Axis-Aligned Bounding Boxes vs Bounding Ellipse

Posted by Griffin on Game Development See other posts from Game Development or by Griffin
Published on 2011-11-26T22:08:24Z Indexed on 2011/11/27 2:03 UTC
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Why is it that most, if not all collision detection algorithms today require each body to have an AABB for the use in the broad phase only?

It seems to me like simply placing a circle at the body's centroid, and extending the radius to where the circle encompasses the entire body would be optimal. This would not need to be updated after the body rotates and broad overlap-calculation would be faster to. Correct?

Bonus:
Would a bounding ellipse be practical for broad phase calculations also, since it would better represent long, skinny shapes? Or would it require extensive calculations, defeating the purpose of broad-phase?

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