[Pyode-user] using ODE/PyODE for finding nearest point of intersection

[Maciej K. <mka...@gm...>]

Does anyone have any experience with using ODE/pyODE for finding the
*closest* point of intersection between a particular geom and theh
rest of the geoms?  Basically I'm thinking of using a single-triangle
TriMesh as a cone-shaped (but 2D, hence triangular/pie-shaped)
"sensor" anchored at my subject, and want this sensor to give me the
range to the closest obstacle.  I've experimented with the collision
detection routines in pyODE, and it looks like I might get it to work,
but the issue is that I get back collision contact points, which
usually don't necessarily correspond to the *closest* point, and for
certain shallow collisions, when there is only a single contact
generated, I get slightly weird/erroneous position of that single
contact.  I guess I'm wondering if there is a way to modify/choose an
alternate contact point generating method.  Any ideas?

If anyone is interested or it would help the discussion, I can post my
little test program illustrating the issue (pyODE + PyOpenGL + glut).