Projectiles
One of the easiest types of motion to spot in a game is projectile motion. Any object that has been thrown, kicked, or shot and that is flying through the air is considered a projectile. Think about the last time you threw a baseball or kicked a soccer ball. What type of path did the ball follow? That's right—it followed a parabolic path! You might want to flip back to Chapter 2, “Geometry Snippets,” for a quick review of the parabola. Check out the parabola that opens downward. Doesn't it look like the trajectory of a missile that's just been shot at an angle? Any first-person or third-person shooter will have tons of projectiles, so how do we model them mathematically?
The easiest way to approach a 2D projectile is to break all ...
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