ODE is an open source, high performance library for simulating rigid body dynamics. It is fully featured, stable, mature and platform independent with an easy to use C/C++ API. It has advanced joint types and integrated collision detection with friction. ODE is useful for simulating vehicles, objects in virtual reality environments and virtual creatures. It is currently used in many computer games, 3D authoring tools and simulation tools.
Get the source code from BitBucket.
Here is the mailing list for ODE. Please post all ODE related questions and comments to this list, not to author's personal email accounts. Archives of the mailing list prior to 12/12/2007 are stored here.
The ODE wiki is the main documentation for ODE. NOTE! As of late December 2018 the wiki went down. We have a recent snapshot of the wiki here but this is not yet editable.
Here is the old ODE 0.5 user guide.
If you're unfamiliar with the concept of a Physics SDK, here is a whirlwind tour.
Slides from a presentation to PARC (formerly Xerox PARC), December 2004:
Here they are in PDF format.
Here are small images of each slide - but they're rather hard to read, so you probably want the PDF file instead.
Slides from the ODE presentation at IGC'02.
These are the slides of a highly non-technical presentation about rigid body simulation SDKs (Software Development Kits). It was given on 8/July/99 in Montreal to MathEngine non-technical staff. These slides accompanied a talk, so they are very terse (sorry). I talked about these things:
What is a rigid body simulation SDK.
What does it do (and how does it work).
How is it used? Who would want to use it anyway?.
Slide 1 Slide 2 Slide 3 Slide 4 Slide 5 Slide 6 Slide 7 Slide 8 Slide 9 Slide 10 Slide 11 Slide 12 Slide 13 Slide 14
ODE is Copyright (C) 2001-2004 Russell L. Smith. All rights reserved.
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of EITHER:
The GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. The text of the GNU Lesser General Public License is included with this library in the file LICENSE.TXT.
The BSD-style license that is included with this library in the file LICENSE-BSD.TXT.
This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the files LICENSE.TXT and LICENSE-BSD.TXT for more details.
Open Dynamics Engine
Copyright (c) 2001-2004, Russell L. Smith.
All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
Neither the names of ODE's copyright owner nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.