[ODE] Would ODE Handle this Efficiently?

[A W]

Hello all. I am a new user of ODE and thank you for taking the time to read 
this message.

I have the following problem. I am in the primordial stages of developing a 
pinball simulator/construction set and am trying to decide upon how to 
handle the physics on the table. Of concern to me is a fast response time, 
and to that end my question is: would it be appropriate to use ODE to 
calculate the physics for a pinball game simulator?

Before you jump to respond to this question two points:

1) In a pinball game simulator the there are few parts that actually have 
forces applied to them. The majority of the objects in the simulator are 
immobile and serve to just deflect the ball. In other words, there is no 
need to collision detect between the walls and the flippers and the bumper 
and the drains. They cannot collide with each other. About the only 
collision detection needed is between the round sphere ball and and the 
previously mentioned objects. Other than that a plunger is needed to provide 
the ball with its initial energy and spinners need to rotate when hit by a 
ball.

I am afraid a physics engine like ODE might waste an enormous amount of CPU 
time if it tries to calculate possible collisions between these immobile 
objects (walls colliding with other walls ect). Can engines like ODE be told 
to ignore collision detection and physics calculations between these objects 
while still allowing a ball(s) to collide with these same objects?

2) I am this question rather than doing and finding out for myself (after 
much time has been invested and possibly waster) because I am an obvious 
newbie to ODE and am not familiar with its limitations and performance under 
'optimal' conditions. I am hoping that by requesting comments from 
experienced users I can save myself some pain of running down a road and 
later hitting a brick wall, or maybe using a sledge hammer when little taps 
would suffice.

I hope I have explained myself correctly. Please ask me to clarify if I 
haven't been specific enough.

Thanks.

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