phosphorus - A simple physics engine

WARNING: This library's architecture suffers from significant design limitations and necessitates a comprehensive overhaul.

Just a simple physics simulation engine with visualization using ffmpeg.

It is also part of the project assignment for the course "Math Software" at ZJU in 2025.

Features

• Basic model
• Verlet algorithm
• visualization using OpenCV
• GUI

Build

Dependencies

Some C++20 features like format and concept is used in this project, so make sure you have a C++20 compatible compiler. The project has been tested with GCC 15 and MSVC 19.43.34809. It should work with GCC 13 and later versions as well.

We use the following libraries:

• OpenCV - For image processing and visualization
• Boost - For various utilities
• GTest - For unit testing (Only if PHOSPHORUS_BUILD_TESTS is enabled)
• range-v3 - For range-based algorithms. It is also included in the project.

Besides, gnuplot is required for visualization, but is not as a library dependency. Please make sure that gnuplot is in your PATH environment variable.

NOTE: We use boost.process to handle subprocesses, but it is not installed on ubuntu by default, even if libboost-all-dev package is installed. It would be better to manually install boost.process.

Building - CMake

We use CMake to build the project. You can build it using the following commands:

mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -G Ninja
cmake --build . -j${nproc}

Also, there are some options listed below:

• PHOSPHORUS_BUILD_TESTS - Build the tests (default: ON, requires gtest)
• PHOSPHORUS_BUILD_EXAMPLE - Build the example (default: ON)

Besides, we provide a Makefile to automatically call CMake and build the project.

Project Structure

• src/ - Source code
• include/ - Header files
• test/ - Unit tests using gtest
• example/ - Example usage and demo
  • Task1.cpp - Example for Task 1: spring simulation
  • Task2-1.cpp - Example for Task 2-1: Sun and Earth simulation
  • Task2-2.cpp - Example for Task 2-2: Sun and Earth simulation with initial velocity
  • Task3.cpp - Example for Task 3: three-body problem simulation