat. Would be lovely if there was an option to put the pin in the center of an object so it doesn't force itself to rotate, like pinned boxes.

[krazedkat1]

tried the update its gr8

[onetwentyeight]

certainly will tide me over until littlebigplanet, or maybe i just need to pick up elebits (youtube for it's physics playground, as some user created levels last minutes).

[warioswoods]

This is quickly becoming one of my favorite applications for the DS - great work, I look forward to seeing it progress.

Quick Suggestions -
- bigger play area; why not use the upper screen, and have a button that can be held to flip them so that you can draw on the top area, flip it back, and draw on the bottom?
- as someone else noted, a way to find the center point of an object when you pin it, so that you don't have to have it automatically rotate
- some sort of 'rope' tool, so that you can connect objects with a flexible line rather than drawing a thick, fixed bar with a hinge.

:)

[Spidery_Yoda]

Great update :D.

Now we can make all sorts of things. I made a pendulum swing down and knock a car, making the car roll off the screen. Also, it hasn't frozen yet.

Thanks for the great little sandbox.

[catapult37]

This is quickly becoming one of my favorite applications for the DS - great work, I look forward to seeing it progress.

Quick Suggestions -
- bigger play area; why not use the upper screen, and have a button that can be held to flip them so that you can draw on the top area, flip it back, and draw on the bottom?
- as someone else noted, a way to find the center point of an object when you pin it, so that you don't have to have it automatically rotate
- some sort of 'rope' tool, so that you can connect objects with a flexible line rather than drawing a thick, fixed bar with a hinge.

:)

First of all, this app is AWESOME. I really love it. Second, I agree with every one of these suggestions, especially this idea for how to achieve a bigger drawing area.

Oh, and someone mentioned objectives -- how about, rather than you defining objectives, you give us the ability to designate two objects as "player" and "goal", respectively? Then we could design our own games out of it.

Then, letting us share creations would rock. :-)

[wiggy fuzz]

it froze on me once, i accidentally tried drawing a blue floor. anyway, i noticed every time i drew a red box encircling the whole screen any blue shape closer to the top half will rise to the top opposite gravity and rest on top of the red outline.

[catapult37]

I get the feeling that Pocket Physics continues to keep track of objects even after they fall off the page. If I create some contraption and start dropping lots of things on it, the simulation quickly starts to stutter and crawl.

I had a couple other ideas, too... an "undo" would be great, even if it just went back one step.

The ability to drag and drop elements after you create them would be really nice.

Finally, the option to save a map for playing with later would be cool.

Keep up the great work! Pocket physics is one of the best DS homebrews I've seen in quite some time. Thanks!