3 posts tagged with "simulation"

Physion 0.8.4 adds Visual Filters: 35 effects that any Node can wear, from a glow or a drop shadow to CRT scanlines, a halftone pattern or a shockwave that ripples out of a body when it lands. Select a Node, switch a filter on, and it is drawn that way from then on, in the editor and while the simulation runs.

You can see all of this for yourself in a live demo scene, already set up with a filter on each body.

The filters are purely visual. They change how a Node looks, not how it behaves: a glowing ball has the same mass, shape and bounce as a plain one, and a shockwave that visibly bends a box does not actually move it. That makes them safe to use anywhere, from a single body you want to stand out to a whole scene you want to look like a 1980s monitor.

This post covers what each filter does, how the editor works, and which of them animate.

A free body diagram is the first thing a mechanics course teaches and the last thing a student wants to draw. Physion can now draw one for you, from the real forces in a running simulation: select a body, switch on the forces you care about, and each one appears as a labelled arrow, live, while the scene runs.

The arrows are measurements, not illustrations. Their magnitudes come out of the same calculation that puts the block where it is, so they are exactly as true as the motion you are already watching, and they change the instant anything else does. That turns a simulation from something to watch into something to read: a block sitting still on a ramp is not much of a lesson, but the three forces holding it there, labelled and adding up to nothing, is most of one.

The first half of this post covers what the feature does and every option it has. The second builds a real experiment with it, ready to take into a lesson.

We're super excited to bring you Particle Life in Physion: a mesmerizing simulation where particles interact through simple attraction and repulsion forces, creating surprisingly organic patterns and behaviors. It's a beautiful demonstration of how complexity emerges from simplicity and it's really fun to play with.