Aether
Aether is a C++ project for building a simple real-time 3D rigid body physics simulation with OpenGL visualization.
Aether
Aether is an educational physics simulator designed to help high school and secondary school students understand complex physics concepts through interactive visualization. Instead of memorizing equations, students can experiment with real-time simulations of rigid bodies, collisions, constraints, fluids, and heat transfer. The simulator bridges the gap between theory and practice by letting students observe how physics concepts manifest in a dynamic 3D world.
Students can experiment with familiar scenarios, objects falling under gravity, collisions between different shapes, springs bouncing, objects floating in water, and even thermal energy transfer, building intuition about how the physical world works.
Target Audience: High school and secondary school students studying physics who want to visualize and understand concepts through hands-on simulation.
Key Goal: Implement core physics concepts from scratch with a clean, modular architecture that prioritizes correctness and educational clarity.
Current Scope
Rigid body simulation
Gravity
Collision detection and response
Friction
Spring constraints
Rope
Rod
Fluids (Buoyancy)
Thermodynamics (Heat Transfer)
Real-time 3D rendering