[ODE] Dealing with momentary time spikes in terms of physics updates?

[Megan Fox]

I'm seeing a problem with my physics sim where my deltaTime spikes to
roughly 4x what it should be for a single frame, goes normal for about
7 frames, spikes again, etc.  It does this when an instant messenger
(GAIM) makes minimized windows in my taskbar blink, though I assume
it's just the "blinking" in general that causes the problem, not GAIM
in particular.


So - that aside, let's pretend you're just getting spikes in your time
value period, for reasons indeterminant.  How is everyone else
handling this?  Graphics really don't show the spike at all, it's so
short, but physics get extremely choppy and wierd..

I'm considering trying to implement a fixed framerate (so deltaTime
spikes be damned, the entire engine only services so much of deltaTime
per step anyways), but that seems like a horrible hack.  Is the proper
solution to this to add physics prediction code?  Something else
entirely?


Thanks,
-Megan Fox