I am thinking of making some kind of snowboarding/skiing game in the style of snowboard kids, and wondering how to do the physics.
I am presuming that if I use the correct parameters for the surfaces in ODE then a box will slide down an inclined slope, as a very basic approximation. The problem is I’m not sure how to fix an inclined slope in place so that it doesn’t fall to the ground, is it possible to do this?
Or is the best way to use a trimesh to make a triangular prism type shape which will sit on the ground?
I was intending to use ODE as I have used it before, but perhaps there is a better alternative for this particular scenario, maybe even the panda3d inbuilt physics engine would do?
i havnt played snowboardkids, but as the screenshot, which i currently saw, says to me. there isnt much of physic stuff in, but it hard to observe just by watching a screenshot.
so im sure you will be happy with the ode 
btw. i started also with a car racer in combination with a snowboard game. first i thought to write the physic stuff by my self. but in the meantime i changed this idea and i will use for sure ode or physix for the car and the snowboard behavior.
greetz
dirk
Could you elaborate on your idea for all those among us who don’t know that game?
Yes, I can. You are on a snowboard, going down a track which is all downhill. You get points for doing jumps and other tricks, but you have to time them right or else you fall over. You pick up weapons along the track and can shoot other players, drop bombs, get a speed boost, etc. That’s about it really, it came out for the N64 and possibly PS2. You can see it on Youtube here: youtube.com/watch?v=mYyaScLzieI
But really all I want to do at this stage is make a very basic ODE setup with a block sliding down a slope which I can apply forces to, I’m just not sure how to fix a platform in place in mid-air.
Basic panda collision functions would be sufficient. You have to store a velocity vector that increase when the slopes under the snowboard is negative. Add two rays to compute the slope and one or two sphere with collisionPusher to stay out of the walls.
The problem is I would like players to bump into each other and other objects realistically, and also fall over, so I think it is inevitable that I have to use a physics engine at some point.
Someone seems to have done something with snowboarding and ODE here [mattgong.yolasite.com/snowboard.php] but it is quite complicated and aiming to be a very realistic simulation.