Search icon CANCEL
Arrow left icon
Explore Products
Best Sellers
New Releases
Books
Videos
Audiobooks
Learning Hub
Conferences
Free Learning
Arrow right icon
Arrow up icon
GO TO TOP
Learning AndEngine

You're reading from   Learning AndEngine Design and create Android games with the simple but powerful tool AndEngine

Arrow left icon
Product type Paperback
Published in Sep 2014
Publisher
ISBN-13 9781783985968
Length 286 pages
Edition 1st Edition
Languages
Tools
Arrow right icon
Author (1):
Arrow left icon
Martin Varga Martin Varga
Author Profile Icon Martin Varga
Martin Varga
Arrow right icon
View More author details
Toc

The physics engine

AndEngine uses the Android port of the Box2D physics engine. Box2D is very popular in games, including the most popular ones such as Angry Birds, and many game engines and frameworks use Box2D to simulate physics. It is free, open source, and written in C++, and it is available on multiple platforms. AndEngine offers a Java wrapper API for the C++ Box2D backend, and therefore, no prior C++ knowledge is required to use it.

Box2D can simulate 2D rigid bodies. A rigid body is a simplification of a solid body with no deformations. Such objects do not exist in reality, but if we limit the bodies to those moving much slower than the speed of light, we can say that solid bodies are also rigid.

Box2D uses real-world units and works with physics terms. A position in a scene in AndEngine is defined in pixel coordinates, whereas in Box2D, it is defined in meters. AndEngine uses a pixel to meter conversion ratio. The default value is 32 pixels per meter.

Basic terms

Box2D works with...

lock icon The rest of the chapter is locked
Register for a free Packt account to unlock a world of extra content!
A free Packt account unlocks extra newsletters, articles, discounted offers, and much more. Start advancing your knowledge today.
Unlock this book and the full library FREE for 7 days
Get unlimited access to 7000+ expert-authored eBooks and videos courses covering every tech area you can think of
Renews at €18.99/month. Cancel anytime