Relative performance for collision detection techniques in ActionScript 3

mikechambers — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 22:28:22 +0000

If you have read my blog any this week, you have probably noticed that I have been doing some basic research on collision detection within the Flash Player. As part of this, I have put together a simple test suite, showing the performance of a couple of different techniques for checking for collision. This is by no means meant to be exhaustive (and currently tilts towards boundary collision). However, I wanted to post the results as the current information is useful (if nothing more than to confirm existing assumptions), and perhaps generate more tests an ideas around collision detection.

First, the test code (uses Flash Pro). clip1 and clip2 reference two overlapping MovieClips on the stage (clip2 is about 1/2 the size of clip1).

package
{
	import flash.display.MovieClip;
	import flash.geom.Point;
	import flash.display.Bitmap;
	import flash.display.BitmapData;
	import flash.geom.Rectangle;

	import com.gskinner.utils.PerformanceTest;

	public class CollisionDetectionTests extends MovieClip
	{
		public var clip1:MovieClip;
		public var clip2:MovieClip;

		private var dynamicClip1:MovieClip;
		private var dynamicClip2:MovieClip;	

		var point1:Point = new Point();
		var point2:Point = new Point();

		private var clip1Rect:Rectangle;
		private var clip1ClipBmpData:BitmapData;
		private var clip2Rect:Rectangle;
		private var clip2ClipBmpData:BitmapData;

		public function CollisionDetectionTests()
		{
			super();

			init();
			checkCollisions();
			runTests();
		}

		private function init():void
		{

			clip1Rect = clip1.getBounds(this);
			clip1ClipBmpData = new BitmapData(clip1Rect.width, clip1Rect.height, true, 0);
			clip1ClipBmpData.draw(clip1);

			clip2Rect = clip2.getBounds(this);
			clip2ClipBmpData = new BitmapData(clip2Rect.width, clip2Rect.height, true, 0);
			clip2ClipBmpData.draw(clip2);

			dynamicClip1 = new MovieClip();

			dynamicClip1.graphics.beginFill(0xFF0000);
			dynamicClip1.graphics.drawEllipse(0,0, 100,100);
			dynamicClip1.cacheAsBitmap = true;

			dynamicClip1.x = 300;
			dynamicClip1.y = 300;

			addChild(dynamicClip1);

			dynamicClip2 = new MovieClip();

			dynamicClip2.graphics.beginFill(0x0000FF);
			dynamicClip2.graphics.moveTo(0, 0);
			dynamicClip2.graphics.lineTo(100, 0);
			dynamicClip2.graphics.lineTo(100, 100);
			dynamicClip2.graphics.lineTo(0, 100);
			dynamicClip2.graphics.lineTo(0, 0);
			dynamicClip2.cacheAsBitmap = true;

			dynamicClip2.x = 250;
			dynamicClip2.y = 250;

			addChild(dynamicClip2);
		}

		private function checkCollisions():void
		{
			//make sure everything is working and returns true
			trace(checkHitTest());
			trace(boundsIntersection());
			trace(checkHitTestReverse());
			trace(checkBoundsManually());
			trace(hitTestCircle());
			trace(checkBitmapDataHit());
			trace(checkBitmapDataHitReverse());
			trace(checkBitmapDataHitInternal());
			trace(checkBitmapDataHitDynamic());
		}

		private function runTests():void
		{
			var perfTest:PerformanceTest = PerformanceTest.getInstance();
			perfTest.out = out;

			//this is to work around bug in test lib
			perfTest.testSuite({});

			perfTest.testFunction(checkHitTest, 10000, "checkHitTest", "Uses DisplayObject.hitTest");
			perfTest.testFunction(checkHitTestReverse, 10000, "checkHitTestReverse", "Uses DisplayObject.hitTest with clips reversed");
			perfTest.testFunction(boundsIntersection, 10000, "boundsIntersection", "Uses Rectangle.intersects()");
			perfTest.testFunction(checkBoundsManually, 10000, "checkBoundsManually", "manually checks if bounds intersect.");
			perfTest.testFunction(hitTestCircle, 10000, "hitTestCircle", "Check if bounding circles intersect.");
			perfTest.testFunction(checkBitmapDataHit, 10000, "checkBitmapDataHit", "Uses BitmapData.hitTest to check for collision.");
			perfTest.testFunction(checkBitmapDataHitReverse, 10000, "checkBitmapDataHitReverse", "Uses BitmapData.hitTest to check for collision. Instances reversed.");
			perfTest.testFunction(checkBitmapDataHitInternal, 10000, "checkBitmapDataHitInternal", "Uses BitmapData.hitTest to check for collision. BitmapData not cached.");
			perfTest.testFunction(checkBitmapDataHitDynamic, 10000, "checkBitmapDataHitDynamic", "Uses BitmapData.hitTest to check for collision. BitmapData not cached. MovieClips dynamic.");
		}

		private function checkHitTest():Boolean
		{
			return clip1.hitTestObject(clip2);
		}

		private function checkHitTestReverse():Boolean
		{
			return clip2.hitTestObject(clip1);
		}

		private function boundsIntersection():Boolean
		{
			return clip1.getBounds(this).intersects(clip2.getBounds(this));
		}

		private function hitTestCircle():Boolean
		{
			var dx:Number = (clip2.x + clip2.width / 2) - (clip1.x + clip1.width / 2);
			var dy:Number = (clip2.y + clip2.height / 2) - (clip1.y + clip1.height / 2);
			var dist:Number = Math.sqrt(dx * dx + dy * dy);

			return (dist < ((clip1.width / 2) + (clip2.width / 2)));
		}

		private function checkBoundsManually():Boolean
		{
			if(clip1.x < clip2.x + clip2.width &&
			   clip2.x < clip1.x + clip1.width &&
			   clip1.y < clip2.y + clip2.height &&
			   clip2.y < clip1.y + clip1.height
			   )
			{
				return true;
			}

			return false;
		}

		private function checkBitmapDataHit():Boolean
		{
			point1.x = clip1.x;
			point1.y = clip1.y;

			point2.x = clip2.x;
			point2.y = clip2.y;
			if(clip1ClipBmpData.hitTest(point1,
										255,
										clip2ClipBmpData,
										point2,
										255

								  ))
			{
				return true;
			}

			return false;
		}

		private function checkBitmapDataHitInternal():Boolean
		{
			var _clip1Rect:Rectangle = clip1.getBounds(this);
			var _clip1ClipBmpData:BitmapData = new BitmapData(_clip1Rect.width, _clip1Rect.height, true, 0);
			_clip1ClipBmpData.draw(clip1);

			var _clip2Rect:Rectangle = clip2.getBounds(this);
			var _clip2ClipBmpData:BitmapData = new BitmapData(_clip2Rect.width, _clip2Rect.height, true, 0);
			_clip2ClipBmpData.draw(clip2);	

			point1.x = clip1.x;
			point1.y = clip1.y;

			point2.x = clip2.x;
			point2.y = clip2.y;

			var hits:Boolean = false;
			if(_clip1ClipBmpData.hitTest(point1,
										255,
										_clip2ClipBmpData,
										point2,
										255
								  ))
			{
				hits = true;
			}

			_clip1ClipBmpData.dispose();
			_clip2ClipBmpData.dispose();

			return hits;
		}

		private function checkBitmapDataHitDynamic():Boolean
		{
			var dynamicClip1Rect:Rectangle = dynamicClip1.getBounds(this);
			var dynamicClip1ClipBmpData:BitmapData = new BitmapData(dynamicClip1Rect.width,
																	dynamicClip1Rect.height, true, 0);
			dynamicClip1ClipBmpData.draw(dynamicClip1);

			var dynamicClip2Rect:Rectangle = dynamicClip2.getBounds(this);
			var dynamicClip2ClipBmpData:BitmapData = new BitmapData(dynamicClip2Rect.width,
																	dynamicClip2Rect.height, true, 0);
			dynamicClip2ClipBmpData.draw(dynamicClip2);	

			point1.x = dynamicClip1.x;
			point1.y = dynamicClip1.y;

			point2.x = dynamicClip2.x;
			point2.y = dynamicClip2.y;	

			var hits:Boolean = false;
			if(dynamicClip1ClipBmpData.hitTest(point1,
										255,
										dynamicClip2ClipBmpData,
										point2,
										255
								  ))
			{
				hits = true;
			}

			dynamicClip1ClipBmpData.dispose();
			dynamicClip2ClipBmpData.dispose();

			return hits;
		}

		private function checkBitmapDataHitReverse():Boolean
		{
			point1.x = clip1.x;
			point1.y = clip1.y;

			point2.x = clip2.x;
			point2.y = clip2.y;	

			if(clip2ClipBmpData.hitTest(point2,
										255,
										clip1ClipBmpData,
										point1,
										255

								  ))
			{
				return true;
			}

			return false;
		}

		private function out(str:*):void
		{
			trace(str);
		}
	}
}

You can download the code from here (requires Flash Pro and Grant Skinner’s Performance Testing Harness).

And here are the raw results:

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
checkHitTest (10000 iterations)
Uses DisplayObject.hitTest
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
method...................................................ttl ms...avg ms
[function]                                                    8     0.00
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
checkHitTestReverse (10000 iterations)
Uses DisplayObject.hitTest with clips reversed
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
method...................................................ttl ms...avg ms
[function]                                                    7     0.00
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
boundsIntersection (10000 iterations)
Uses Rectangle.intersects()
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
method...................................................ttl ms...avg ms
[function]                                                   33     0.00
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
checkBoundsManually (10000 iterations)
manually checks if bounds intersect.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
method...................................................ttl ms...avg ms
[function]                                                   18     0.00
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
hitTestCircle (10000 iterations)
Check if bounding circles intersect.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
method...................................................ttl ms...avg ms
[function]                                                   22     0.00
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
checkBitmapDataHit (10000 iterations)
Uses BitmapData.hitTest to check for collision.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
method...................................................ttl ms...avg ms
[function]                                                    7     0.00
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
checkBitmapDataHitReverse (10000 iterations)
Uses BitmapData.hitTest to check for collision. Instances reversed.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
method...................................................ttl ms...avg ms
[function]                                                    7     0.00
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
checkBitmapDataHitInternal (10000 iterations)
Uses BitmapData.hitTest to check for collision. BitmapData not cached.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
method...................................................ttl ms...avg ms
[function]                                                 6332     0.63
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
checkBitmapDataHitDynamic (10000 iterations)
Uses BitmapData.hitTest to check for collision. BitmapData not cached.
Dynamic MovieClips
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
method...................................................ttl ms...avg ms
[function]                                                 1892     0.19
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Most of the results are as expected, although there is one surprise.

Doing a BitmapData.hitTest on a MovieClip placed onto the stage at author time (in Flash Pro) is 3 times slower than testing against a MovieClip generated and drawn at runtime. The only thing I can think that is happening is that perhaps for some reason the garbage collector is being triggered in the checkBitmapDataHitInternal and not the checkBitmapDataHitDynamic test. I have asked around internally what might be causing it, but I would be curious if anyone else is seeing the same results.

So, some quick conclusions from this:

DisplayObject.hitTest is a fast way to do a quick boundaries check.
Having to dynamically generate BitmapData for BitmapData.hitTest leads to a big performance hit.
If you can cache the BitmapData being compared, then BitmapData.hitTest performance is on par with the other techniques / APIs tested. However, performance degrades as the dimensions of the clips increase (see here).
Getting the BitmapData from a MovieClip that has cacheAsBitmap = false is 3 times slower than getting it from a MovieClip with the property set to true (Thanks to Renaun Erickson who figured out the performance discrepancy).

I will update the post and results as I learn more techniques and get more information.

If you find any bugs with the test, or would like to add some more tests (such as a test using BitmapData.getColorBoundsRect), just post them in the comments.

Updated : July 6, 2009 : Added info on cacheAsBitmap property impact on performance. (See this comment).

Updated : November 6, 2009 : Added optimized circle test in comments : Approaches performance of hitTest.

Mike Chambers » collision_detection

Relative performance for collision detection techniques in ActionScript 3