dealing with lots of collision

Question

What would be the best way to go about adding collision to my application. Right now I have a lot of jagged walls and a couple of weird shapes that I wanna make collision for but am not sure which is the right path to get the job done. What would you guys do if you had a room full of walls with different shapes and sizes that needed collision implemented ?

Answer 1

I would read a set of articles on collision detection. Paul Nettle used to write about the topic (PDF) and has a nice library for free.

This document will describe a collision technique that allows you to move an ellipsoid (a sphere with three different radii, one for each axis) through a world that not only properly detects collisions, but also reacts in a way that gamers would expect from the common first person shooter.

This technique also allows for sliding along surfaces as well as easy implementation of gravity, which includes sliding downhill when standing stationary. This technique also allows automatic climbing of stairs and sliding over bumps in walls (like door frames) and any other randomly oriented “stair-like topography”.

Answer 2

You can use Chipmunk physics engine, which has a very good physics + collisions.

Or even Cocos2d-iphone library - 2d game engine with Chipmunk inside. Here are examples of games, created with it.