QuadTree: store only points, or regions?

Posted by alekop on Game Development See other posts from Game Development or by alekop
Published on 2012-06-22T22:52:30Z Indexed on 2012/06/23 3:24 UTC
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I am developing a quadtree to keep track of moving objects for collision detection. Each object has a bounding shape, let's say they are all circles. (It's a 2D top-down game)

I am unsure whether to store only the position of each object, or the whole bounding shape.

If working with points, insertion and subdivision is easy, because objects will never span multiple nodes. On the other hand, a proximity query for an object may miss collisions, because it won't take the objects' dimensions into account. How to calculate the query region when you only have points?

Collision between objects from neighboring nodes

If working with regions, how to handle an object that spans multiple nodes? Should it be inserted in the nearest parent node that completely contains it, even if this exceeds the node's capacity?

Which node should contain the red object?

Thanks.

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