[ODE] bouncy car

[Jon Watte]

> 1) the design of the ode library critically depends on OpenGL.

In no way does ODE depend on OpenGL. I've written ODE applications 
that only link against Direct3D9 in C++. I've even written an ODE 
application that only links against MANAGED Direct3D9.

>   in the case of libode, that would mean making setCamera, setColor,
>   setTransform, drawBox etc. all part of an "external" OpenGL-specific
>   library which libode would use.

Did you actually look at the code and the factoring? Did you notice 
that those functions are actually part of an external OpenGL specific 
library? Did you read the documentation, which mentions integrating 
with other graphic libraries, and explicitly does not document the 
separate "drawstuff" library?

> 2) i was surprised to find that hinges do not have a means for
>    developers to apply forces or torques "via" the hinge.

>    what i mean by that is that in order to implement a spring,
>    the developer must MANUALLY calculate the direction of the forces
>    on the objects.

Did you look at the joint stop settings, as described in the 
documentation? Did you look at the StopERP and StopCFM functions to 
set the solver constants for the case where you're outside the stop? 
Did you consider the ability to set the low and the high stop to the 
same value to "enforce" a specific angle? I agree that there's a 
small design bug here, in that setting a Low higher than a High 
will get ignored, so you have to be careful about the order you set 
the constraints in.

> 1) does anyone know of any good open source "landscape" creating code?
>    blank space is really boring and deceptive.

http://www.mindcontrol.org/~hplus/carworld/

> 2) can someone advise me what functions i should call to work out a
> vector pointing up at right angles to a surface on the "car"?

What is the surface of the car? Are you saying the surface the car 
is resting on? If so, the contact normal for each of the wheels would 
be what you want. If you want the actual orientation of the car, the 
body orientation matrix contains the right, up and back vectors because 
every orientation matrix is also a basis.

>  i need to apply a speed-related downforce onto the car of course but
>  i am presently applying it in the z-direction only.

So that means car-relative up.


Now, go read the documentation (version 0.5) from start to end before 
you come back and criticize the library for faults it most definitely 
does not have. I'd be OK if you criticized it for faults it DOES have.

Cheers,

			/ h+