Here’s a really interesting App I found called OECake, from a Japanese Software company called OctaveEngine. It’s a free app based on physics. Now, some of you may know about physics more than I, but no matter your knowledge of physics – or lack thereof – OECake is really a fun application for the Windows and Mac user.

OE-CAKE! is demonstration software for 2D-based multi-physics simulation.
In a way similar to drawing images using paint software, users create objects and can see them move according to the laws of physics.
This software supports various physical materials with real life properties such as fluids, gases, rigid (hard) objects and elasticity (soft) objects as building blocks.
Users can combine these objects to create and play with more complex objects and mechanisms such as cars, gears and moving dolls. Users can also attach pictures and photos to objects and change their shape, break them apart, or melt them.  – OctaveEngine

Really, OECake is kind of a fun toy.  With it you can select properties like water, fire, etc, and set them on fire, pour them on a wall, and just do all sorts of things with it.  It’s kind of a “fluid simulator.”  It’s really hard to describe, so here’s a video I found on YouTube of someone using it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U8em-t6RKo

You can see them taking the different properties and drawing them as if they were using Paint, and then moving them around with their cursor.  One thing the video doesn’t show is if the machine you are using has an Accelerometer installed on it, like the MacBook, you can shake your machine and make the contents move around!  It’s truely interesting and fun! 

Here’s a list of the properties you can use:

1. Water
2. Wall
3. Rigid
4. Spring
5. Elastic
6. Brittle
7. Rigid Axis
8. Mochi
9. Rice
10. Powder
11. Gas
12. Viscous
13. Tensile
14. Dense
15. Light
16. Fuel
17. Fire
18. Heater
19. Cooler
20. Inflow
21. Outflow
22. Jet
23. Snow

Wow, that’s alot of properties you can use!  You can also import textures and backgrounds to mess with.  This seems odd, but this app actually makes Physics fun!  I can honestly see this app on the iPhone in the future, but we shall see.

Until then, if you’re like me and you enjoy fun little apps like this, go online to http://www.octaveengine.com/en_casual/oecake/ and get OECake!  Trust me, you could be sitting there for hours having fun with this thing.

What Do You Think?

Does OECake make physics fun or what?  Do you know of any cool apps that involve, or don’t involve, physics?  If you know of any cool apps, I want to know about it!  So send me an e-mail at david@funkytower.com

Take it easy,
David Crandall

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 at 10:52 pm and is filed under Cool Apps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.