Trouble using Ray.Intersect method on bounding boxes in a 2D XNA game

Question

I am trying to use a ray and bounding box to determine if a box is between the player and the mouse pointer in 2D space. When I try testing the code, the collision will return true when pointed at the box but it also returns true under other circumstances where it shouldn't.

For instance. If I have a player on the left and a box directly to the right, I can put the mouse pointer a few hundred pixels above the box or a few hundred below and it will still return true. Also, I can put my mouse pointer to the left of the player and in a certain area it will still return true. Does anyone have any idea what might cause this?

I have left out definitions for some of my members and properties just to make this code sample easier to read. The position property is just a Vector2 for where each object is located.

ray = new Ray(new Vector3(player.Position, 0), new Vector3(mouse.Position, 0);
box = new BoundingBox(new Vector3(box.Position, 0), new Vector3(
new Vector2(box.Position + box.Width, box.Position + box.Height), 0);

if (ray.Intersects(box) != null)
    collision = true;
else
    collision = false;

Answer 1

I'm not certain this is the cause, but I do notice an issue when I looked up Ray's documentation. Ray's first argument is a position (so okay there). Ray's second argument expects a Vector. Coding-wise, the two are interchangable, but concept-wise, they're very different. Basically, the second argument should just indicate which direction for that Ray to face from its starting point; not which position it should point towards.

I think mouse.position - player.position should do it.

Answer 2

The problem is that the bounding box has the same Z in Max and Min, so there is no volume.

Changing this:

 box = new BoundingBox(
    new Vector3(box.Position, 0), 
    new Vector3( new Vector2(box.Position + box.Width, box.Position + box.Height), 0);

To this:

 box = new BoundingBox(
    new Vector3(box.Position, 0), 
    new Vector3( new Vector2(box.Position + box.Width, box.Position + box.Height), 1);

Should work..

I thing your over complicating things a bit... Is easier using a rectangle for this without using rays and boundingboxes:

Reectangle bounds = new Rectangle((int) pos.X, (int) pos.Y, 0,0);
bounds.Inflate(size/2, size/2);

if (bounds.Contains(mouse.X, mouse.Y) {
  ....
}

Or using distance if it's suitable:

if (Vector2.Distance(playerPos, mousePos)