Is there a way to make Pick() faster?

[Brutile]

I'm working on a voxel game, and I'm using camera->Pick() to get the position to add or remove a block, but it seems to be really slow. between 5 and 10 ms on its own. I've set all objects to pick mode 0 except the chunks close to the player. Is there something I can do to speed things up, like use a different method or something?

[Josh]

Is it only slow the first time you call it before recalculating your blocks? Also, you should be using a small range for the pick distance.

[Brutile]

How do I set the pick distance?

[Brutile]

Oh, I see what you mean about recalculating blocks. I left out surface->Update(), which it needs to calculate the pick. it is now 0 to 1 ms. I just need to update the surface in a new update cycle so the frames don't drop

[Haydenmango]

I noticed you are using the Camera pick function. You can set the Pick distance when you use the entity pick instead-

http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/page/documentation/_/command-reference/entity/entitypick-r158

 

might be worth testing out to see if it goes any quicker but it sounds like you got it working pretty good.

[Brutile]

Only thing is, I don't know which entity it's going to be. I'd have to do up to 9 pick checks for each chunk around the player. So updating the surface is probably better for what I'm doing

[Haydenmango]

I may be totally misunderstanding you and if I am then disregard this.

But the Entity::Pick() function works pretty much the same as the Camera::Pick(). The only difference I can see is the option for x and y coordinates for the screen(while using camera pick) and the option for Vec3 starting pos and Vec3 ending pos(while using entity pick).

[Josh]

I think Camera::Pick would be faster because it does AABB tests before geometry tests. Entity::Pick is used internally, and really shouldn't be used by the end user, except in special cases.

[Haydenmango]

Well I learned something today! I've only been using pick::entity so far for whatever reason.

This information could be useful in the documentation because I would still be using Entity::Pick over Camera::Pick as there is no way to tell that Entity::Pick 'shouldn't be used by the end user, except in special cases.'

[Flexman]

Curious; what AABB test(s) does CameraPick do first?

[Josh]

Ray / AABB intersection.

[beo6]

I am wondering. Why shouldn't entity->pick used by the user?

 

The only thing it is useful for is when i use for example the mouse to click on something.

 

But as soon as i want another entity to check for something like in a Realtime Strategy Game i need to use entity->pick.