[ODE] Running ODE backwards in time?

[Tim Rightnour]

On 15-Nov-2004 Alen Ladavac wrote:
> I'd say that this is insolvable for general case with dynamic friction. If a
> box slides on a horizontal plane and comes to rest, how do you calculate
> where it was supposed to come from, from its position only?

Right, but you could do something else with it.  For example, a really complex
AI NPC gets shot by a bullet.  At the time of the impact, that bullet still has
direction and velocity.  You could reverse time, and calculate vaugely where
the bullet came from given it's speed, trajectory, air resistance, etc. 

Making something reproducibly reversable would be difficult, but doing it for
esitmation purposes might be neat.  Of course doing so might totally mess up
the state of your simulation, but it's a nifty theoretical idea.

---
Tim Rightnour <root at garbled.net>
NetBSD: Free multi-architecture OS http://www.netbsd.org/
NetBSD supported hardware database: http://mail-index.netbsd.org/cgi-bin/hw.cgi