Collision detection is the process of determining when two or more objects in a virtual environment intersect or come into contact with each other. It's a critical component of any game engine, physics simulation, or virtual reality system, unless you enjoy watching objects pass through each other like ghosts at a Silicon Valley startup's Halloween party.

How to use it in a sentence

• "I spent all night optimizing the collision detection algorithm for our new VR game, only to realize that the marketing team had already promised the impossible in their Kickstarter campaign."

• "After implementing collision detection in our robotics simulation, we discovered that our virtual robots were better at avoiding obstacles than our CEO was at avoiding bad press."

If you actually want to learn more...

• Collision Detection - Game Development | MDN: This article provides an overview of collision detection techniques used in game development, including axis-aligned bounding boxes (AABB), bounding spheres, and more advanced methods like the separating axis theorem (SAT).

• Collision detection - Wikipedia: If you're in the mood for a more academic approach, this Wikipedia article dives into the mathematical foundations of collision detection, covering topics like spatial partitioning, sweep and prune, and the Gilbert-Johnson-Keerthi (GJK) algorithm. Perfect for impressing your colleagues at the next virtual water cooler chat.

• Collision Detection for Dummies - Toptal: This beginner-friendly guide walks you through the basics of collision detection for solid objects, with plenty of code examples and illustrations to help you wrap your head around the concepts. It's like having a virtual mentor, minus the awkward small talk.

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