Tim Nikias v2.0 wrote:
>>That is to be expected - you diminish the velocity during every
>>collision but none the less the particles will still hop on the surface.
>>  - the hops will get smaller over the time but this won't help of
>>course.   This hopping is in fact the correct solution for your
>>simulation problem.
> 
> 
> The hopping isn't the correct solution, an object doesn't hop on the surface
> of something forever (maybe on an electrostatical level, but that's not what
> I'm after).

The hopping is the correct solution of the model your are simulating. 
Of course this model is a really bad approximation of nature.

> 
> Why would I want damping? There are two possible states: a particle is
> air-born, or its lying on a  surface. [...]

These two states exist in your model but not in nature - there you have 
a deformation of the particles as well as the surface during collision - 
this involves all kind of dissipation of energy - friction and inner 
damping of the materials for example.  To model all these things 
precisely is extremely difficult but you can approximate them.  If the 
particle would actually be lying on the surface the simulation would be 
finished - there is neither kinetic nor potential energy in the system.

What you say is essentially you want realism without much computation - 
this is hardly possible.

Christoph

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