Impressive CryEngine 3 soft-body physics demo released by Rigs of Rods creators

CryEngine 3

Soft-body physics refers to the handling of deformable objects -- Unreal Engine 3's famous meat cube , the billowing cloth in Assassin's Creed, and in this case, a pickup truck being mushed into walls. Summon your inner child for some good old fashioned watching-stuff-hit-other-stuff fun.

This CryEngine 3 physics demo spawned from the open source soft-body vehicle sim Rigs of Rods . The work in progress has only been in development for "the past few months," according to a Reddit post by Gabe Fink , an artist/musician/all-around talented guy working on the project.

Based on this video, we can't verify whether or not it's actually "the most realistic damage model ever," but its real-time metal crunching has our attention. As many have pointed out, a simulation system like this, which Fink states can be ported to any engine "pretty easily," would be very welcome in just about any game where vehicles can hit stuff, especially Grand Theft Auto V.

Personally, I skipped over practical applications and got excited at the concept of a next generation Garry's Mod-style playground. With a big selection of objects simulated as well as they are in this demo, and maybe the Euphoria Engine to handle actor AI, I'd be in the sandbox of the gods.

Tyler Wilde
Editor-in-Chief, US

Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the '80s and '90s, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on early PCs. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, all the shooters they call "boomer shooters" now, and PS1 classic Bushido Blade (that's right: he had Bleem!). Tyler joined PC Gamer in 2011, and today he's focused on the site's news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to his 1,200-plus hours in Rocket League.