The Open Dynamics Framework

Hello fellow Torquers.

Recently I decided that I would work on getting full physics integration into Torque, with everything you would expect from it such as Rag Dolls, vehicles, crates, zones with different physics properties (ala HL2 energy columns with low gravity and linear+angular dampening, those ones at the end you can throw guys in ;) ). Also getting this working over the network properly with optimized code and whatnot.

Having done a fair bit of work with integrating ODE I thought I might try extending the ODEItem I have previously worked on with Pascal Rettig. But while researching other engines, I came across the Open Dynamics Framework.

It looks interesting. A generic interface to physics engines that can then have a dll to written for them to interface with the framework. Essentially, I would write all the torque code to the framework and then people could choose the engine they wanted (based on licensing costs, performance, or whatever). I figure this would be better than just supporting one engine, not to mention the third party support such as exporters to its physics format and whatnot for MAX and Maya, as well as its simple scripting language.

Im posting here to show my intent, see what people think and just get some general feedback. If anyone wants to help or has done something similar then I am all ears.

I may end up making this a physics pack of some sort, but for now it is just a project to work on.