[ODE] Low performance with multiple meshes... why?

[STenyaK (Bruno Gonzalez)]

Hi, i'm coding a car simulator.

I used to use a single static mesh for the track, and collide the car (4  
spheres + 2 boxes, and about 20 joints) and trackside objects (5 cubes or  
so) against it. Framerates were always "good" (about 60fps or so average).

However, i'm now allowing to specify the track as several static meshes  
(not just one, but usually 30 or so, keeping the overall track  
shape/triangles pretty much the same afaik). As a result, it's all running  
much slower.

Due to SDL's low precission time measures, i can't tell if it's the  
integrator, the collision detector, or my own code.

Is ODE expected to behave so bad in those conditions? I'm already  
bypassing collisions between objects contained by the same container (that  
meant *reaaaally* low framerates, not just low framerates like now), so i  
think it's something else. Does ODE optimize meshes in such a way that  
it's always so much better to merge all meshes into one?

Thanks in advance! :D

(you can watch some vids of the sim at http://motorsport-sim.org :)

-- 
Saludos,
     STenyaK

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