Collision Detection in Interactive 3D Environments

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Collision detection is crucial for simulating physical interactions between objects, yet it poses significant challenges in implementation and is a major consumer of CPU resources. Those venturing into this field often find that creating a fast, accurate, and robust collision detection system is fraught with difficulties. Without a deep understanding of the associated engineering issues, many programmers risk failure on this complex journey. Gino van den Bergen shares his successful experience in developing the SOftware Library for Interference Detection (SOLID), detailing key topics such as vector algebra, geometric primitives, and the separating axes method for intersection testing. He also discusses the Gilbert-Johnson-Keerthi (GJK) algorithm for measuring distances between convex objects. The book goes beyond a mere compilation of ideas; it addresses the challenges of floating-point arithmetic in computational geometry, where straightforward algorithms can fail catastrophically. This is particularly critical when handling cases where objects are just touching, necessitating careful management of round-off errors. Gino's significant contribution is his guidance on implementing the GJK distance algorithm effectively in single-precision floating-point arithmetic, illustrated through a case study on SOLID's design and implementation. The accompanying CD-ROM includes the complete C++ source code of SOLID 3.5, API documentatio