Rigid body dynamics joints

Question

I can't seem to find any info on connected rigid bodies by a joint. Can someone explain the basics to me? I'm trying to do a little research to find out how feasible it would be to implement 3d ragdoll physics for my first person shooter game.

Answer 1

A rag-doll is mostly connected with ball joints, which constrain the position of one point of the rigid body, and allow all three degrees of freedom. There are no easy answers, although the equations needed can be found in college level dynamics book.

Here is a reference that explains the science of rigid bodies.

Then again searching for manikin simulation yields a lot of hits, with some game related ones.

Answer 2

Probably too late for the OP, but for the sake of the next generations or anyone searching about something related to this topic, I'm dropping this link:

http://www.gamasutra.com/resource_guide/20030121/jacobson_01.shtml

This article actually contains everything you need to know about programming cool ragdoll physics engine. Code samples included!

This article is actually one of the turning points in my life, will it be yours as well? :)