It was possible to smash those cars into pieces and even split them. While thinking about it, how did they do it? What were the basic algorithms they used? Anyone knows?
All I remember the game had a quite springy feel and that it ran well on pentium 2. Also it weren't looking like accurate at all, just fun. It was fun to scrap those cars.
I guess it was some kind of spring physics combined with some vertex collision and transformation algorithms. Could you supply me with details?
Physics for Game Developers has details on the basics of commonly used physical models and how to implement them. If you need details on the basic physics involved and coding around such models, then this is pretty good. The author's interview contains an overview of collision modelling and further references.
Video games physics are based on Newton's Laws of Motion.
- Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.
- The relationship between an object's mass m, its acceleration a, and the applied force F is F = ma. Acceleration and force are vectors (as indicated by their symbols being displayed in slant bold font); in this law the direction of the force vector is the same as the direction of the acceleration vector.
- For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Video games physics are designed to look and feel fun, not to be 100% realistic. A mantra in graphics is If it looks good, it is good.
An undergraduate class in classical physics and differential equations will give you the tools necessary to understand some of the basic models used in video games.
Some good books to check out are:
The questioner also asked about deforming body physics. Mesh deformation is a complex subject. Some modern (i.e. more recent than Carmageddon) approaches to mesh deformation include Mesh Deformation by solving Laplace's equation with fast linear algebra solvers, such as Multigrid. The references in that paper serve as a good launching point to learn more about physics-based mesh deformation.