Game engines in terms of collision detection (3d)

Question

After coding simple 3d applications in webGL, I decided to start a serious 3d programming experience with C++ and a game engine.

Thinking all the difficulties I may encounter, I want to prefer to choose the game engine with the most efficient and comprehensive collision detection solution offer. It doesn't have to be free and I'm ready to encounter complex syntax.

Thinking all the popular game engine alternatives (panda3d, irrlicht, unity, others) would you compare these engines in terms of collision detection.

Answer 1

One thing to think about is whether you just are looking for robust collision detection, or if you're looking for collision detection plus rigid body physics simulation (although a good physics sim will include collision detection anyway).

In many cases these days you'll find that game engines use another physics middleware rather than trying to build their own physics from scratch, so one part of your question might really be about comparing different physics systems rather than game engines.

For example, Unity3D uses nVidia PhysX and is terrific. Panda3D uses Bullet which is also terrific, but can also use ODE or Physx and possibly some other systems too. A while back I used Ogre, which was using Newton and was also terrific.

And then there's Havok, which is pretty popular for AAA titles (Bioshock, the Elder Scrolls, Mortal Kombat, Heavenly Sword, Resident Evil, Twisted Metal, Tony Hawk...). In addition to integration into other engines, Havok acquired the Trinigy and their Vision Engine last year, so that might be another fun one to check out.

Answer 2

For me, here are three types of 3D game engines:

• The best and most expensive: Unreal Engine, Unity3D
• Good, but cheaper(or even free): Shiva3d, Ogre
• Others

If you have experience with gl programming, you will not have troubles with any of these engines. I'd recommend you Unreal or Unity3d, because a lot of work is done for you in that game engines and you as programmer do not need to think about low-level programming, you just writing code and manage your 3d world.