Farseer Physics still fit for use?

1

I’ve used farseer physics in the past and was quite pleased with it.
So I’ve been thinking about using it in an upcoming project.

But first I was wondering if any of you could give me some update on it’s status. Specifically:

  1. Is it outdated and are there still people using it?
  2. Are there any alternatives that have appeared that might be more “recent”?
  3. Is work still being done on it? I’m pretty sure the original codeplex project is dead, but I don’t know if
    somebody has thrown it up on github to continue patching or anything.
  4. Anything else I can’t think of that you can tell me about it’s status.

I’m not questioning it’s reliability, just whether or not it is still a good choice for a new project.

2

There are lots of people still using it… even games on consoles. It works well for most 2D physics needs.

3

Well, that pretty much knocks down my fears of it being an out-dated/forgotten library. Thanks!

My game will have three requirements that go beyond “simple” physics (of the three, I only know of one I can implement with farseer for sure) Breakables (That’s the one I know about ;)), water and climbable-ropes. I’ve searched but not found anything for the latter two. Has anybody ever seen them done with farseer/box2d? Any tips/pointers/links that might help me out?

4

Further answers for your questions.

  1. Unfortunately, not for 2D physics in C#.
  2. It is on Github https://github.com/tinco/Farseer-Physics but the developer there has stated there it won’t be updated anymore.

Adding your own water and buoyancy wouldn’t be impossible, you could insert some code into the sub-update processing to calculate what objects are submerged and by how much, then apply appropriate forces to create the effect. Exactly how the math would work to do that is beyond my ability, sorry.

As for climbable ropes, I think you’d have to make up your own code regardless as the concept is too specific for what a generic physics library would consider.

5

Thanks for the answers!
As for the buoyancy idea, yup, the math is beyond me as well. That’s why I’m using a physics library ;). Because aside from simple AABB collisions, it’s all beyond me :smiley:
But I might can fake something up anyway for liquids.
Actual buoyancy isn’t a requirement; just a wish. All I really need is the ability to let the player “fly” when in the water, instead of immediately dropping to the ground.

And on the note you made about ropes, that’s very true indeed. Perhaps I’ll look and see if anybody has created the classical 2d-sidescrolling ladder in farseer.