Can GJK be used with the same "direction finding method" every time?

Posted by the_Seppi on Game Development See other posts from Game Development or by the_Seppi
Published on 2014-08-22T12:29:11Z Indexed on 2014/08/22 16:37 UTC
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In my deliberations on GJK (after watching http://mollyrocket.com/849) I came up with the idea that it ins not neccessary to use different methods for getting the new direction in the doSimplex function.

E.g. if the point A is closest to the origin, the video author uses the negative position vector AO as the direction in which the next point is searched. If an edge (with A as an endpoint) is closest, he creates a normal vector to this edge, lying in the plane the edge and AO form. If a face is the feature closest to the origin, he uses even another method (which I can't recite from memory right now)

However, while thinking about the implementation of GJK in my current came, I noticed that the negative direction vector of the newest simplex point would always make a good direction vector.

Of course, the next vertex found by the support function could form a simplex that less likely encases the origin, but I assume it would still work.

Since I'm currently experiencing problems with my (yet unfinished) implementation, I wanted to ask whether this method of forming the direction vector is usable or not.

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