What data should a generic collision detection system gather?

Question

I'm working on a relatively generic 2D AABB collision detection system for a game engine, and I've re-written it more times than I'd like to admit due to not calculating/recording specific details of each collision. Right now this is what I'm collecting:

• Collsion Time (the fraction of an update cycle in the game loop)
• Location of the collision
• ID of the colliding object

Each object has a Set that holds this data for each collision (I'm working with a Component/Entity System) so other Systems can use the data recorded. The problem I just ran into was I needed to know which side of the object the collision takes place on.

Now, my question isn't how to determine this, but rather what other values/points of interest should I calculate/record per collision? Or, what do you look for in a standard collision detection system?

Answer 1

It depends.

What factors into the collision resolution? Depending on how sophisticated you want the engine to be, you may want to know the velocity at time-of-impact, which objects were involved in the collision, as well as many other factors. This is where I would give you the advice to write games, not game engines.

If you write a game, you can know what you need to support. If you write a game-engine, you have to make decisions like these, on what you're going to support and what you're not going to support.

If you're creating a game like Braid, where you can manipulate time, you might need to know everything you did, in order to undo the collision.