[ODE] Re: ODE on multiplayer games

[Jon Watte]

> You could do it another way with a client-server method. Get the
> clients to send events to a central server and the server periodically
> sends object state data back to clients.

Problems with LCP solver physical simulations and distribution:

1) if you have lots of objects (box stacks, etc) then who owns those, 
   and how are they synchronized across clients?

2) if you depend on simulating everybody in sync (meaning local action
   latency) then everybody need to have all the objects for each island, 
   else the solution matrix will look different on different machines 
   and de-sync

3) if you don't use the local action latency, then what happens when 
   two players attempt to grab/shoot/push the same box at the same 
   time on their individual client machines?

There are different solutions to these problems, many of which are 
subjects for active research or licensable IP.

Cheers,

			/ h+