[ODE] noob question: non-uniform distribution of mass

[Mark Williams]

I may be wrong about this but I believe the centre of rotation is always 
the centroid of the body, regardless of the COM set in the dMass 
properties. I think you need to offset your geom by -0.3, -0.3, -0.3.

Cheers,
Mark

> Hi at all!
> first of all sorry for my bad English :)
> 
> I'm trying to implement a cube with a non uniform distribution of mass.
> Image to have 8 point Mass in the 8 cube's vertices : as read in the 
> O'Reilly book "Physics for Game Developers", first I had calculated the 
> center of gravity, then the Inertia tensor. Since they are point Mass 
> they don't have local Inertia (is it right?)
> Result from dBodyGetMass seem correct, infact:
> 
> width, height, depth = 1
> mass in:
> pos M0: -0.5, -0.5, -0.5  -> 1.3
> pos M1: 0.5, -0.5, -0.5   -> 0.1
> pos M2: -0.5, -0.5, 0.5   -> 0.1
> pos M3: 0.5, -0.5, 0.5    -> 0.1
> pos M4: -0.5, 0.5, -0.5   -> 0.1
> pos M5: 0.5, 0.5, -0.5    -> 0.1
> pos M6: -0.5, 0.5, 0.5    -> 0.1
> pos M7: 0.5, 0.5, 0.5     -> 0.1
> 
>         non uniform distribution mass:
> 
> center of gravity in:
> -0.3, -0.3, -0.3
> Inertia Tensor
> 0.64, 0.12, 0.12
> 0.12, 0.64, 0.12
> 0.12, 0.12, 0.64
> 
>         uniform distribution mass:
> center of gravity
> 0, 0, 0
> Inertia Tensor
> 0.333333, 0, 0
> 0, 0.333333, 0
> 0, 0, 0.333333
> 
> Now the question:
> If I left fall down both cubes over an thin and alligned obstacle with 
> their "visual" center, why do they remain in balance over it? should not 
> the "non uniform" cube continue to fall to the ground with rotation in 
> accord the bigger mass is located?
> 
> Here it is how I setup the non uniform cube:
> 
> body = dBodyCreate(world);
> geom = dCreateBox(space,width,height,depth);
> /* here I put the 8 puntual Mass, the code for Combined Center of Gravity
> and Inertia Tensor, as suggested in the O'Reilly book "Physics for Game 
> Developers" */
> 
> dMass m;
> dMassSetParameters(&m, TotalMass, \
>                     CombinedCG[0], CombinedCG[1], CombinedCG[2], \
>                     Ixx, Iyy, Izz, \
>                     Ixy, Ixz, Iyz);
> dBodySetMass(body,&m);
> dGeomSetBody(geom,body);
> 
> 
> TIA
> Thomas
> -- 
> from ash reborn fire
> Dalla cenere rinascere Fuoco
> 
> 
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