I have two squares drawn on the screen, how can I detect collision on the edges of both objects?

Question

Right now, I can compare the X and Y to check for collision, but that\'s only if the two objects pass right through each other, on exactly the same X & Y pos. I need to chec

Answer 1

Elist was/is a huge help! However I found this created a large square around my first square and messed up the collisions. Here is my implementation based off of Elist's post.

public boolean colliding(Square os)
{
    // the lesser value is the distance of the square's width and that of the lenght of the
    // other square
    return Math.abs(center.x - os.center.x) < width / 2 + os.width / 2 
            && Math.abs(center.y - os.center.y) < height / 2 + os.width / 2;
}

All due respect to Elist, I would not have come to this conclusion without their post.

Additional help for those interested would be a handler that can stop the incoming square, and one that reflects it based on the other squares velocity.

// stops the square from intersecting
public void push_collided_basic(Square os, float refelct_amnt)
{
    if(os.center.x < center.x)
        os.center.x -= refelct_amnt;
    else if(os.center.x > center.x)
        os.center.x += refelct_amnt;
    if(os.center.y < center.y)
        os.center.y -= refelct_amnt;
    else if(os.center.y > center.y)
        os.center.y += refelct_amnt;
}

// and now one that reflects the ball -> untested!!!
public void push_collided_velocity(Square os)
{
    // flip the velocitys directions for x
    if(os.center.x < center.x 
              || os.center.x > center.x)
             os.vel_x *= -1;

     // flip the velocity direction for y
    if(os.center.y < center.y
              || os.center.y > center.y)
             os.vel_y *= -1;

      // update the coordiantes
      os.center.x += vel_x;
      os.center.y += vel_y;
}