[ODE] File formats

[Nate W]

Should the 'one true physics file format' include rendering-related
information like mesh data?  

Or should each object include a reference to rendering data stored in
another file?  Elsewhere in the same file?

Or should objects just have unique identifiers so that the application can
apply mesh to bodies using information from multiple files?

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What about collision data?  The above questions apply here too.

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Juice used primitives shapes so I just set up an enum for each shape type,
and some float parameters for dimensions.  Should support for such
primitives be part of the file spec, or should it just treat all things as
arbitrary meshes?  I prefer the former, but I'm open to argument.  The
latter approach has a nice uniformity to it, but I'm not sure how to take
advantage of built-in primitive collision detection without primitive data
in the file format.

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Which axis is up?  Which is left-right and which is front-back?  Should we
adopt the OpenGL axes?  D3D axes?  Invent our own?  In Juice, +Z is up, +Y
is forward, and +X is right.  That's probably not compliant with anything
else. :-)

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What about motorization?  Should the file format include that sort of
information?  

In the ODE paradigm, motors are basically properties of joints.  I
personally hope to eventually see motors have their own axes and
orientations, independent of any joints.  

Should the file format treat motor parameters as just joint parameteres,
or should motor paramters (including orientation) be decoupled from joint
parameters?

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What about higher-level behaviors, like mapping keyboard and joystick I/O
to motors and gaits?  Should the file format deal with such things, or
should that be treated as a separate matter?

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What else should be asked and answered?

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