Physics Model of a Boat in Water

A physics interaction model of a boat in water using Nvidia PhysX, Waveworks and Unreal Engine. Since the UE4 Editor requires Waveworks to be integrated, I used a custom build of Unreal Engine.

This physics model is based on the Gamsutra article by Jaques Kerner, about a Water interaction model for boats in video games. Ideally, the model should work for a boat of any shape in a body of water with any type of behaviour. However, since the model is still in development, it works only for the boat model used.

I used this project to learn how to apply mathematical equations that work in the physical world, to objects in a virtual game world. Some things I picked up were:

• Hydrostatic and hydrodynamic forces that act on objects submerged in water.
• Using Nvidia PhysX in to make physics simulations in the Unreal Engine.
• Tackling complex geometry problems to isolate forces on faces of the mesh.
• Creating a generalized physics model that is not specialized to a single type of mesh and should work on multiple types of bodies.

This project, like some of my other projects, is still actively in development. You can also view my development cycle on this project on my blog.