[ODE] complete 3D Characters with physics?

[Nate W]

On Wed, 13 Mar 2002, Darken, Chris wrote:

> Hey, don't make fun of simulated toes!  Actually, I am very curious
> about how important toes are to biped locomotion.  Some of the feet of
> the physically-simulated models I've seen are awwwwfully wide.  Maybe
> toes are necessary if we want natural gaits with narrow feet.

Depending on the nature of your game, perhaps you could use rigid feet for
computational efficiency, and blame any gait strangeness on wooden clogs?

More seriously, I do think it would help to have a joint in the foot,
functionally equivalent to the ball of the foot - imagine having one toe
that was as wide as your whole foot.  Beyond that, I would expect
diminishing returns - lots of additional computation for little or no
improvement in the gait.

Feel free to prove me wrong... I think it's an interesting question.  My
mom brought her new puppy over to my house earlier today, and I found
myself studying his movements and my own as we made our way through my
back yard. :-)

-- 

Nate Waddoups
Redmond WA USA
http://www.natew.com