[fluxus] pdata and particles

[Dave Griffiths]

> the script below shows an example of using the pdata from one object to
> 'rebuild' something similar from a different primitive
>      ( .. .which could be extended to do some simple mesh morphing,
>     but getting the interpolation right could be a bit tricky ))

nice idea! I hadn't thought about copying pdata between primitives in that
way.

> with this particular script, im using build-particles to create a particle
> system and was wondering if there would be a reasonable way of handling
> the
> points as separate entites wrt the physics engine? . , ie. way to swap
> between a single active-sphere and many point based(?) active-boxes
> without
> blowing up ode?

it would be possible to create an active object for every vertex on a
sphere in the right position, simulate and each step copy the world space
transforms of the cubes back into the sphere points. is this what you're
getting at?

I guess it would be a bit slow, and the sphere would just collapse on
itself if there was any gravity, we don't have the topological information
to do spring dynamics really (yet). well we do with something like the
nurbs plane I suppose.

I think there is probably a good case for supporting particles directly in
the ode code. I just haven't got that far yet :) Then this would be faster
and a bit easier to set up.

cheers,

dave