Global geometric types and algorithms

[JonasGilg]

The Problem

Simple 2D/3D geometric types and algorithms related to them (intersections, areas, volumes, distances) are implemented multiple times throughout the application and scattered over plugins.

The Solution

Create a small glm based utility package that implements common geometric types and related functions.

The Alternatives

Instead of developing it beforehand, the types and algorithms can be created on demand in the core engine.
So each time a new geometric type gets created for some functionality in a plugin it should be put in the core engines utility namespace, where it can be reused by other plugins.

Common Types

2D

• Circle
• Rectangle
• Square
• Triangle
• Line
• Ray
• Curve
• Spline

3D

• Sphere
• AABB
• Box
• Cube
• Polygon
• Line
• Ray
• Curve
• Spline
• Plane

[Schneegans]

While it seems to be reasonable to unify the usage of geometry types, we should consider using ViSTA geometries (https://github.com/cosmoscout/vista/blob/develop/VistaCoreLibs/VistaMath/VistaGeometries.h).

What do you think?

[JonasGilg]

Aren't we trying to reduce dependencies on ViSTA as much as possible?
It is also incompatible with glm, and would introduce the whole VistaMath library in addition throughout the project.
We can maybe wrap the ViSTA types?

[JonasGilg]

Or we could write it as a library and include it via externals. A little research concluded, that there is no geometry library based on glm available.
This might also profit other projects.