Physics Engines

Ok, a bit of advice earned the hard way...

DO NOT TRY TO WRITE YOUR OWN PHYSICS ENGINE.

We decided to go with Havok.

First we tried Bullet Physics, but it does not handle multiple independent simulation worlds, and our game (The Dead Linger) deals with an infinite world.  So we need to break it up into 1km cubes, each one an independent physics simulation.

The I spent two months part of which was general game stuff, but much of which was a custom infinite world physics engine.  Eventually we realized that we will never hit our deadline that way...

So we looked at Crysis (too expensive) and Havok.

A talk with the Havok engineers assured us that multiple worlds is fine (and yes, it is) and the licensing terms are perfect for a startup like Sandswept Studios.

So now after 2.5 weeks of effort we are on Havok and working.  The performance is amazing, and the robustness of the player motion among world objects is amazing.

TF