Verlet

Has anyone come across an easy-to-understand Verlet Integration tutorial? I have been trying to teach myself this cool-looking concept, but every tutorial I find seems too complicated.

Many times, important points are not explained well (though I never even understand the basics!). Some say that points/objects can be given varying constraints (solids, springy objects, etc.) easily, for example, but not how.

I'm a complete beginner looking for something relatively easy to understand.

Google for Jacobsens Tutorial. You may have to sign up to Gamasutra to get it.

There's quite a few verlet examples in the archives. Here's a simple ragdoll one I did a while back ..

http://www.blitzbasic.com/codearcs/codearcs.php?code=2105

Thanks.

Alas, Jacobsen's was one of those ones that I didn't understand.

But with archive examples, I'll have another go.

Don't you think it would be a good idea to then work on understanding what you didn't understand? Huge, gaping holes in your knowledge aren't going to fill themselves, and it's not like a tutorial is there to teach your everything.

Yip, if you can't grasp the Jacobsen tut then I'd forget about going any further. It does glaize over collisions and friction but it is definately the easiest to understand.

Who is at fault the student for not learning well enough or the teacher for not making it easy enough to learn?

I blame the teacher ;o) I've seen many tutorials on things, that poorly describe programming sections. I eventually grasp them, and think, "that could have been described alot easier than that"

But, i suppose the way i explain it, might be completely confusing to other people. Tough one that :o) You just need to go through the code, tweak it, learn what does what and you'll learn it your own way.

Again, tutorials aren't going to teach you everything. Just as in advanced maths courses in school, you are expected to know certain things beforehand. Thinking "this'll teach me all about <subject> and I don't need to learn anything else" would just be stupid.

"Noel Cower" is right.

Verlet Integration is not easy to understand from scratch - let alone trawling for an easy tutorial. Without knowledge of what it comprises, you stand little chance - it is a single subject that encompasses multiple avenues of understanding.

It's like trying to program in Blitz3D with no prior knowledge of basic - yet it comprises multiples of that constraint - not just a single path or pre-learning.