Physics Library Recommendations for Cube Simulation

For your simulation involving hundreds of cubes with physics interactions, saving positions/rotations, and iterative additions, here are some recommended physics libraries:

Top Recommendations

1. Bullet Physics

• Performance: Excellent for rigid body simulations with hundreds of objects
• Stability: Well-tested for preventing "explosion" physics issues
• Serialization: Built-in support for saving/loading physics states
• Integration: Works with many rendering engines
• Language: C++ with bindings for other languages

2. PhysX

• Performance: Industry-standard with GPU acceleration
• Scalability: Handles large numbers of objects efficiently
• Stability: Robust collision detection and resolution
• Serialization: Supports serialization of physics states
• Support: Backed by NVIDIA

3. Havok

• Performance: Commercial-grade physics used in AAA games
• Stability: Excellent for complex simulations
• Serialization: Comprehensive state saving
• Optimization: Highly optimized for both CPU and multi-core systems

Implementation Considerations

1. State Serialization:

   CPPCopied
   // Example with Bullet Physics
   btDefaultSerializer* serializer = new btDefaultSerializer();
   dynamicsWorld->serialize(serializer);
   
   // Save to file
   FILE* file = fopen("physics_state.bullet", "wb");
   fwrite(serializer->getBufferPointer(), serializer->getCurrentBufferSize(), 1, file);
   fclose(file);

2. Stability Tips:

   • Use fixed timesteps for simulation
   • Implement position/rotation clamping to prevent extreme values
   • Consider using "sleeping" for static objects to improve performance

3. Scaling Strategy:

   • Implement spatial partitioning as cube count increases
   • Consider batch processing for physics updates
   • Use level-of-detail physics for distant objects

For your specific requirements with iterative additions of cubes and reliable state saving, Bullet Physics offers the best balance of performance, stability, and ease of implementation.