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Quake II Mods for Engineering Students
gleeklet writes "Has anyone else seen that there is a need for inexpensive 3D visualization software for presentations and classroom lectures? There is a Chemical Engineering package available but compared to video game software, the graphics are a bit lacking. My goal was to create a chemical plant with the process control algorithms coded into the Quake II source. As a short demo I spent several hours creating a unit cell demo Quake II level to demonstrate the use of open source video game technology, which I found was well received by undergrads. Has anyone used video game technology as an education tool for science or engineering?"
Look on the specs of the upcoming Doom3 engine. The physics there have reverse kinematics and many nice stuff. Their collision detection is so good that when you fire a weapon, the bolt is simply a triangular object, moving at a very high velocity. Because the system is so accurate, when it hits objects, they move as expected.
Ofcourse, the game is not out yet. But when it'll be out, there will be modders out there to use this and as we know iD, they will release their source code in a couple of years.
^_^