collider-rs

Collider is a Rust library for continuous 2D collision detection, for use with game developement.

This is a successor to a Java library of the same name. As my focus has shifted from Java to Rust, I ported the library.

Crate

The Rust crate for this library can be found here.

Documentation

Documentation for Collider can be found here.

Description

Most game engines follow the approach of periodically updating the positions of all shapes and checking for collisions at a frozen snapshot in time. Continuous collision detection, on the other hand, means that the time of collision is determined very precisely, and the user is not restricted to a fixed time-stepping method. There are currently two kinds of shapes supported by Collider: circles and rectangles. The user specifies the positions and velocities of these shapes, which they can update at any time, and Collider will solve for the precise times of collision and separation.

There are certain advantages that continuous collision detection holds over the traditional approach. In a game engine, the position of a sprite may be updated to overlap a wall, and in a traditional collision system there would need to be a post-correction to make sure the sprite does not appear inside of the wall. This is not needed with continuous collision detection, since the precise time and location at which the sprite touches the wall is known. Traditional collision detection may have an issue with "tunneling," in which a fast small object runs into a narrow wall and collision detection misses it, or two fast small objects fly right through each other and collision detection misses it. This is also not a problem for continuous collision detection. It is also debatable that continuous collision detection may be more efficient in certain circumstances, since the hitboxes may be updated less frequently and still maintain a smooth appearance over time.

Example

use collider::{Collider, HbEvent, HbId, HbProfile};
use collider::geom::{Shape, v2};

#[derive(Copy, Clone, Debug)]
struct DemoHbProfile { id: HbId } // add any additional identfying data to this struct

impl HbProfile for DemoHbProfile {
    fn id(&self) -> HbId { self.id }
    fn can_interact(&self, _other: &DemoHbProfile) -> bool { true }
    fn cell_width() -> f64 { 4.0 }
    fn padding() -> f64 { 0.01 }
}

let mut collider: Collider<DemoHbProfile> = Collider::new();

let hitbox = Shape::square(2.0).place(v2(-10.0, 0.0)).moving(v2(1.0, 0.0));
let overlaps = collider.add_hitbox(DemoHbProfile { id: 0 }, hitbox);
assert!(overlaps.is_empty());

let hitbox = Shape::square(2.0).place(v2(10.0, 0.0)).moving(v2(-1.0, 0.0));
let overlaps = collider.add_hitbox(DemoHbProfile { id: 1 }, hitbox);
assert!(overlaps.is_empty());

while collider.time() < 20.0 {
    let time = collider.next_time().min(20.0);
    collider.set_time(time);
    if let Some((event, profile_1, profile_2)) = collider.next() {
        println!("{:?} between {:?} and {:?} at time {}.",
                 event, profile_1, profile_2, collider.time());
        if event == HbEvent::Collide {
            println!("Speed of collided hitboxes is halved.");
            for profile in [profile_1, profile_2].iter() {
                let mut hb_vel = collider.get_hitbox(profile.id()).vel;
                hb_vel.value *= 0.5;
                collider.set_hitbox_vel(profile.id(), hb_vel);
            }
        }
    }
}

// the above loop prints the following events:
//   Collide between DemoHbProfile { id: 0 } and DemoHbProfile { id: 1 } at time 9.
//   Speed of collided hitboxes is halved.
//   Separate between DemoHbProfile { id: 0 } and DemoHbProfile { id: 1 } at time 13.01.

Homepage

The homepage for Collider is on my personal website: http://www.matthewmichelotti.com/projects/collider/.

License

Collider is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License.

Looking forward

(Note: this section is intended for people who have already familiarized themselves with the library.)

There are a few new features that may be added in the more distant future, or if I receive high demand

• Adding right-triangles to the set of possible shapes. (Note: I do not intend to add general polygons)