[ODE] Ragdoll characters with ODE

Ivan Bolcina ivan.bolcina at volja.net
Thu Aug 7 11:39:02 2003


Great samples. I specially like the AI that is trying to keep body in
balance. I think this is the way to do it. How stable are ragdolls? Do you
think you could teach them to walk that way also. I mean, command them some
isolated action, lets say, rise right leg, and the AI would keep the rest of
body in balance.
Or maybe, punch with arm, and adjust balance on rest of body.This is what I
am looking for. But I am not sure if this is just too hard to do.
It would be great to have real physich ragdoll engine, but with ragdolls
animated not by scripts, but by ODE physich.

So if ragdoll would walk and it would kick a stone with foot and it would
start falling, it would try to gain balance again. Great for all sorts of
games.


bye,
ivan

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Henri Hakl" <henri@cs.sun.ac.za>
To: <ode@q12.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2003 5:10 PM
Subject: Re: [ODE] Ragdoll characters with ODE


> Sure, if you're willing to accept that things aren't well-commented and
> written in Delphi.
>
> I've got some of the code up on the web for you, have a look:
>
> http://www.cs.sun.ac.za/~henri/articulated.zip (1.1MB)
>
> The code isn't complete, but all the articulated system code is present.
>
> * BodyLoading: this loads a text file ("body3.dat") that specifies an
> articulated system, read the comments in "body3.dat"
> * BodyPhysics: performs initialization and simulation of the articulated
> system
> * BodyRendering: renders the results... ;)
>
> I included two AVIs (view with Windows MediaPlayer, the DivX player seems
to
> play it slow - not sure why) - the one is without AI - a simple "collapse"
> of the body. The other includes an AI that tries to maintain balance
(fails,
> but still good).
>
> Note that in the code in "BodyPhysics" in the "RecursiveInitJoint"
procedure
> the default angular motor parameter of maximum force (dParamFMax) and
> dParamVel get set. This is necessary for the AI, but if you only want the
> "collapse" version then you should not include them in your code.
>
> Note that in Delphi:
>
> // this is a comment
> { this is also a comment }
>
> hope this helps you somewhat :)
>   Henri
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ivan Bolcina" <ivan.bolcina@volja.net>
> To: <ode@q12.org>
> Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2003 12:31 PM
> Subject: Re: [ODE] Ragdoll characters with ODE
>
>
> > Hi. Can we get a source. I am interested in doing an sample of mecha,
and
> am
> > looking for starting point!
> >
> > bye,
> > ivan
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Henri Hakl" <henri@cs.sun.ac.za>
> > To: <ode@q12.org>
> > Sent: Monday, August 04, 2003 11:11 PM
> > Subject: Re: [ODE] Ragdoll characters with ODE
> >
> >
> > > How you described it is exactly how I did it (more or less)
> > >
> > > I used rectangular prisms for all body parts, and hinge-joints for
> > > elbow/knees and ball-socket joints for everything else.
> > >
> > > One addition, though, is that all joints ALSO get an amotor (angular
> > motor)
> > > joint. This is allows all joints to be controlled, and have
constraints
> > > placed on them in a uniform manner. Works fine. :) My articulated
system
> > has
> > > around 44 or so degrees of freedom, and the animations look remarkable
> > > life-like. Pretty good all-in-all.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "Thomas Grimes" <striiideerr@hotmail.com>
> > > To: <ode@q12.org>
> > > Sent: Monday, August 04, 2003 9:19 PM
> > > Subject: [ODE] Ragdoll characters with ODE
> > >
> > >
> > > > I was wondering if anyone could either tell me or show me a link
that
> > > talks
> > > > about how to setup a model, say a model using bones and all that
like
> > doom
> > > 3
> > > > does for example, using ODE to make this model have ragdoll like
> > physics,
> > > as
> > > > seen in doom 3 and HL 2. I was thinking that maybe what you have to
do
> > is
> > > > for each limb and torso of the model (assuming it's a person or
> > something
> > > > similar) assign a cyllinder which ODE knows about and assign a
sphere
> > > where
> > > > the head is and connect all of these together with joints. Is this
how
> > > this
> > > > is done or is there a better way? Thanks.
> > > >
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