How do I compute the point of a triangle-ray intersection?

Question

I have a line (the direction vector of the player) and a triangle representing the face of a model (so composed of 3 points).

I can't find the mathematical operation to check if that vector is intersecting with this triangle, and how far from the player...

Have you Googled "ray triangle intersection"? Ray will likely get more hits than vector, and there are lots of articles and sample code out there. — Will, Jan 21, 2014 at 14:37
realtimerendering.com/intersections.html has a bunch of intersection tests. — Exilyth, Jan 27, 2014 at 9:13

Will · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-21 14:39:53Z

3

In general, lines are a poor approximation of a user's movement because they don't account for the size of the player.

You want "sweep sphere triangle intersection", also called "capsule triangle intersection". http://xania.org/Games has a good overview of this.

answered Jan 21, 2014 at 14:39

Will

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\$\begingroup\$ "lines are a poor approximation of a user's movement" -- unless the player is well-approximated by a point. (While this is helpful, it doesn't answer the question.) \$\endgroup\$
– Anko
Jan 21, 2014 at 15:06
\$\begingroup\$ @Anko kind of true, but on the other hand, cameras are not well approximated by a point if you want to avoid front plane clipping glitches; if you're doing true 3D movement in a 3D world, you end up having to do approximate something bigger than a point eventually. \$\endgroup\$
– Will
Jan 21, 2014 at 19:02
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\$\begingroup\$ Good point -- I was neglecting the third dimension. \$\endgroup\$
– Anko
Jan 23, 2014 at 4:01

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