Matter.js C# translation

Overview

I wanted to familiarize myself more with Matter.js and C# so I decided to convert the Matter.js github repo from javascript to C#. View this code on github here.

I started by reviewing the many different javascript files and converting them to C# classes. This was difficult as the Matter.js at the type was not strongly typed. This led to some issues with some properties that were not easily converted to C#.

My Goals

I wanted to work on a project that combined my practice with Javascript with C# as I was interested in refining my experience with C#. Additionally I wanted to learned more about simple graphics and I decided on using SDL2. SDL2 is a simple graphics library for drawing lines and simple shapes in a rendered window. The library was originally written in C++ but I was able to use a C# wrapper to use the library with C# and all of its benefits. By converting this from Matter.js I was ultimately able to simulate simple physics and generate complex polygons with collision. I was also able to have the same collision work for composites, which were a collection of physics bodies.

What I Learned

I had some success with converting this project from javascript to C# but ultimately I had to archive this project as I did not have the time to keep working on it. Ultimately I learned a lot about both Javascript and C# while working on this application.

Ultimately the scope of this project got more and more complex as it went on. Since Javascript is not strictly typed, It was difficult to accurately define properties and classes in C# that would work as expected. Often, there would be properties that stored many different types depending on the scenario and event that was being passed into a function.

Another part I found interesting about working on this was learning more about SVG and vector paths. I was able to recreate SVG files as polygons by recreating the path logic code of the SVG file to create a composite physics body. This introduced me to working with the SVG format and you can now see the results of this experimentation on this website in the dividers and link underlines.