Does anyone have any suggestions for a physics library for Java? Chipmunk looks freaking sweet, but I can't find a java binding (just this empty google code page: http://code.google.com/p/chipmunk-java/ )... If I'm just missing it please let me know!

Otherwise, emphasis on basic shapes (squares and rectangles mostly), speed, good collision detection, and joints between shapes. Springs and or strings would be even more fantastic. Especially if I can break them.

A lot of this I can do on my own, I have the math know how, I'd just rather not.

I remember the Chipmunk-Java guy talking to me about it. I know he had something working, but I didn't realize that his Google Code project was empty. I'll see if I can dig up in my chat logs who that was.

I can't speak as for the quality of any of te, but I know Phys2D is somewhat popular:
http://www.cokeandcode.com/phys2d/

And there is a Java port of Box2D that is probably worth checking out:
http://www.jbox2d.org/

Bullet has java bindings ( or it may very well be a java port ). I imagine you can constrain motion to a plane to get 2D simulation.

http://www.bulletphysics.com/Bullet/word...cs-library

I dunno. I'd avoid doing 2D physics in a 3D physics engine like the plague. It's a lot of work to make things work right and force them to stay constrained. I tried that for a while before writting Chipmunk. I was frustrated enough by it to write my own physics engine from scratch.

Thanks for the tips! I've started my game, and am using JBox2D, we'll see how it goes, and I'll probably write something up for here in case anyone is curious...

Skorche: Any word on a java version of Chipmunk? JBox2D seems nice, but a little limited in processing power. After UDG, if nobody's working on a JChipmunk, I might offer to help with a port.... we'll see how time goes.

an update for anyone else who might stumble across this thread:

JBox2d seems to have better features, seems like it might be faster/overall better, but there's a few things not implemented (DebugDraw class not being implemented is what killed it for me).

phys2d from cokeandcode got setup much much faster, is wayyyyyy easier to use, and works fine for everything I am doing (at least so far).