Comparative investigation of GPU-accelerated triangle-triangle intersection algorithms for collision detection

Efficient collision detection is critical in 3D geometric modeling. In this paper, we first implement three parallel triangle-triangle intersection algorithms on a GPU and then compare the computational efficiency of these three GPU-accelerated parallel triangle-triangle intersection algorithms in an application that detects collisions between triangulated models. The presented GPU-based parallel collision detection method for triangulated models has two stages: first, we propose a straightforward and efficient parallel approach to reduce the number of potentially intersecting triangle pairs based on AABBs, and second, we conduct intersection tests with the remaining triangle pairs in parallel based on three triangle-triangle intersection algorithms, i.e., the Möller’s algorithm, Devillers’ and Guigue’s algorithm, and Shen’s algorithm. To evaluate the performance of the presented GPU-based parallel collision detection method for triangulated models, we conduct four groups of benchmarks. The experimental results show the following: (1) the time required to detect collisions for the triangulated model consisting of approximately 1.5 billion triangle pairs is less than 0.5 s; (2) the GPU-based parallel collision detection method speedup over the corresponding serial version is 50x - 60x, and (3) Devillers’ and Guigue’s algorithm is comparatively and comprehensively the best of the three GPU-based parallel triangle-triangle intersection algorithms. The presented GPU-accelerated method is capable of efficiently detecting the potential collisions of triangulated models. Overall, the GPU-accelerated parallel Devillers’ and Guigue’s triangle-triangle intersection algorithm is recommended when performing practical collision detections between large triangulated models.