[ODE] Re: Trimesh-Trimesh updates ?

[Jeffrey Smith]

Xiaobin Wu [mailto:xiaobin.wu at gmail.com] wrote:
> I am considering to build a pure tri-mesh based dynamic environment
> -- for example, bowling pins bumping into each other, etc.  Is the
> current ODE stable enough to handle the trimesh-trimesh collisions?

If you are willing to use very small time steps, many contacts and
spend no small amount of time tweaking parameters, you can probably
get a medium-sized scene of all trimesh objects to behave well.
Unless you _absolutely_ need exact shape collisions, however, I would
avoid it.  Bowling pins can be approximated in most situations with
bounding cylinders; consider switching collision geometries when you
you need exact-shape collisions.

> In the example Test_MovingTrimesh.. the dropping bunnies (I know it
> says experimental) seem to be quite sticky or they disappear through
> the ground. What is causing the problems?

The last time I checked, that example did not use enough contact
points (try 128 or more) nor a small enough time step (at the largest,
I suggest 1/300th of a second).

-jeff