Soft Body Physics Simulation

This Java project simulates soft-body physics, representing deformable objects as mass points connected by springs. The system allows the simulation of various forces such as gravity and spring forces, making the bodies respond realistically to external influences. This project was inspired by "Advanced Character Physics" by Thomas Jakobsen

Features

• Mass Points: Each mass point represents a material point with a defined mass. These points are connected by springs, forming a soft body.

• Springs: The connections between mass points are modeled as springs. Users can define the spring's elasticity, damping coefficient, and critical values to prevent excessive compression.

• Collision System: The simulation includes a collision system with two types of collision boxes:

  • Static Triangle: Represents a static triangle that doesn't move.

  • Triangle Collision Box: Connects three mass points, simulating a cohesive body. Users can specify exclusion rules, preventing collisions between certain points.

• Graphics Modes:

  • Physics Drawing Mode: Displays mass points and connections, with spring connections changing color based on the forces applied.
  • Mesh Drawing Mode: Shows objects of type Mesh formed by connecting arbitrary mass points. This is a graphical mode for visual representation.

• Telemetry: Real-time telemetry provides information on the time consumed by different computations, such as collision calculations. Average, minimum, and maximum times are displayed in the console.

• GUI Separation: The program utilizes two threads—one for physics calculations and the other for rendering. This ensures smooth and responsive visualization.

Adaptive Time Stepping:

The simulation adapts the time step based on the time elapsed since the last frame, preventing a slowdown in simulation time during complex calculations.

Demo Scenes

The project includes three demo scenes to showcase its capabilities:

Scene 1, Basic Scene:

Demonstrates simple scenarios with boxes and a box hanging on a spring.

Graphic mode	Physic mode

You can find better quality gifs in screenshots folder.

Scene 2, Complex Shapes:

Displays more intricate shapes resembling spheres to showcase the system's handling of complex bodies.

Graphic mode	Physic mode

You can find better quality gifs in screenshots folder.

Scene 3, Fricrion:

Shows two blobs sliding on different surfaces with varying friction. This demo highlights the ability to modify surface friction.

Graphic mode	Physic mode

You can find better quality gifs in screenshots folder.

Usage

To run the program, the Java classes to build the simulation and execute the MainFrame class. The GUI provides buttons to run different demo scenes.

Future Improvements

The project could be enhanced by implementing GPU-based computations and leveraging multi-threading, particularly for collision and particle effects calculations.