Phun
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Phun is a 2D physics engine created by Emil Ernerfeldt for his master thesis while he was studying at Umeå University in Sweden. It is based on the Constructionist learning paradigm, and free for non-commercial use. On May 15th Phun was taken over by Algoryx, where Emil continued his work on the program.
Overview
Phun is a 2D physics sandbox written by Emil ErnerFeldt for his master of sciences thesis at the Umeå University in Sweden. It is based on the SPOOK[1] linear constraint solver by Claude Lacoursière. It is written in C++, and uses GLEW, SDL, and boost (including boost_filesystem).
The name "Phun" is a combination of "physics" and "fun", and the built-in programming language is called thyme. Some people believe both names came from other sources, like South Park's Super Phun Thyme episode, but Emil denies to have been inspired by South Park.
History
The first public beta of Phun was released on December 17 2007, and received regular updates. The last official update was beta 4.22 on the 12th of August 2008, after which work begun on beta 5.
Beta 5 was, however, renamed to Algodoo, after Phun was taken over by Algoryx Simulations. Algodoo is expected to be made public soon, and has already been made available for the Intel Classmate PCs [2] and demonstrated at the 2009 BETT event in London [3] [4]. Beta 5 work is now complete, and is available at phunland.com.
Gameplay
Phun is a sandbox game, which heavily concentrates on giving players just enough tools to envision their ideas. There is no set objective, and only basic tools. However, complicated devices can be built such as mechanical calculators, boolean gates, rockets, weapons and cars. Some contraptions are commonly used by others, such as the RAunit (a stabilizer) which is used extensively to stabilize walking machines.
Thyme
Thyme is a scripting language created by Emil. It can be used to load scenes and alter variables within the program ranging from the strength of gravity to the color of the background. Like a lot of games, phun features a console window (opened with ~) which allows users to enter thyme code. The console uses an auto-complete function and structure type organization system, where only the scope will be shown when auto-complete is called (using tab).
For more details about thyme, there is a lot to find on the thyme page on the Phun wiki.
User Created Content
Phun has a wide range of community-built tools, including converters for bmp, svg, blend and autoCAD formats [5].
Phun also has a very living community, which share their work under a creative commons 3 by-nc-sa license at phunbox, a community-built filesharing website. Users allow others to use their work, as long as they follow the simple rules of the CC3 by-nc-sa license, as well as potential user-defined additions to the license.
Notability
Phun has been discussed and shown extensively in the Blogosphere, as well as being demonstrated at the Intel Developer Forum 2008 in San Francisco. [6]. It has also been displayed on the 2009 BETT show in London[3][4].
References
External Links
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