Flash/Flex physics engines and examples

Sasha Dzeletovic, Thursday, September 4, 2008 @ 10:25 am

Flash technology has gone a long way from simple vector animations. Today it has support for video and audio, 3d rendering and interaction, all kinds of advanced data visualization libraries, great components of all shapes, sizes and purposes.

What caught my eye lately is that there is a lot of 2D and 3D Physics engines being added to the list.
Physics beyond the obvious add a whole new level to user experience, in which I'm particularly interested.
Physics allow developers to create interfaces that are replicating laws of nature that a user can easily understand and has experience with.

Of course, from step one there is a danger of these tools being misused and thrown on top of interfaces for some make-up effects. That is not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about using physics to help the user understand the software interface and it's process by guiding him/her using these principles.

There are some basic and insightful guidelines and examples in an excellent article by Rob Adams called "Guiding with motion".

Here are some engines and examples that deal with 2D/3D physics in Flex/Flash:

ROXIK -
Bone example
Gravity boot
Interactive cloth

Box2DFlashAS3

Glaze
Example

Chipmunk
Domino smash
Sketches
The Machine
Domino pyramid

Foam
Example 1
Example 2

Ape
Example 1
Example 2

Motor2

Wow
3D picture
rope, box
cloth 01
cloth 02
cloth 03

SpringGraph

agile ajax

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