Box3D - Physics engine

Why no dev implements this into the engine as a replacement for jolt?

This guy tried but still missing bunch of basic things GitHub - bearlikelion/godot-box3d: Godot Extension to add Box3D physics · GitHub

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Because it’s a lot of work to implement a physics engine into Godot. And Jolt has replaced the old GodotPhysics3D Engine just few versions ago (since 4.6 Jolt is the default engine). Jolt is way better than the old one. For the old one there was no maintainer. Jolt is battle tested (not the Godot Version) in different games. IMHO it may take some more time to fully finalize the Godot version.
What’s the benefit of the Box3D engine over Jolt in your assessment?

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Indeed Jolt is very capable and well developed by a team of experienced developers and has been used in a number of large projects, most notably Horizon 2: Forbidden West, and has a long development history, Box3D is less than a year old at least as a public project, it also has far fewer features than Jolt, most critically it doesn’t seem to have soft body support

Additionally Jolt doesn’t, at least as far as I know, use “AI” tools in development unlike Box3D

So I echo the above question, why should Box3D be considered at all?

Edit: Note also that Jolt existed as a plugin for a long time before it was officially integrated, and one of the Jolt maintainers is also a Godot maintainer, giving us very high quality integration with the physics engine, we might not have that ability with Box3D (or Box2D if we would consider it for the 2D side in Godot)

One of the big concerns with having third party code so heavily integrated into the engine is that we are effectively at the mercy of what ever the upstream developer decides to do, not just the obvious case of abandoning the project (which, given that Box3D is entirely solo developed, is a pretty large risk), but also changes to upstream licensing, policy, and compatibility. With a member of the team as a member of the Godot team as well we reduce this risk significantly with Jolt

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If you’re looking for an alternative to Jolt, I’d look into Rapier instead: https://github.com/appsinacup/godot-rapier-physics

It already has a Godot plugin, and unlike Jolt it has some features like fluids support and is deterministic. It also has a 2D version which is way better than Godot’s default 2D physics.

I’d honestly love an official engine integration of Box2D/Rapier2D, but I doubt it’s a priority sadly.

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I have to admit, that Box3D has some nice features. I’ll following the development and looking forward to test it in Godot at some time.
What I have seen and like:

  • Gyroscopic Torque (never seen this simulated in an physics engine). I love the videos of these effects from the ISS Space Station.
  • Rolling Resistance, an effect I had a lot of stress in other engines with
  • The Character Mover in his demo.

And a little bit exaggerated video for some background:

It’s looking promising.