Question

I’m basically working on a Pong clone, and I wanted to add collision. The way I wanted it to work, is that the paddles would each be divided into 4 sections (not visually), and the ball will react differently depending on which section it hits.

As far as collision goes, I only know rectangle collision, and that’s basically the entire paddle as a whole. I do not know how to make it so the paddle has 4 possible points of collision with different reactions.

Answer 1

Just break paddle into 4 pieces, and keep it as one piece 🙂

Collide method returns -1 if rects do not collide, or a first index of collision.

CollideIndex method returns IEnumerable indexes of collided rects. 😉

Paddle p;
World w;
Ball b;

Rect[] paddleSections = new Rect[] 
{
  p.Section[0],
  p.Section[1],
  p.Section[2],
  p.Section[3],
}

Rect[] worldSections = new Rect[] 
{
  new Rect(p.Top, p.Left, p.Right, p.Bottom) // just simple world, for example
}

Rect[] ballSections = new Rect[] 
{
  new Rect(p.Top, p.Left, p.Right, p.Bottom) // just one ball piece, for example
}

Rect[] bricksSection = GetBrickRects();

int index = 0;
if ((index = Collide(ballSections, worldSections) != -1)
{
    foreach(int collideIndex in CollideIndex(ballSection[index], worldSection)
    {
        // worldSection[collideIndex] intersects ballSections[index]
        ...
        // something goes up here
    }
}

Call your favorite algorithm against balls, walls, bricks.

Do not forget to send me a copy of your game!