README

MakarovPhysics

A collection of interactive simulations for visualizing various physical processes in real time.

The project focuses on combining numerical modeling with graphical representation to better understand dynamic systems.

Overview

This application includes several simulation modules, such as:

• Rocket motion based on reactive propulsion principles
• Oscillation systems (including pendulums and spring-based models)
• Particle motion in electric fields
• Fluid surface oscillations

Each simulation is designed to demonstrate the underlying physical behavior through real-time visualization and user interaction.

Technical Details

• Language: Delphi 12 (Community Edition), Win64 target
• Graphics: OpenGL
• Rendering: custom real-time rendering logic
• Simulation: numerical approximation of physical systems

The application uses custom implementations for both simulation logic and rendering, without relying on external physics or graphics engines.

Architecture

The application is split into a launcher (physic.exe) and a set of independent simulation modules built as DLLs under data/modules. A shared OpenGL helper library (data/engine/engine.dll) and a small tools library (data/engine/MakarovTools.dll) are loaded by the launcher and the modules at run time. The launcher reads data/engine/modules.cfg to discover the modules and presents them as a rotating 3D carousel. The carousel is driven by the mouse: horizontal cursor position spins it, hovering highlights a module, and a click loads that module's DLL and calls its exported InitLibrary entry point.

Building

One-shot build (from a RAD Studio Command Prompt, or any prompt with the Delphi MSBuild environment available):

build.bat

build.bat builds the project group (engine, tools, modules, launcher), builds the texture packer, and runs it to produce data/textures/skybox.dat and data/textures/preview.dat. After it finishes, physic.exe can be run from the project root. The generated .dat packs are not stored in the repository; the source .bmp textures under data/textures/ are.

Manual build:

• Requires Embarcadero Delphi 12 (Community Edition is sufficient).
• Open physic.groupproj and build the whole group, or build individual .dproj projects.
• Target platform: Win64. All floating point crossing the module/engine boundary is Double, so the ABI no longer depends on the target bitness. The launcher and every DLL must be built for the same platform: a Win64 physic.exe silently refuses to load a leftover Win32 module DLL. Delete any stale binaries from a previous Win32 build before rebuilding.
• Build order: engine and MakarovTools first, then the modules, then physic. The project group is already arranged in this order.
• Output goes straight into the runtime layout: physic.exe in the root, engine.dll / MakarovTools.dll in data/engine, and each module DLL in data/modules.
• Pack the textures once with the bmp2dat tool (or just run build.bat): bmp2dat data\textures\skybox 256 data\textures\skybox.dat and bmp2dat data\textures\preview 512 data\textures\preview.dat.

Modernization (Delphi 12 upgrade)

The original sources were written for Delphi 7 (2004–2011). The project has been brought up to date for Delphi 12 without changing its structure or behavior:

• Added Delphi 12 .dproj / .groupproj project files; the legacy .bdsproj files are no longer used.
• Fixed Unicode-era issues in the launcher (string / PChar handling, an out-of-range module-name access, and a divide-by-zero in the rotation math).
• Replaced the path lookup that relied on Application.GetNamePath with the executable path.
• Converted the module timer callbacks to the correct stdcall TIMERPROC signature and replaced the deprecated TThread.Resume with Start.
• Removed stale precompiled units and legacy IDE artifacts and added a .gitignore.
• Translated all source comments, string literals and UI captions from Russian to English; the sources are now plain ASCII, which avoids code-page issues.
• Replaced the keyboard-driven menu carousel with mouse control (move to spin, hover to highlight, click to launch) using OpenGL selection-buffer picking.
• Replaced the skybox textures with a procedurally generated gradient sky (seamless, no third-party assets) to avoid any licensing uncertainty.

Win64 port

The project now targets Win64 by default. What changed:

• Every Extended in the sources became Double. On Win64 Delphi maps Extended to Double anyway, so the old declarations were quietly changing size depending on the target; making it explicit removes that trap from the engine.dll exports (DrawSkyBox, DrawOneSideTexturedBox, CalcNormal) and from the module physics code.
• The launcher stored module handles in Array[1..10] of LongWord. On Win64 an HMODULE is 64 bits wide, so the handle was being truncated before it reached GetProcAddress. The array is now Array[1..10] of HMODULE.
• InitLibrary and the matching TLibProc are declared stdcall on both sides instead of relying on the default register convention.
• Added the missing Base_Win64 build configuration groups to the .dproj files, and switched build.bat to Platform=Win64. The bmp2dat texture packer stays Win32; it is a build-time tool and its bitness is irrelevant.

Two unrelated defects were fixed at the same time:

• The chart forms in Rocket, Oscillator and Pendulum still carried XValues.Multiplier / YValues.Multiplier in their .dfm files. That property belonged to the TeeChart version shipped with Delphi 7 and no longer exists. DFM text is not validated at compile time, so the form only failed at run time with Property Multiplier does not exist, which left the module half-initialised and produced a follow-up access violation.
• TPixelFormatDescriptor was zero-filled and then only dwFlags was set, leaving nSize, nVersion, iPixelType, cColorBits and cDepthBits at zero. All ten call sites now fill the descriptor properly.

Features

• Real-time simulation and rendering
• Interactive parameter manipulation
• Visualization of dynamic systems and physical processes
• Modular structure with multiple independent simulation scenarios

Screenshots

Purpose

This project was created as an experimental environment for exploring computer graphics and physics simulations, as well as for gaining hands-on experience with real-time rendering and visualization techniques.

Notes

The project reflects practical experimentation with graphics and simulation concepts rather than production-level engineering.

Support

If you found this project interesting or useful, you can support my work: