[ODE] tread modeling

[Gary R. Van Sickle]

> hi-
>
> any suggestions on the best way to create a tread system in ODE that can be
> used for locomotion?  Thanks.

Funny, I was cogitating on that just this afternoon.  I think the short answer
here is "You don't", at least not currently.  Modelling each individual link
with ODE as it is now would be insane.  Each link would require one hinge
constraint, and ODE's solver scales timewise as O(n^3), n==number of constraints
So take your average M-24 Chaffee tank, with ~80 links per side, and we're in
O((80*2)^3)==O(4,096,000) territory.  Oh, and that doesn't include the
collisions with the ground.

I think about the only thing you could do right now is make the bogie
wheels/takeup roller/etc a bit oversized and model them as regular drive wheels,
and "fake" the track by non-physical means, eg a single solid mesh and scroll
the texture coords to make it look like its moving.  This would probably cut it
for 99.44% of all applications.

--
Gary R. Van Sickle
Brewer.  Patriot.