hello all!! does anyone know where I can find documentation or tutorials for the open dynamics engine, apart from the 17 samples and the user's guide that come with the distribution?

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Original post by Anonymous Poster (...) Remember, the more detail you put into it, the more coding you'll have to do (I've got 330 lines for my 17-piece humanoid). (...)

Use a data-driven approach to modelling :) Less coding, more modelling, exporting and loading. The tools exist.

-codeandroid

I'm not saying you should 'convert' it. Just define it in a physics-based modeller, save it and load it into the application. There are various tools and engines out there that use this approach, commercial and non-commercial. At least two of such tools are available for use with ODE.

Furthermore there are tools which can derive a 'ragdoll'/'humanoid' of pretty good quality from a skinned 3d models with skeletons.

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I find it easier to write 300+ lines to define how 1 humanoid should look, bend, and break, than actually taking the time to make it from scratch.

Well, you're creating it from scratch, aren't you? Whether you do it in code or in a modeller (not necessarily a 'graphics' modeller, can be a 'physics object' modeller).

I'm a programmer, too. But I find it more practical to use a graphical editor to tweak a value, save the file and reload this into the application than spending the time to recompile parts of the project and restarting the application.

But whatever suits you best is fine with me, hehe :)

-codeandroid