The
Open Dynamics Engine (ODE) is a
physics engineA physics engine is computer software that provides an approximate simulation of certain physical systems, such as rigid body dynamics , soft body dynamics, and fluid dynamics, of use in the domains of computer graphics, video games and film. Their main uses are in video games , in which case the...
in C/C++. Its two main components are a
rigid body dynamicsIn physics, rigid body dynamics is the study of the motion of rigid bodies. Unlike particles, which move only in three degrees of freedom , rigid bodies occupy space and have geometrical properties, such as a center of mass, moments of inertia, etc., that characterize motion in six degrees of...
simulation engine and a
collision detectionCollision detection typically refers to the computational problem of detecting the intersection of two or more objects. While the topic is most often associated with its use in video games and other physical simulations, it also has applications in robotics...
engine. It is
free softwareFree software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
licensed both under the BSD license and the LGPL.
ODE was started in 2001 and has already been used in many applications and games, such as
BloodRayne 2BloodRayne 2, developed by Terminal Reality, is a third-person horror-themed action-adventure video game and the second game in the BloodRayne series. It does not follow on directly from where BloodRayne finished; instead, it takes place 60 and 70 years later in a contemporary 2000s...
,
Call of JuarezCall of Juarez is a Western-themed first-person shooter from the Polish developer Techland. First released for Windows in E3 2005, it was ported to the Xbox 360 in 2007. The PC version is one of the first games to use Microsoft's DirectX 10...
,
S.T.A.L.K.E.R,
Titan QuestTitan Quest is an action RPG developed by Iron Lore Entertainment. It was released worldwide by THQ on June 26, 2006. The game was released on Steam, along with the expansion Titan Quest: Immortal Throne, on July 17, 2007...
,
World of GooWorld of Goo is a physics-based puzzle game by 2D Boy, an independent game developer consisting of Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel, both former Electronic Arts employees, released for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, iOS, Android and WiiWare...
,
X-MotoX-Moto is a free and open source 2D motocross platform game developed for Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows, where physics play an all important role in the gameplay. The basic gameplay clones that of Elasto Mania, but the simulated physics are subtly different. The project was started...
and
OpenSimulatorOpenSimulator is an open-source server platform for hosting virtual worlds. It is compatible with the client for Second Life and can host alternative worlds with differing feature sets with multiple protocols.-Features:...
.
Overview
The Open Dynamics Engine is used for simulating the dynamic interactions between bodies in space. It is not tied to any particular graphics package although it includes a basic one called
drawstuff. It supports several geometries: box, sphere, capsule (cylinder capped with hemispheres),
triangle meshA triangle mesh is a type of polygon mesh in computer graphics. It comprises a set of triangles that are connected by their common edges or corners....
, cylinder and
heightmapIn computer graphics, a heightmap or heightfield is a raster image used to store values, such as surface elevation data, for display in 3D computer graphics...
.
Simulation
Higher level environments that allow non-programmers access to ODE include
Player ProjectThe Player Project is a project to create free software for research into robotics and sensor systems . Its components include the Player network server and Stage and Gazebo robot platform simulators...
,
WebotsWebots is a professional robot simulator widely used for educational purposes.The Webots project started in 1996, initially developed by Dr. Olivier Michel at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland....
,
OpensimulatorOpenSimulator is an open-source server platform for hosting virtual worlds. It is compatible with the client for Second Life and can host alternative worlds with differing feature sets with multiple protocols.-Features:...
and
anyKode MarilouanyKode Marilou is a modeling and simulation environment for mobile robots, humanoids, articulated arms and parallels robots operating in real-world conditions that respect the laws of physics...
.
ODE is a popular choice for robotics simulation applications, with scenarios such as mobile robot locomotion and simple grasping. ODE has some drawbacks in this field, for example the method of approximating friction and poor support for joint-dampening.
See also
- OPAL
The Open Physics Abstraction Layer is an open source realtime physics engine API similar to PAL. It is currently supported only by ODE, but can be extended to run off of other engines. OPAL is free software, released under both the LGPL and the BSD license...
- the Open Physics Abstraction Layer, originally built on top of ODE
- Physics Abstraction Layer - The original Physics Abstraction Layer
- Newton Game Dynamics
Newton Game Dynamics is an open source physics engine for realistically simulating rigid bodies in games and other real-time applications. Its solver is deterministic and not based on traditional LCP or iterative methods....
- Bullet
Bullet is an open source physics engine featuring 3D collision detection, soft body dynamics, and rigid body dynamics. It is used in games, and in visual effects in movies. The Bullet physics library is published under the zlib license. Erwin Coumans, its main author, worked for Sony Computer...
- another open source physics engine used in commercial games and movies
- Chipmunk
The Chipmunk SDK is a portable open-source 2D physics engine written in C99 by Scott Lembcke and published under the MIT license. Middleware physics engines like Chipmunk allow game developers to avoid writing their own code to handle the complex physics interactions possible in modern games...
- a similar physics engine intended for 2D applications
- Vortex (physics engine)
Vortex is a high-fidelity, realtime physics engine developed by CMLabs Simulations that simulates rigid body dynamics, collision detection, contact determination, and dynamic reactions...
External links