"Neonux" <neo### [at] softhomenet> wrote in
news:3f6e43e0$1@news.povray.org: 

> [...]
> Some of these animation techniques really need to be combined into a
> single animation tool.
> 
> Open Source project would be wonderful with a nice interface... Hmmm..
> 
> It would enable people to make animations absolute masterpeices.
> [...]

Yeah, I also wish there was an easy to use free 3D physics simulation 
program.  I love "newtonian" physics.  Unfortunatly my little Povray SDL 
program is only specialized at handling balls, not so versatile.

MechSim in MegaPov is actually quite capable.  I wish more people would 
post MechSim animations here.  Unfortunatly, Povray alone is not an easy 
tool to use for the uninitiated, and then MechSim is a large step beyond 
that.  Add to that the fact that Povray is not real-time interactive 
(both design and render), and the audience becomes that much smaller.  
Many commercial 3D packages now support "physics" simulations, even 
Macromedia's latest Shockwave, which was typically not considered a 3D 
software (it uses Havok's real-time physics engine, which is quite cool 
(havok.com)).

If you use Linux, track down an old program called "Aero", it's a fun to 
use rigid body dynamics program and supports (old) Povray output.  
Problem is that it's no longer in development and a little buggy.  There 
are also some open source "physics" engine API projects going on which 
show promise, although I haven't tried any of them yet.

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