Thraxion is a software project designed to allow the user to easily design a three dimensional scene that can be performed in real time. A rudimentary physics engine, already built by Jon Studebaker and Justin Gerthoffer, was the basis for the present

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Future Work Much remains to be done, or, at
least, there is plenty of room for improvement.
One of the improvements that could be made
include revising the collision detection
algorithm such that it uses an efficient
tree-based structure, for greater performance.
Other improvements could be made in the user
interface, making the buttons and menu options
more inherently meaningful. A useful help system
could be incorporated into the software, allowing
greater usability for new users. The Macintosh
version user interface can be modified so that it
more closely resembles and behaves like a native
Mactintosh application. Support for additional
operating systems, including full support for
Windows XP, could be useful. Allowing screens to
be printed is another possibility. Allowing
Thraxion to be scripted, such that objects and
forces may be edited through a script window,
similar to an HTML edit form, and allowing
Thraxion save files to be scripted could greatly
enhance productivity for potential power-users of
Thraxion. Additional built-in shape types and
editing functions would be useful. Ultimately,
the possible work that can be put into Thraxion
is almost endless, and dependent on what
application domains Thraxion ends up inhabiting.
If it becomes something of a multipurpose 3D
editor, similar in nature to GIMP, then numerous
features may be added, including text-on-object
support. However, if Thraxion develops into more
of an add-on to a gaming engine, or a gaming
engine itself, optimizing the code for
performance and memory will take on much greater
importance.
Abstract Thraxion is a user interactive 3D
action simulator that models the behavior of
objects in motion. Using a physics engine and
collision detection, Thraxion is able to model
the behavior of objects of varying mass, size,
composition, and texture colliding against each
other. The user is able to create objects, edit
the force directions and magnitudes action upon
the objects, and may then begin a simulation
based on these parameters. The user may then
save the initial conditions of the simulation,
load different initial conditions, or create a
new scenario. Because Thraxion is based on
OpenGL and the Qt user interface libraries, it
has multiple platform support and is being
actively developed on Linux and Mac OS X.
Figures Figure 1 Layered Architectural
Diagram Figure 2 Screen Shot Design View (OS
X) Figure 3 Screen Shot Demo View (Linux)
Introduction Thraxion is a software project
designed to allow the user to easily design a
three dimensional scene that can be performed in
real time. A rudimentary physics engine, already
built by Jon Studebaker and Justin Gerthoffer,
was the basis for the present engine. Ease of use
and making the existing engine more accurate are
two of the major goals of this project. The
software allows the building of scenes to display
what would happen under a set of initial
conditions set by the user. The environment
allows for spheres colliding with solid objects,
distance constraints between objects and solid
object collision. It allows for the saving and
loading of three dimensional scenes for running
at later times. The users are able to choose
pre-built objects and create almost any
environment they wish with them. Almost anyone
should be able to benefit from the program since
ease of use is one of its major goals. Target
audiences include younger students who might wish
to see what they have learned about basic
Newtonian physics in action, as well as
programmers looking for an easy-to-use three
dimensional collision simulator for a graphics
engine. The program is novel in that it is
basic, moderately fast, and easy to use, yet it
is still able to create and manage complex three
dimensional simulations. It could be a perfect
tool for quick demonstrations in 3D involving
basic physics.
Figure 1
Conclusions The Thraxion action simulation
software is an innovative, low cost and low
overhead solution where users can experiment and
interact with a basic physics and graphics
engine. The focus of Thraxion has been on
creating a multi-platform 3D simulation engine
that is rich in functionality but low on total
overhead in terms of memory and speed. The
possibilities for utilizing our work are endless
and could involve applications such as game
design, computer animation, or even educational
applications. For game design, Thraxion may
serve as a basic collision detection engine that
could be useful for simulating the effect of
object collisions on background objects.
Computer animation may benefit from having
Thraxion handle the basic collisions and
interactions between simple objects, leaving the
complicated collisions and interactions to more
complex programs that incur greater overhead.
For educational applications, Thraxion could
serve as an easy-to-use demonstration tool of
basic Newtonian physics on multiple objects for
the high school or early college level. Thraxion
could also serve an educational purpose as a
simple, working, non-theoretical example of how
to implement a low-cost, low-overhead 3D
collision engine. Consequently, further
refinements in code and collision detection
algorithms used would result in a stronger
application for any of these domains.
Figure 2
Figure 3
This project was developed in CS 426 Senior
Projects during the Spring 2005 semester