[JAVA3D] Advantages of picking over consulting the actual geometry

[Andy Gombos]

What is the main reason to use picking in terrain following (or collison detection, or whatever) rather than the actual geometry data?  Picking seems to involve a lot of work (creating the pick shape, asking the scene graph for the objects, and then comparing each returned object) versus (in the case of terrain following) asking the terrain to interpolate a height for a given set of coordinates.  You get the height at a given point instantly, although this does ignore stuff like buildings you may be in - the framework would need to be extended for that.   It seems with a class to automatically determine what is below you, and at what height, would be faster than picking.  While the picking API may infact do this, the more generalized implementation must cause slow downs somewhere.   Any thoughts?   --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.449 / Virus Database: 251 - Release Date: 1/27/2003