[ODE] What is the best unit

[Alen Ladavac]

> There was a talk at GDC 2 years ago, at the physics
> round-table, where two of the Havok guys was talking
> about having built a custom player controller for
> 1st/3rd person characters. It was built around a
> particle, with a contract generating cylinder round
> it. Has anyone experimented with something like that?


For what it's worth...

For characters, we use a special kind of bodies, what we call "hybrid"
bodies, whose linear DOFs are as in normal dynamic body, but angular DOFs
are fixed as in a kinematic body. Rotation is hard-controlled by AI, while
translations are controlled using linear motors. This is a very simple
solution that interacts with the rest of the physical simulation seamlessly.

HTH,
Alen