generalrelativity

Time to get this properly started.

If you’re a Flash developer and you’re into physics, the player’s (9) new vm is exciting stuff. Its overall execution efficiency makes processor-heavy endeavors such as physics simulations more feasible.

Not surprisingly, a few physics engines have sprung up-

The Fisix Engine
Offers a well documented API, though is not open source.

APE
An open-source extension to an AS2 engine, FLADE. Solid commenting and runs really well.

Motor
I’m most excited about this one, and hoping it will end up open source. With recounts of the development process and a lot of simultation situations considered, I foresee it being a tremendous resource…

Revive
AS3 Physics Engine

These both from André Michelle. Both brilliant, and both undocumented (quite unfortunately). The latter using a spatial hash for precursory collision checks and precise backward-stepping collision resolution.

Both Fisix and APE use a Verlet based approach to integrating particle position over time. Because this type of system natrually leaks energy, it is quite stable if comparably less *realistic.* If you’ve a budding interest in physics, I’d recommend perusing through APE’s source- Its author, Alec Cove has a very tidy way of laying things out and because his aforementioned means of integration is fairly simple, it’s easy to follow the sensical event flow. There’s even a quick-start tutorial here.

drew ActionScript 3.0, Physics