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Go Stand By the Stairs, So I Can Protect You

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the phun-with-physics dept.

ewhac writes "It seems a programmer named Jetro Lauha, for his submission to the Assembly 2002 competition, decided to explore the realm of solid body physics simulations. So he wrote Porrasturvat -- 'Stair Dismount'. The game involves the application of force vectors to solid bodies connected by links with constrained range of motion, and observing their impact forces against other objects in the environment. ...Or, more colloquially, you push a guy down the stairs and see how much damage he takes. Apparently, any similarity between this game and the Terrible Secret of Space is entirely coincidental."

3 of 251 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The bug in this game... by jjl · · Score: 5, Interesting

    And that's not the only way you can get some funny scores with. For example, one dude wrote an extra application called "brutalizer" which poked straight inside the running game to change the hit force to some ridiculous amounts..

    tonic -- Jetro Lauha

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  2. Re:For assembly 2002? I dont think so.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Having fallen off my roof (10 feet) onto the ladder that was supposed to be there about three weeks ago - it is chilling to see the slow motion man fall down those stairs.

    It happens much faster - but the physics that impact tendons and bones are fascinating to ponder (and then my foot bent way back and put stress on this little bone, causing it to ...)

    Maybe the game creator could add a little deal where you can go in an x-ray the bones on stair man ...

  3. I've had that working since 1997. by Animats · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I was the first to simulate falling downstairs. I first showed "Falling Bodies" at the Softimage user convention in 1997. The technology inside Falling Bodies is now licensed for some major games.

    Here's my simulation of someone falling down a circular staircase. [.avi, 1.5MB]. Note that there's less "boink" than with impulse/constraint simulators; the bounces take several frames, rather than being instantaneous. That's because Falling Bodies is a spring/damper system, which produces better results. Takes more cycles, though.

    Now everybody does falling downstairs as a demo for physics engines. I've created a cliche, like the old "teapot" graphics test.

    More videos.

    (Most of these videos are encoded with the Intel Indeo codec, which Intel discontinued, but you can still get it from Ligos. I should convert that material to another codec. What would you suggest that will work five years from now?)