Real-Time Collision Detection

With all the craziness that last weekend brought, one of which was a book I ordered from Amazon. Just like the title says its a book about collision detection within 2D and 3D environments. It’s a bit on the expensive side, about $50, but its worth every penny. I had a chance to read the first 5 chapters on Sunday. It started off with a quick math primer and then dove head first into how collision detection works. It has a few chapters on bounding volumes and space partitioning; the two topics I have been obsessing over for the last few weeks.

Possibly the best thing about this book when compared to my other math books is that it explains the concepts with code, more then with math. For most programmers, this is a godsend. Reading a few lines of code is much easier (at least, for myself) then trying to comprehend or remember mathematical symbols.

Regardless, If you’re building an engine of some sort (Graphical, Physics, etc), this book is definitely an asset. Collision detection is not only used in physics engines, it is the core functionality of Octrees and Scene Management. Ergo, it is an integral part of an engine. Although, I don’t recommend this book to novices, or people that do not have any 3D engine building knowledge under their belt. It is Math and Algorithm heavy and requires substantial engine design theory.

EDIT: Looking through some of the supplementary books from the Morgan Kaufmann series, they all seem very interesting. If those books are of the same quality as the Real-Time Collision Detection book, then this entires series of books will end up on my bookshelf very soon. It’s something to be desired.

This entry was posted on March 24, 2008 at 10:30 am and is filed under 3D Stuff, C/C++, Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.