How can I factor momentum into my space sim?

Posted by Josh Petite on Game Development See other posts from Game Development or by Josh Petite
Published on 2011-11-29T04:36:31Z Indexed on 2011/11/29 10:10 UTC
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I am trying my hand at creating a simple 2d physics engine right now, and I'm running into some problems figuring out how to incorporate momentum into movement of a spaceship.

If I am moving in a given direction at a certain velocity, I am able to currently update the position of my ship easily (Position += Direction * Velocity). However, if the ship rotates at all, and I recalculate the direction (based on the new angle the ship is facing), and accelerate in that direction, how can I take momentum into account to alter the "line" that the ship travels? Currently the ship changes direction instantaneously and continues at its current velocity in that new direction when I press the thrust button. I want it to be a more gradual turning motion so as to give the impression that the ship itself has some mass.

If there is already a nice post on this topic I apologize, but nothing came up in my searches. Let me know if any more information is needed, but I'm hoping someone can easily tell me how I can throw mass * velocity into my game loop update.

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