Hi all.
Version:
Newton 1.53, using the OgreNewt rapper for Ogre applications.
Overview:
As the only developer in our very very small company, I've been left with the job of implementing physics in the application we're developing. This application is not a game. Its an application to display other applications, on small rectangular panels, content is not important, but each of these panels are modelled with rigid bodies (boxes). Any time the mouse is clicked on the screen Im modelling it as another rigid body, a cylinder which extends from the viewport down into the scene. This cylinder has large mass compared to the panels. I can move this cylinder with the mouse by modelling its force as a spring with viscous drag. Its slightly laggy at the moment, but moves pretty much as inteded.
Problem:
Im trying to make the cylinder objects interact with the scene. For the most part (when hitting panels from the side) this works fine. However, when the cylinder lands on an object, I cant seem to make it move as intended. The panel should ALWAYS be underneath the cylinder mouse object, but I cant seem to set enough friction to move it. Imagine it like putting your finger on a piece of paper, and dragging it across the table, thats the effect Im going for.
Attempts:
I've tried numerous things, setting high friction between the cylinder mouse object and the panels, and low friction between the panels and the floor. So far the closest I've came to making this work, is to set the velocities in the materials contact callback, simply setting the velocity of the panel to that of the cylinder. This of course is a hack, and it doesn't rotate correctly. It also wont work with multiple mice (we have a multiple mouse setup, its educational software using a promethean style board with multiple pen input), anything after the first interaction does nothing, velocity is always set by the first.
What help I need:
If anyone could offer an example of how to do this, it would be greatly appreciated. As I mentioned above, I want the interaction to model putting your finger on a piece of paper and moving it, the paper will be *stuck* to the bottom of your finger, and rotate / move depending on where you touch it.
Tried to make this post as coherent as possible, if you need any more info just ask. Unfortunately Im not a physics man, so its taking longer than I have to try to get my head around all this.
Thanks in advance, cal.