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Game Development vocabulary · Physics & Animation

Physics engine

Meaning in game development, with examples

nounCommon term

In game development, physics engine means: The system that simulates real-world physics in a game, such as gravity, collisions, friction and forces, so objects fall, bounce and push each other believably.

In Turkish: fizik motoru

How it is used

Usually part of the game engine or added as middleware; well-known ones include PhysX, Havok, Jolt and, for 2D, Box2D. Programmers tune its settings, and designers often work around it to make movement feel good rather than realistic.

Example sentences

  1. We don't use the physics engine for the player; the character controller is custom.

  2. The physics engine goes crazy when two crates spawn inside each other.

Common collocations

  • physics simulation
  • physics step
  • tune the physics
  • 2D physics
  • collision detectionThe part of a game that checks whether two objects touch or overlap, for example a bullet hitting an enemy or the player landing on a platform.
  • rigid bodyAn object in the physics engine that keeps its shape and is moved by forces such as gravity and collisions, for example a falling crate or a thrown grenade.
  • ragdollA physics setup in which a character's body becomes a set of connected parts that fall and react to forces realistically, usually when the character dies or is knocked down.
  • raycastA check in which the game sends an invisible straight line from a point in a direction to find what it hits first. It is used for shooting, line of sight and ground detection.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Physics & Animation

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