[ODE] Breakable joints

[Nate W]

On Sat, 28 Jun 2003, Roel van Dijk wrote:

> I wrote a wrapper class for joints that handles things like when a joint 
> should break, at what force or torque, and if it can break. After each 
> physics step I call an update function that checks these conditions. If a 
> break condition is met it detaches the joint. It works perfectly. I only have 
> to think about what to do with the detached joints, but I think I can just 
> throw them away.
> What are your ideas on this? Could this be implemented in ode? It could 
> certainly be more optimized then in my wrapper class and it could have more 
> detailed break conditions. Maybe specialized for each joint type.

At the very least, it sounds like a good thing to include as a
contribution.  As for implementing it in ODE itself, is there a way to do
so without forcing any memory or CPU overhead on ODE users who don't want
breakable joints?

-- 

Nate Waddoups
Redmond WA USA
http://www.natew.com