I’m working on my breakout clone, and I’ve hit a pretty frustrating issue with collision detection. The ball seems to phase through bricks and borders when it collides with multiple objects in quick succession. I noticed that when the ball hits one brick and almost immediately hits another, it ends up getting pushed past that second object, causing it to phase through.
I guess this is because I’m resolving one collision and by the time the next one is handled, the ball is already beyond the bounds of the second object, making it appear like it’s phasing through. I was digging around for solutions and tried implementing a system to find the closest collision first and resolve it, but that hasn’t really worked out as expected.
Let me give you a clearer picture of my setup! My ball class calculates its position based on its speed and direction, and I have a method that checks for collisions using a list of objects in the game court. Whenever it detects a collision, it checks what type of collision it is (left, right, top, or bottom) and adjusts the position accordingly. If it’s a brick, I call a separate method to handle damage.
Here’s the kicker: I noticed that if the ball is simultaneously colliding with more than one object, it’s only handling the closest collision. I thought about tweaking the update function to handle the time into the frame that the collision occurs, but that hasn’t solved the problem.
I wonder, has anyone else faced a similar situation? What approaches did you use to resolve multiple collisions without having the ball phase through objects? Any tips or solutions would be greatly appreciated, especially if you could share code snippets or logic that worked for you. I really want to make this work without creating a hacky solution!
When dealing with collision detection in breakout-style games, the issue you’re describing often arises due to resolving collisions sequentially instead of simultaneously. A common and effective solution is to first check all potential collisions in a frame before adjusting any object positions or velocities. When multiple collisions are detected, compute each collision’s exact time of occurrence within that frame and apply the earliest collision first. After that, you recheck for additional collisions with the updated ball position and velocity, repeating the steps until no collisions remain. Essentially, you’re performing a sweep test, tracking how much time passes between collisions within each frame rather than simply detecting overlaps post-move. This prevents the ball from pushing past additional objects after the initial collision.
Alternatively, you might consider resolving overlaps using an iterative approach: upon detecting a collision, move the ball position back to the nearest edge of the collided object and invert its directional velocity appropriately. It’s essential that after each collision resolution, you revalidate collisions with other objects to ensure your collision checks are accurate. Additionally, keep velocities and position updates scaled by the remaining time step during each recursive collision handling stage. This method reliably prevents phasing, since the ball never gets displaced past multiple objects within the same update frame. This structured approach might take slightly more computation, but it’s robust, clean, and improves gameplay significantly compared to quick solutions or hacks.
It sounds like you’re dealing with a classic issue in collision detection! The ball phasing through multiple bricks often happens when collisions are handled in a sequential manner without properly accounting for the new position of the ball after each collision. Here are a few thoughts that might help:
First off, make sure you are handling all potential collisions in a single update cycle, rather than resolving one collision and immediately moving on to the next without checking the new position. This is often referred to as the “swept collision” method where you check for all possible collisions along the path of the ball’s movement.
Here’s a simple approach you could try:
You can use an approach like this (pseudo-code):
function updateBallPosition(ball) { let futurePosition = ball.position + ball.velocity; let collisions = checkForCollisions(futurePosition); if (collisions.length > 0) { let closestCollision = getClosestCollision(collisions); resolveCollision(ball, closestCollision); } else { ball.position = futurePosition; } } function checkForCollisions(futurePosition) { let collisions = []; for (let brick of bricks) { if (checkCollision(futurePosition, brick)) { collisions.push(brick); } } return collisions; } function resolveCollision(ball, collision) { // Check collision type and adjust ball position accordingly }Also, consider implementing a time-step where you can break down the movement into smaller steps within a single frame, which may help in fine-tuning the collision resolution.
Lastly, don’t hesitate to log the collision detections. Sometimes just seeing the output can shed light on what’s going wrong. Good luck, you’ve got this!