[ODE] Re: Virtual creatures (karl sims etc...)

[Martin C. Martin]

Nate W wrote:
> 
> On Wed, 15 May 2002, Martin C. Martin wrote:
> 
> I gather that the problem is caused by interpenetration, which in turn is
> a result of the jittery 'behavior' of the creature?

Well, ODE does nothing to prevent interpenetration, so it's dependent on
the velocities of the objects that are colliding.

> then adjust the global ERP to 1.0

This makes the problem even worse: once interpenetration happens, the
ERP controls how much energy you can get out of it in one time step.  In
fact, I like the ERP = 0 idea, I hadn't thought of that.

> Still, it seems to me like you're adding a lot of complexity to the
> step/detect/constrain phase in hopes of solving a problem that ODE already
> handles pretty well

Well, it doesn't seem like a lot of complexity to me, just a few days of
coding.  Compared to finding the proper representation for the brains,
this should be easy.  Using ODE's constraint system to stop
interpenetration before it starts seems more natural than allowing it to
happen and then fixing it later.

- Martin