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Does anybody know of a good resource for programming the behaviors of various materials interacting?

Game programming physics resources usually cover collision detection, momentum, intertia, etc., but they seem to deal with a sort of idealized "material". I'm interested in simulating behavior of, say a projectile striking metal, which would deform more plastically, vs. one striking wood, which would tend to splinter, or glass, which would shatter.

Is there a book or online resource that deals with this from a game/simulation perspective?

Buggieboy
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  • You might want to wiki this. There isn't a right answer. But its a very interesting idea. +1 –  Sep 05 '09 at 15:05
  • I think there is a right answer for a material scientist, and it's a serious commercial analysis package. – duffymo Sep 05 '09 at 15:08
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    I think that a game can be satisfied with a slightly lower standard. I'd call it "realistic looking", from a player's perspective, versus precise simulation that a scientist would require. – Buggieboy Sep 05 '09 at 15:15
  • @Buggieboy - exactly my point. It's not to disparage games. Realism isn't the same as simulation. – duffymo Sep 05 '09 at 15:23

2 Answers2

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I believe this gamedev.net article on material deformation has a lot of what you're looking for.

chaos
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If you're interested in things like simulating projectiles striking metal, plastic deformation, fracturing glass, etc. I don't think games will offer you much that's based on rigorous physics.

Those kinds of calculations are usually done using finite element analysis packages like ANSYS, NASTRAN,ABAQUS etc. If you're a material scientist, and you want more than an empirical answer, I would say that gaming engines wouldn't have the fidelity that you're looking for.

I loaded the material deformation article that chaos posted. I'm firmly in the FEA camp.

LS Dyna is another contender that you should check out. It's used for highly non-linear impact problems as well.

duffymo
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