Newtonian Drop
Physics !
Newtonian Drop is an instructional physics environment that allows users to explore and interact in a virtual physics research centre. Explore physics concepts, watch demonstrations, and solve puzzles as you progress through the Newtonian Drop Research Centre.
Build available for download soon.
Project Development
Our tasks:
Tasked with the problem of integrating a library of information into an engaging and interactive three-dimensional space, we decided to explore the use of realistic physics in gaming environments. Our idea was to build a space that instructs users about simple physics concepts, and allows them to manipulate them in an interactive, progression-based puzzle game.
Working in the Half-Life 2 source engine, we have developed a prototype for an instructional physics simulation game that both illustrates simple physics concepts and allows users to then manipulate them in puzzles to progress through the Newtonian Drop Research Centre.
The environment has been designed, modeled, and textured completely from scratch. We have built three wings off of a main hub room to teach about our three core physics concepts, which are mass/weight/gravity, harmonic motions, and basic kinematics/dynamics. Passing through these instructional rooms triggers our final puzzle room to become accessible, which the user can then enter and traverse through.
This has been a huge learning process for the team. Aside from fulfilling the project requirements, we have learned a LOT about the very complicated process of creating a cohesive and compelling 3-D world. Integrating all of the tools from the Half-Life 2 SDK, from level building, texturing, and modeling, while effectively illustrating the physics concepts that we want to and keeping the whole thing completely visually separated from Half-Life 2 itself has been a real eye-opener for all of us.
We would like to expand on the research centre to include more concepts, interactive objects, and puzzles for users to experience.
Ctrl Alt Awesome
Our team:
Felwa Abukhodair
Brian Ford
Fouad Hafiz
Dave Marhal
Seth Marinello
We are graduate level students in the Master’s of Digital Media program at The Centre for Digital Media in Vancouver, BC. Coming from multidisciplinary backgrounds of computer science, design, 3-D modeling and animation, and multimedia, we have come together to create this fully functioning 3-D physics environment.