physic engines speed tests

[Chris Hager]

Hey all,

Josh and I now made some speed tests with both 2D physics engines - 
Box2D and Chipmunk - and here are some results. One warning though: The 
tests were made with Python, and for Box2D there's a library compiled 
with swig, whereas Chipmunk's interface is done with ctypes. This may 
change the results to Box2D's advantage, but is justifiable as our 
interest right now is which performs better with Python and on the xo 
laptop.

In the end, Box2D performs quite a bit better than Chipmunk, although it 
has a ways larger library and many more functions. On a XO Laptop (build 
650), the Box2D engine can easily handle 50 elements - almost twice what 
we got from Chipmunk.

The tests capture frames per second and compare them with the number of 
elements - in our case we add only balls. By pressing "1", 25 balls will 
be added at mousepos. Each test is run with and without drawing the 
elements on the screen.

Log and links:

  http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Physic_Engines/Speed_Tests
  http://www.assembla.com/wiki/show/elements

Best,
  Chris