   PhysX - what does "cooking" mean?
  What does it mean to "cook" a mesh in PhysX? I'm trying to understand the physx samples but I can't seem to find any explanation on what this term means.Also, I'm wondering about collision groups. Is the user supposed to use these for spatial division to optimize performance, or are they just intended for collision logic, e.g. filter what can collide with what?   
  a) "Cooking" is a simple term for preprocessing your collision meshes. PhysX needs to convert your triangle data into its own structures, computing helper data along the way. This is necessary to allow collision tests against it, but you can write the resulting data to a file and load it pre-cooked in future runs.b) To my knowledge, collision groups are for contact reports and filtering. That means that you can filter which sets of entities should collide with each other, and you can define on which of those groups you want to be notified when they collide.Bye, Thomas   ;Quote:Original post by all_names_takenWhat does it mean to "cook" a mesh in PhysX? I'm trying to understand the physx samples but I can't seem to find any explanation on what this term means.It's metaphorical. They expect people to just figure it out on that basis. :)To "cook" (or "bake"; another commonly used metaphor) a meal is to take raw ingredients and prepare something out of them that is more digestible and palatable to its ultimate consumer. Thus, to "cook" mesh data is... well, the same thing. :)   ;  pre-process mesh data in a manner that is more adequate for the collision detection / spatial partitioning and consequently improve runtime performance.   