README.md

The Open Dynamics Engine (ODE)

Copyright (C) 2001-2007 Russell L. Smith.

Copyright (C) 2008-2026 Open Dynamics Engine contributors.

ODE is a free, industrial quality library for simulating articulated rigid body dynamics - for example ground vehicles, legged creatures, and moving objects in VR environments. It is fast, flexible, robust and platform independent, with advanced joints, contact with friction, and built-in collision detection.

License

SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause OR LGPL-2.1-or-later

ODE is dual-licensed under either:

• GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1 or later.
• Modified 3-clause BSD License.

Third-party libraries bundled with ODE:

• GIMPACT — dual-licensed under either:
  • GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1 or later.
  • Modified 3-clause BSD License.
• libccd — Modified 3-clause BSD License.
• OU/ODER — triple-licensed under either:
  • GNU Lesser General Public License v3 or later.
  • Modified 3-clause BSD License.
  • ZLIB License.
• OPCODE — under the same terms as ODE. See OPCODE/COPYING.

Links

• The ODE web pages are at ode.org.
• An online manual is at the Wiki.
• API documentation is in the file ode/docs/index.html, or you can view it on the web at opende.sf.net/docs/index.html.
• Coding style requirements can be found in the CSR.txt file.

Building

ODE uses CMake as its build system. CMake can generate project files for many platforms and IDEs including Unix Makefiles, Ninja, Visual Studio, Xcode, and more.

Prerequisites

• CMake 3.10 or later
• A C/C++ compiler (GCC, Clang, MSVC, MinGW, etc.)
• OpenGL and GLU (only if building demos with -DODE_WITH_DEMOS=ON)

Quick Start

cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build --parallel
cmake --install build

To run the test suite:

ctest --test-dir build --output-on-failure

A specific generator can be selected with -G:

cmake -B build -G "Ninja" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake -B build -G "Visual Studio 17 2022"
cmake -B build -G "MSYS Makefiles" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake -B build -G "Xcode"

Most modern IDEs (Visual Studio, CLion, Qt Creator, VS Code) can open the source directory with the CMakeLists.txt file directly.

CMake Options

Options can be set with -D on the cmake command line:

cmake -B build -DODE_DOUBLE_PRECISION=ON -DODE_WITH_DEMOS=OFF

Option	Description	Default
ODE_DOUBLE_PRECISION	Use double-precision math	ON (64-bit), OFF (32-bit)
ODE_WITH_DEMOS	Build demo applications and DrawStuff library (requires OpenGL)	ON
ODE_WITH_TESTS	Build the unit test application	ON
ODE_WITH_OPCODE	Use OPCODE for trimesh collisions	ON
ODE_WITH_GIMPACT	Use GIMPACT for trimesh collisions (experimental)	OFF
ODE_WITH_LIBCCD	Use libccd for additional collision tests	OFF
ODE_WITH_OU	Use TLS for global caches, allows threaded collision checks	OFF
ODE_16BIT_INDICES	Use 16-bit trimesh indices instead of 32-bit	OFF
ODE_NO_THREADING_INTF	Disable threading interface support	OFF
BUILD_SHARED_LIBS	Build shared library instead of static	ON

When ODE_WITH_LIBCCD is ON, additional sub-options become available for specific collision pairs (box-cylinder, capsule-cylinder, convex-convex, etc.). See CMakeLists.txt for the full list.

Platform Notes

Windows (Visual Studio)

cmake -B build
cmake --build build --config Release --parallel

CMake will auto-detect Visual Studio. The library output name includes the precision by default (ode_double or ode_single).

Windows (MSYS2)

From an MSYS2 shell (mingw64, ucrt64, or clang64):

cmake -G "MSYS Makefiles" -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build --parallel $(nproc)

Linux

cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build --parallel $(nproc)
sudo cmake --install build

Demos require OpenGL development packages. On Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install libglu1-mesa-dev freeglut3-dev

macOS

cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build --parallel $(sysctl -n hw.ncpu)

Xcode projects can be generated with -G Xcode.