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I can't get Phun to run, what do I do?
Here are some steps to follow that may help you:
- Make sure you have a clean install (erase any old installation folder) of the latest version of Phun
- Download the latest graphics drivers for your computer
- Set your monitor bit depth to 32 bit (or the Phun bit depth to 16 with System.depth = 16; See how below. )
- Disable any secondary monitors
If this doesn't help, then try these steps one at the time:
- Try setting different resolutions on your monitor
- Make a clean config.cfg with this in it:
System.fullscreen = true; System.resolution = [1024, 768]; // or your default resolution System.vSync = false; // or try true System.depth = 16; // 32 is default
If this doesn't work, I don't know what will (so don't ask me). Try asking in the forum.
I have trouble saving Phun scenes/Phunlets
Make sure Phun is installed into a directory with write access (the desktop is a safe bet for this). This is especially important for Windows Vista and Mac OS. You can not run Phun directly from the .zip or .dmg file.
The simulation runs really slow (as in slow motion), how do I fix that?
Enter System.minFPS = 1; in the Console or at the end of config.cfg (under the Phun main directory, create it if you must). This will make the simulation run faster, but your framerate will drop. If this isn't enough, then use the options menu to turn off shaders and the clouds, and turn on simple water rendering. This should increase your FPS.
You can also try turning off fancy rendering and water to increase your performance.
We have reports that Phun runs slowly on some combinations of operating system, graphics cards, drivers etc. and are working on fixing this. Stay tuned!
I have a suggestion for Phun, where do I turn?
Use the suggestion forum.
I made a translation of Phun to my native language! Should I mail it to you?
No! See this wiki page: Translations
When I start Phun I get a lot of warnings, is this bad?
No, the warnings that are printed in the console are common and can be ignored. It doesn't hurt to read them, but they are no cause for alarm.
Is the source code going to be released?
No, not for now (though we are indeed fans of Open Source)
Does Phun work on Windows Vista?
Yes it does, both on 32-bit and 64-bit Vista. However, if you install it to your Program Files directory you may get problem saving your work, so install it to My Documents or Desktop or something similar.
Where can I get hold of the details of how Phun works?
In Emil's thesis, when he has finished writing it! Phun is based on a 2D physics engine that solves for constraint forces. A constraint is a physical/mathematical condition that makes sure that a hinge holds together or that two contacting bodies do not penetrate. The solver in Phun solves a large linearized system of equations using an iterative method, computes the required constraint forces and updates the velocities with these forces, and finally also computes new positions and orientations. The method for computing the constraint forces is based on SPOOK, from the work of Claude Lacoursière in his PhD thesis, Ghosts and machines: regularized variational methods for interactive simulations of multibodies with dry frictional contacts, Dept. of Computing Science, Umeå university, 2007. The resulting time stepper is closely related to the Leapfrog integration scheme. The fluid simulations in Phun are based on a method called Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH). SPH is a particle based method where the forces between the particles are designed so that the resulting dynamics approximates the Navier Stoke's equations for a fluid.
Why are fluids in Phun so spongy, and can't we get incompressible fluids?!
It is rather difficult to model and simulate incompressible fluids. For most practical situations, water can be considered to be incompressible. This means that no matter how much pressure you put on water, the fluid body still resists to change its volume. Incompressibility is actually related to the sound velocity of a fluid (1500 m/s for water), and in order to achieve incompressibility we would have to use a time step that allows us to resolve fluctuations (sound waves, that is - pressure waves) with this speed. Phun typically runs well below 100Hz which means that the time step is 1/100 s or larger, and this only gives stable simulations if the sound speed is set to a fraction of the real sound speed. We need 50-100 times faster computers to simulate incompressible fluids. However, we're researching into totally new models for fluid simulations new seen before, so stay tuned!
How do I set the viscosity in Phun's fluids?
You can set it using the console prompt, but be aware that setting it to a very large value (something like syrup) can cause instability and setting it to a very small value can also cause instabilities. The reason is that Phun fluids use a viscosity model, where viscous damping is modeled using an explicit force. If this force becomes too big to be resolved by the timestep, the system can gain energy and blow up. However, stay tuned for improvements!
How do I capture video and share it?
See Video
The keyboard shortcuts, such as pausing the simulation with space, won't work!
Download the default autoexec.cfg and place in your Phun install directory.
My question isn't here!
Ask on the forum or, if that won't help, contact me.
I sent you an e-mail and you didn't answer it! You bastard!
I'm sorry, I get a lot of mails, and I just don't have time to answer them all. Please try the forum instead.
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