Haven't tried it myself yet, but here's an enthusiast
describing it.
Abstracted from vznuri <vznuri@earthlink.net>
on theory-edge@yahoogroups.com today:
"...realistic physics will take games & movies to an
entire new level in the near future ....
a friend tipped me off to this excellent physics
simulation for bridge building. you build the
bridge using different elements eg light steel,
heavy steel, cable, roadway. then you run a train
across it. fascinating !! really entertaining!! I haven't
played a video game this much in a long,long time
"what a fantastic tool for engineering students. I
built up more intuition about physics & construction
in a few hours than I have in my entire life.
"its amazing.. I tried hanging a cable between two
posts & it bounces just like a spring with the posts
bowing back and forth. and it eventually hangs in
a catenary curve after stabilizing!! amazing.. apparently
the cables are being simulated with many individual
elements-- I rarely saw the breaks.
"the constructions also reveal the concept of
"complexity" such that small changes have large
effects. there is also a sort of "holographic"
effect where eventually you cannot build the
bridges in pieces, you have to build the whole
bridge at once because the equilibrium is a
holographic property. I also noticed subtle oscillations
etc.
"I once had a perfectly symmetrical bridge but [it]
broke asymmetrically in the simulation, suggest[ing]
extremely finely sensitive math imprecision/harmonics led
to the asymmetry. way way cool!! I wish I could
get ahold of their code or a description of the internal
dynamics.
"nice touches-- when the bridge falls into the water,
it even makes splashes. the sound effects are
compelling.
"I spent several hours with this yesterday and was
very impressed. I suspect a mass market version of this
game may catch on in the near future. (its very similar
to roller coaster construction kit as far as I know.)
"I got thru the game in about 4 hrs, all 10 levels!!
this after watching some friends play the game last
saturday......"