Game on, science: How game technology may help physics to tackle visualization challenges

Lu Men, Tian-gang Wu and Zu-Yuan Wang
Tongji University
Shanghai, China

By studying several popular animation techniques in their respective fields — html5, flash and unity3D — we have concluded that the game industry (unity3D) develops ever more advanced technologies to improve rendering, image quality, ergonomics and user experience of their creations, and provides very simple tools to design new games. In physics, some experts with specialized knowledge have been able to design interactive visualization applications to tackle visualization challenges, but there are limitations in these applications in terms of both picture performance and platform portability. Because of these problems, our work has explored the use of these applications and integrated a Unity3D game engine to develop a physical model of a visual interactive app, so that students can dowload it to mobile devices for their studies. As an example, in the development of angular momentum, combining this viewer with 3D physical models from experimental data can provide unprecedented opportunities to gain insights into the conformation-function. Publishing the model on native-apps can break the limitation of time and space, allowing learners to access learning materials by mobile phones or pads for ubiquitous learning.