Thread: Collision Detection difficulties

There should not be a problem with the intersects method. Likely, this is what I think is happening:

Computers usually work with discrete time steps. This means that between frames, one (or both) of the rectangles will "magically" jump locations to it's new location. If that location happens to completely jump over the object you're checking collision detection with, then no collision will be registered. There are two ways to fix this:

1. Calculate the area between the two discrete locations and check those areas for intersections. This can be done by taking a cross section based off of the current direction of travel, then projecting that line towards the new direction and orientation. Simply connect the two lines into a quadrilateral, and then check collisions of the quadrilaterals (unfortunately, that means you'll have to write your own collision detection code).
2. Calculate an estimated time to collision based off of the current velocities. If the time is less than one frame, then you know on the next frame a collision has happened (assuming that current velocities don't change until after the discrete time step). This is basically trying to operate on a continuous timeline, though there will still be some discrete behaviors present.