# Most Realistic Game Physics



## Draken (Aug 18, 2007)

As you all know games in this day and age are all about immersion. How well the game incorporates you into believing that you're affecting the virtual world around you is one of the main goals of the latest video games. Now, there are many aspects of a game that can contribute to how well the player is immersed into its virtual world, and one of the major breakthroughs of modern day gaming is the use of accurate physics. Cause and Effect, Realistic Trajectory, Mass, Gravity, etc., all of it is portrayed by the use of a physics engine, and I am curious as to what your views are on which game does it best.

So here it is, a topic to debate which game you think has the most realistic physics. Now I'm not looking at a debate over the latest and greatest physics engine in use with games, I'm simply looking for which game incorporates physics the best.

For myself, I'm still highly pleased with how well incorporated the use of physics is for Half-Life 2, and a few other titles using the Source Engine. I have yet to find a game that even comes close to the sheer brilliance of Half-Life 2's gameplay.

Havok Physics Engine <3<3


----------



## Bokracroc (Aug 18, 2007)

Whatever engine ArmA uses.


----------



## Draken (Aug 18, 2007)

I believe ArmA uses its own engine. I don't believe I've ever played the game however. =/


----------



## Ray Kicio (Aug 18, 2007)

Not Unreal Engine 3

Seriously... You hit something and it bounces around like a superball on crack.


----------



## webkilla (Aug 18, 2007)

oblivion had that nice "you can move damn neer anything" thing going - plus all the plantlife and wildlife

soldier of fortune (haven't played SoF2, but it supposedly had it even better) the gorezone system where you could shot/cut/blow bits off the bad guys, again realistic (at least for its time)

overlord - this may come to a shock to some - but the ability to litery tear a place appart, destroying everything from the china to the potted plants, is not something you see very often, plus its realistic (at least plunder-wise... the game style may be toony, but the avaliability of such destruction is realistic)

Deus Ex Machina: enemy within (i think, cant remember the title exactly) - here there were a multitude of close combat weapons, everything from police battons to knives and stun rods, it might all be sci-fi, but the way people reacted differently to the different kinds of weapons, was nice and realistic (imo)


----------



## IanKeith (Aug 18, 2007)

Tetris. Hands down.


----------



## Atariwolf (Aug 18, 2007)

For me, its a tie between Half Life 2 and Oblivion.  I have to give the courtesy nod to Half Life 2, however.


----------



## nobuyuki (Aug 19, 2007)

I dislike Havok.  It has weird issues when you have too much crap on top of each other in weird ways at once  (seen it in SL, seen it in hl2, seen it in that one digipen game)


----------



## ADF (Aug 19, 2007)

I wouldn't call it realistic; but the physics in Cellfactor are really fun to mess around with, I'm talking over the top explosions of epic proportions.

Seriously, all of you with a good CPU/GPU combo need to go download the Cellfactor beta (full game got toned down for performance) right now, add EnablePhysX=false to the shortcut to play without a PPU, then run around blowing shit up.

I like a combination of the physics bomb and the physics grenade then followed by a normal grenade for maximum explosive force, you can send junk flying across the entire level with that. Just be sure to not turn on cloth physics and avoid using bots, that will majorly slow down your frame rate regardless of your specs.


----------



## Bokracroc (Aug 19, 2007)

Draken said:
			
		

> I believe ArmA uses its own engine. I don't believe I've ever played the game however. =/


It's meant to be a toned down VBS2, which in turn is Battle Sim the Australian Defence Force, New Zealand Defence Force, Royal Netherlands Army, Maneuver Instruction and Training Center/Ground Maneuver School at Amersfoort, United Kingdom Ministry of Defence, United States Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School and United States Marine Corps use.
Sure, it's mostly for Tactical but the combat mechanics would have to be very high grade.


----------



## Kyouryuu (Aug 19, 2007)

nobuyuki said:
			
		

> I dislike Havok.  It has weird issues when you have too much crap on top of each other in weird ways at once  (seen it in SL, seen it in hl2, seen it in that one digipen game)



At least in versions of Havok I've worked with, Havok has a tendency to act like the annoyed computer user who is trying to print a document and hits prints a couple hundred times to get what it wants.  In order to release an object from collision, it applies increasing amounts of countering force until the object goes flying.

It's questionable how much of Havok is actually used in Half-Life 2.  Some people tell me that Havok is only connected to the game because Havok bought out another company that provides physics solutions to Half-Life 2.

Nevertheless, I think HL2 has the best use of physics in a game and it makes me cringe sometimes when I see FPS games that game after it featuring virtually no physics-based gameplay (such as Quake 4).


----------



## chronoteeth (Aug 20, 2007)

TRESPASSER #1.


----------



## Option7 (Aug 20, 2007)

I think the Source engine is probably my personal favourite (that I've had experience with). But I certaintly wouldn't say it's perfect.

I'm pretty excited about that particle engine thing that's being developed (I don't remember the name of it, if someone does, then... well...). I like the idea of blasting someone's face open at pointblank range with a 12-gauge... So far no game has given me this.


----------



## Ron Overdrive (Aug 20, 2007)

SL uses the v1 Havok engine. HL2 uses v2 Havok. We're currently at Havok 4 and Havok FX (GPU accelerated version of 4). Not sure how much better Havok has gotten over time, but I'm pretty sure the spazzing thats been associated with it is the result of early versions.


----------



## darkcobalt86 (Aug 20, 2007)

Why would you want realistic physics when ragdoll physics are so much more fun? X3


----------



## Gol22 (Aug 20, 2007)

I say Splinter Cell: Double Agent

I go for the nice ass graphics on that. It helps with the awesome gameplay too.


----------



## Bokracroc (Aug 20, 2007)

chronoteeth said:
			
		

> TRESPASSER #1.


Bwahaha 

Trespasser was wacked. I was swinging a stick around once and short of wanging myself in the head a few times, I got it stuck in a gap between some boxes, still swinging wildly, when I got flung across the area.


----------



## Ray Kicio (Aug 20, 2007)

Kyouryuu said:
			
		

> At least in versions of Havok I've worked with, Havok has a tendency to act like the annoyed computer user who is trying to print a document and hits prints a couple hundred times to get what it wants.  In order to release an object from collision, it applies increasing amounts of countering force until the object goes flying.



With the transporter in HL2, I always mount as much stuff in it as possible and a computer monitor. When they are transported to the confined cage, they bounce off the rails and each other untill everything launchs around the room.

Sometimes they monitor will explode from the pressure and destroy the transporter machine.


----------



## Faradin (Aug 23, 2007)

Half Life 2, bar none. Best physics ever. Although throwing ragdolls at people on Gmod via physgun is quite hilarious....


----------



## theg90 (Aug 26, 2007)

Postal 2 all the way.  SHooting a person on a cliff while the blood drips down the cliff, the person rolls down the cliff, people around you sceam and run, police shoot you, Gary Coleman dances.  THe game rocked despite bad reviews.


----------



## Option7 (Aug 26, 2007)

It's a fun game, but the physics aren't that good... No way do they beat HL2


----------



## Telnac (Nov 10, 2008)

Dude, take it from a professional game developer: realistic psychics isn't what makes a game fun.  Every game out there tweaks gravity, collision elasticity, mass and countless other parameters to make in-game events feel all the more intense.  Stop-motion action (like the action scenes used in the Matrix) are commonplace in games these days.  They're the antithesis of realism!  The actor (be it the hero, a bad guy or whoever) seems to hang in the air just a fraction of a second before _*wham*_ a blow lands.  Realistic?  Of course not!  But where it takes away from realism, it adds to something that realism can't provide: drama!

In truth, realism is rather boring.  If you look up some actual footage of people being shot in war, it looks like they just fall down as if they suddenly fell asleep.  For the most part their heads, or any other body part for that matter, don't explode.  They're not thrown around as if they've been hit by a bullet carrying the momentum of a speeding truck.  There isn't a panicked shout for Mommy.  They just... die and fall where they stood.

But games, like Hollywood, want to bring the drama of the moment home to the player.  To the soldier standing next to the dude who was just killed by enemy fire, this is probably the most intense moment of his life!  It doesn't matter that his buddy looked like he was just falling asleep when he died.  The fact remains that his buddy was just _*gunned down*_ right in front of his eyes!  To him, his buddy's brains might have well exploded all over the rest of the platoon!  To him, his buddy's body might have been thrown back from the impact as if Thor's Hammer slammed into him the same instant the bullets did!

The fact is, there is no way of replicating the intensity of that moment without playing with the intensity of what's displayed on the screen.  So, the motion comes to a near stop the instant before a powerful blow lands.  A dude being shot up has body parts flying every which way and his body is thrown around like a ragdoll when he dies.

Ironically, it's the games with the most unrealistic physics that are often hailed as having the most "realistic" physics.  It's bullshit.  The games receiving acclaim don't have the best physics.  They're the games that have the best drama.  They're the games that have good physics engines, sure, but they also bend the rules as needed to make the player feel what a dude in the trenches may have felt when facing the real thing.

It's all smoke & mirrors, my friends.


----------



## lilEmber (Nov 10, 2008)

Far Cry 2.


----------



## Tycho (Nov 10, 2008)

Bad, BAD necro... over a year old FFS...

...suggest making a new thread if the subject is interesting to you.

Isn't there some general guideline on how old a thread can be before it's dead? There ought to be.

Also: HL2 physics weren't bad, way better than Oblivion.  Haven't played Far Cry 2 yet.


----------



## Lister22 (Nov 10, 2008)

well now... i am surpirsed no one on here has mentioned the game Littlebigplanet .... i mean this ish a brand new game where the who thing is centered around physics and its physics engine... the whole point of the game ish to create your own levels items toys vehicles bosses.. you name it and half the fun is messing around with the physics of this game.... furry fans will love it.. cause you can customise your character to be a furry if you like


----------



## TwilightV (Nov 10, 2008)

Telnac said:


> Dude, take it from a professional game developer: realistic psychics isn't what makes a game fun.  Every game out there tweaks gravity, collision elasticity, mass and countless other parameters to make in-game events feel all the more intense.  Stop-motion action (like the action scenes used in the Matrix) are commonplace in games these days.  They're the antithesis of realism!  The actor (be it the hero, a bad guy or whoever) seems to hang in the air just a fraction of a second before _*wham*_ a blow lands.  Realistic?  Of course not!  But where it takes away from realism, it adds to something that realism can't provide: drama!
> 
> In truth, realism is rather boring.  If you look up some actual footage of people being shot in war, it looks like they just fall down as if they suddenly fell asleep.  For the most part their heads, or any other body part for that matter, don't explode.  They're not thrown around as if they've been hit by a bullet carrying the momentum of a speeding truck.  There isn't a panicked shout for Mommy.  They just... die and fall where they stood.
> 
> ...



^ This.


----------



## Telnac (Nov 10, 2008)

Tycho The Itinerant said:


> Bad, BAD necro... over a year old FFS...
> 
> ...suggest making a new thread if the subject is interesting to you.
> 
> ...


Wow... sorry for the necro.  Saw it in the "related threads" list of another thread I was reading and had to post.  Didn't look at the post dates, and certainly didn't mean to bring a thread back from over a years' worth of death!


----------



## scarei_crow (Nov 10, 2008)

everyone must remember, physics is not just for gravity, buynocy etc, but stuff like cloth physics, liquid and flame, blah blah, so currently i like half life, but red faction guerrilla will be ridiculous, they have to make buildings structurally stable so they don't fall apart in-game, that's how realistic it is.


----------



## Stratelier (Nov 10, 2008)

N had a good physics engine.  It was only a Flash game about jumping off of walls and collecting gold while avoiding 100 different ways to get killed (and on a timer, too), but you definitely had a sense of momentum and speed when you got moving.

Penalty 10 respect points if the only application of realistic physics in a given game is for top-heavy female characters.


----------



## Zero_Point (Nov 10, 2008)

Ron Overdrive said:


> SL uses the v1 Havok engine. HL2 uses v2 Havok. We're currently at Havok 4 and Havok FX (GPU accelerated version of 4). Not sure how much better Havok has gotten over time, but I'm pretty sure the spazzing thats been associated with it is the result of early versions.



SL recently switch to v4 of Havok. Physics still lag like a bitch, but most physics-based "sim bombs" won't insta-crash a sim anymore. I know this 'cause the owner of a sim once gave me and a bunch of his friends miniguns that fired sim-bombs. Slowed down like a mufugga, but it didn't crash.

Also, I'd have to say HL2, though generally if the game has rag-dolls that end up in humorous poses I'll be pleased as punch. :V


----------



## Mr Fox (Nov 10, 2008)

Little big planet, it ain't the best but it's pretty high on the list.


----------

