Practical collision detection in rendering hardware for two complex 3D polygon objects

Abstract

We present a technique to perform real-time collision detection of two complex 3D polygon objects using commodity and workstation rendering hardware. This technique is O(n), and performs favorably in comparison to existing traditional methods in many circumstances. On PCs or workstations, this technique can be performed almost entirely in rendering hardware. This frees general CPU cycles for other processing tasks. Alternatively, more CPU cycles can be used for collision detection, freeing rendering hardware cycles for other tasks. This technique is also highly customizable to specific applications.