[ODE] Car Suspension

[Bodo Pfeifer]

Hi,

just one little question :) ..

It seems, a good suspension is a lot more important than I thought.

At the moment I have a box chassis, 4 hinge2's and 4 spheres ...

But the car is sliding to much .. I tuned every parameter for days,
without proper results ..


So I checked the racer-code .. the suspension there is working another way ..

I think I understand the basic principle about the dampers + stuff ..

But what about collision-detection? .. I mean .. the car isn't
driving always on a y0-Plane ... so how to check the wheels
against the environment?

Let me make a guess:
- the wheels are spheres .. but only for collision-purpose
(underground, environment etc..) ..
- in the physics-step .. the joint-anchors are checked to update the
springs + dampers of the suspension ..
- wheel-forces + susp-forces are calculated + applied to the
wheels + chassis ..

(- but I can't find any sphere-definitions in the racer-code ..)

It's only a guess ... I'm not sure if this 'algorithm' will prevent
the car from falling through the ground (f.e.) ..

Maybe someone can help?

Thanks in advance,
Bodo


PS:
(Please .. no discussion about which collision-objects to use for the
wheels .. at the moment I have a Trimesh-Environment and the described
car-configuration .. this should work for a while .. except the susp :)