Black Prophecy Technical Director Explains Game Physics

Black Prophecy Technical Director Cyrus Preuss returns this week with the second part of his developer diary delving into the physics engine. The latest entry details the use of the physics engine for collisions in the gaming world and how the collision detection system functions.

As its name implies, collision detection is about the detection of collisions of individual geometries among each other. During collision detection, a distinction is made between two or more phases. Firstly, the so-called broad phase in which potential collision pairs are identified based on highly simplified geometry. Secondly, the contact calculation or narrow phase in which the exact contact data between individual, previously identified, geometry pairs is calculated. This phase is much more complex than the broad phase. Hereby the kind and complexity of the collision geometry play an essential role.