[ODE] some suggestions

[Thomas Harte]

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>I miss one thing a lot in ODE - feedback. It is quite nessecary to know how much force 
>joints are exposed to, so they can break or take action.

This is in the latest CVS version. But if you are a C++ programmer, be warned that the 
C++ interface has changed very much.

>Other feedback that would be good is whether a wheel is gliding or rolling. When I 
>have a car in ode I would like to know when it makes a burn-out so I can add sound 
>and smoke and stuff.

You can get this already by comparing the linear speed you would expect as a result of 
the rotational velocity and the radius of the wheel and the linear speed at which it is 
actually moving. Indeed I do use this in the program I am writing in order to calculate 
percentage slip and hence coefficient of friction for my tyres.

>Another thing I miss is friction for rotating stuff, when a sphere is rolling on the ground 
>it would be good to have some friction that makes it to stop after a while, for a pool 
>table etc.

There is no need to implement a different form of friction regarding rotations, regular 
surface friction as modelled by ODE (give or take the horrid 'square' approximation, but 
you can work around that - see my post just recently) will have the effects of slowing 
rotating bodies and so on.

The thing to remember is that the friction is applied at the contact point according to the 
velocity at the contact point, which means that some linear and rotational effects are 
performed on the body as a result of its linear and rotation velocities.

-Thomas

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