Physics to choose

[SunSailor]

Hi all,
no, I don't want to raise the thousands "which is the best physics engine" thread, but I'm in the situation to choose a solution and I really would like to hear, what others would choose, based on my catalog of needs. Maybe this discussion is even of help for some others, as my catalog doesn't focus on the general use of a physics engine in an action game. What I need is:

• An easy and good support for inverse kinematics, in-cooperating with motion capture data
• Mostly reproductive results, accuracy over pure speed
• Free of royalties, as the final product runs for a micro payment price
• The game is no action game, so I won't have the whole scene occupied with physics
• Needs to be available for Windows, Mac OS and Linux

My first guess would have been Physix from nVidia, but sadly it isn't available for Mac OS. Two other products in my scope are Newton and the ODE, but as I haven't worked with physics before, I can't estimate, which one would fit my needs best, but I'm open for other solutions as well. Newton seems to be great, but on the downside is the closed source aspect in the hand of a very small circle of private persons, with ODE a project I worked on in the past had several problems with 0.5. Any ideas?

Thanks for contribution in avance,
Andreas "SunSailor" Podgurski

[Kojack]

If you want multiple platforms for free, Bullet (open source) and the Newton beta (closed source) are the 2 main options (apart from ode, which I guess some people still like).

Physx has linux and windows, Havok has, umm, I can't see the download options for the free version without registering yet again, but I think it's windows only.

For inverse kinematics combined with motion capture, my first thought would be Havok (the free version has Havok Animation which is all about stuff like motion captured animations controlling ragdolls, etc), but as above I don't think it has a mac or linux release yet (although maybe it does).