I've been following your work for 10 years, i always thought that Newton is the best physics engine.
When my soccer game will be out i hope to write "powered by Newton".
There are still so many exciting things to add to make Newton even better, ad example few days ago i posted my request to have a before position integration callback as the best place to do post correction.
I've always had my idea on how to get Newton the deserved success, and now it is time to tell it to you:
Let's see what is the situation now when a user searches for a physics engine.
First he tries on google: bullet, havok, ode and then newton in the first page, not bad for now.
He visits the sites and then goes on newtondynamics.com
And now negative things begin.
There is a brief description of the engine which is the same that I read ten years ago and is now outdated.
It is not clear that there is an exact and an iterative solver, which can be used in combination,
that can be developed easily every imaginable type of joint, that the entire engine is contact force based, (not impulse based)
and then it is much more physically accurate.
It is not explained that the engine takes full advantage of multithreading and SIMD,
it is not explained that the engine is also for Android and iPad.
It is not explained ecc. ecc.
Then visitor see "Download our demos and see for yourself" link, click and he sees
04/01/2011
SDK 2.33 is now ready, in google code.
This implement the first pass an a simpel destruction
No demo here.
Then he clicks on "download" link. The same page and (he thinks) Newton is not updated for three years.
At this point 90% of the users goes away.
They will not become Newton users and will never recommend it to school to work or to friends.
The other 10% goes on Google Code project and see that last version is 2.36 two years old.
There is also a 3.11 version but it is only alpha (he thinks).
At this point 98% of the user goes away.
The courageous two percent decide to try the 3.11 alpha version anyway. He looks at tutorial.
There are ten tutorial but they are for SDK 200 and so are not usefull for SDK 300 (he thinks)
He goes to SDK 300 and there is only one basic tutorial. He goes on wiki, only Newton1 e Newton 2.
At this point 99,99% of the user goes away.
So that Newton has the success it deserves, it is necessary:
An updated web site showing in detail all the advantages of Newton.
On main page something as this: 03/26/2014 Newton 3.12 released. Download it.
No more alpha for years. Always a final version to download and an alpha/beta in progress.
New final downloadable version every three months, even with a single bug correction and no new functionality, it is not important,
but a new version every three months (Chrome teaches).
So users see that Newton is very active and dishonest are forced to review the latest version.
Delete all newton1-2 stuff. Upgrade tutorials and wiki to newton3.
I know that doing this is not fun, and I would prefer you to do OnPositionIntegrationCallback()
but if we want Newton takeoffs it is absolutely necessary.
Do not develop for some time and do that.
When done, everyone will see and experience the power of Newtons.
