About this site

This is the companion site for the book Real-Time Collision Detection by Christer Ericson (Morgan Kaufmann, 2005). You can find an errata linked from the left of the screen. If you have corrections for either text or code, please email them to me at: christer 'at-sign' realtimecollisiondetection.net.

Update - 6/16/07

In an attempt to remedy the very infrequent updates here, I've set up a blog where I will try to make more frequent updates and talk about things not just related to my book and to collision detection.

See you there!

Update - 6/15/07

A long overdue update! First, I talked at GDC 2007, again as part of the physics tutorial session. I repeated my talk on numerical robustness but I also covered the separating-axis test. Slides from both presentations are on my publications page.

God of War II shipped back in March to rave reviews! I think everyone who worked on it agrees that it is a superior game to the first one. The Sony Santa Monica Studio is now busy working on a PlayStation 3 title. We have several job openings available, so if you would like to work with our mega-talented team, check them out, or email your resume directly to gow_jobs@playstation.sony.com.

Unfortunately, some additional errors also made it into the errata page since the previous update.

Update - 3/26/06

The GDC 2006 tutorial session was last week and I've uploaded the slides to my publications page. The other presentations from the Physics for Games Programmers tutorial will be linked from Jim Van Verth's page.

In other news: Real-Time Collision Detection has gone into a second printing. This printing incorporates the corrections on the errata page. Also, God of War recently made it into the PlayStation 2 Greatest Hits and is now only $20. Best $20 you'll ever spend!

Update - 12/20/05

The page has gone without an update for much too long. Now that it's Christmas time and I have time off from work, I guess I really don't have any more excuses for not updating, so, well, here's an update!

First, a Japanese edition of Real-Time Collision Detection has made it into print! The translation was made by Tatsuya Nakamura for the Japanese publisher Born Digitial (a publisher that provides Japanese translations of many popular English language game programming books). Readers of the Japanese edition who have found their way here may be interested in Born Digital's book support page.

Aside from my decent sushi vocabulary and being able to decode katakana at a snail's pace, I know absolutely no Japanese. Nihongo wakarimasen, in other words. Still, from the correspondence I had with Tatsuya I'm quite certain it's a solid translation. It's very cool holding the Japanese edition in my hands, but I must admit that looking through it feels a bit weird: it certainly doesn't feel like I wrote the book!

Second, I'm talking at GDC (in 2006), again. This time as one of the lecturers of the Physics for Games Programmers full-day tutorial on Monday. The tutorial is a slight twist on the math tutorial that Jim Van Verth has been holding the last few years, only this time the focus is on physics only. It's going to be pretty cool, with expert speakers talking on their favourite topics! Jim Van Verth's blog has a little more info on who speaks about what, for those who are curious. If you are at GDC for the first two tutorial days (and not just going Wednesday-Friday), check it out!

Update - 7/20/05

Erwin Coumans sent me a note that he has released a continuous collision and physics SDK, called Bullet. It's using the GJK subalgorithm from my book for finding the point of minimum norm on a simplex.

Erwin has also set up a forum dedicated to the discussion of physics and (continuous) collision detection in general. You can find it here: continuous physics forum.

Update - 6/23/05

God of War has been out for about 3 months now and it is a huge critical success. We are now busy working on our next title and we are hiring in just about any discipline:

  • Programming
  • Animation
  • Design
  • Concept Art
  • Character Art
  • Environment Art
If you think you got the skills and want to be a part of an incredibly talented and successful team, email your resume to gow_jobs@playstation.sony.com.

Update - 3/12/05

I just got back from San Francisco and GDC 2005, where I talked on the issue of Numerical Robustness for Geometric Calculations. As promised, I've uploaded my talk slides on this website. Specifically, the PowerPoint slides are available for download from my publications page.

It's always fun being at GDC, going to lectures and meeting new people. It was especially great getting a lot of positive feedback both on the talk and on my book! Thanks all!

Update - 2/27/05

In this update I made the references from the book available online, allowing all the links to various papers and books to be clicked through (rather than tediously typed in). Please report any stale links! I also updated the errata (with a code bug reported by Swaminathan Narayanan).

Finally, the game our studio has been working on for the last few years is finally done and will be available in the stores March 22, 2005. It's called God of War and we have some fantastic buzz going for the game already, because, well, it's a fantastic game, that's why! Don't trust me? Then check out the official website or the Gamespot previews (specifically check out the various gameplay videos and see if you can resist preordering the game!).

Update - 2/6/05

Updated the errata (with a code bug reported by Mark Wayland). Added an endorsement quote by Eric Haines which sadly didn't make it into the book. Prompted by Eric I also recently updated my list of recommented books. (Some day I'll have time to fully update the list, but not today.) Last but not least, I just recently noticed that someone reviewed my book over at amazon.co.uk, giving it 5 stars. Whee!