Dynamics

The 3DVIA Studio application has been equipped with a Dynamics Pack that includes a Dynamics Engine and several Dynamics Authoring tools.

The Dynamics Engine provides the richness and realism required to develop 3D life-like experiences. For example, the act of throwing an object and expecting it to fall and collide with its surrounding environment in a realistic way would imply a huge amount of work without the help of a Dynamics Engine.

The different Dynamics Authoring tools will allow you to create such realistic scenarios when authoring with 3DVIA Studio.

Dynamics Pack Features

While the Dynamics Engine is in charge of computing all the necessary calculations, the different Dynamics Authoring tools will allow you to define and control the physical properties of your 3D space, the physical properties of the objects in that space, and the type of interaction between such physical objects.

These Dynamics Authoring tools include Physical Behaviors, such as Collision Group, Dynamic Rigid Object or Trigger Volume used on 3D objects to enable the use of the different Dynamics Pack features on them.

The section on Dynamics Components provides extensive details on those components and their different properties.

Terminology

Dynamics Object - Name given to an object owning a Dynamics Component. We often use also the term Physicalized Object to refer to a dynamics object which is successfully part of the dynamics world.

Dynamics Component – The component to be aggregated to a 3D object or used standalone in a scene, in order to make an object part of the dynamics simulation. The Dynamics Component contains several dynamics properties (mass, inertia, friction, restitution, …). The Dynamics Component contains also a reference to a Dynamics Shape, a list of Dynamics Joints and a list of Dynamics Forces.

Dynamics Shape - An object standing for the topology representation. Different dynamics objects can use the same Dynamics Shape.

Dynamics Link - A link between two Dynamics Objects (like a hinge, a point to point constraint, etc.), or between a Dynamsics Object and the Dynamics World.

Dynamics Force - An interaction between N Dynamics Objects . Ex: A spring between two objects. Dynamics Forces differ from Dynamics Interactions as generally they are not “hard”, they can concern an object X in relation to object Y while not influencing object Y itself, and they are not necessarily localized to a precise point in space.

Physicalize – Proprietary verb meaning “making an object part of the dynamics world”.

Primitive Shape - Unlike what we call convex or concave shapes, a primitive shape is internally described with mathematical equations (not polygons) and thereby is optimized for runtime execution and memory consumption. ex: Cube, Sphere, Cylinder, Capsule.

Collision Group - A system that decides if two objects can collide each against each other or not. If Collision Groups are filled up so that object X and object Y cannot penetrate each other, then no collision will ever occur between those two objects. We have to deal with collision groups for example if you want the forearm to be able to collide with the torso, but not with the shoulder.