I actually think that it is common to use a physics engine and optimized collision geometry for everything. Especially for bigger productions than hobby projects.

Well even iphone games for example made with Unity uses Physics and even some great RPG adventure semi open world runs great
with it

So well , no problem for Hobbyst projects even on small systems as Iphone.
For PC , it have lot of power to really handle physics without problems, even on low PC. Even old AAA games used Physics.

So yes, for my part if i can have primitives, world, Ray trace
made with Nvidia Physics i'll do it !

Well just my opinion !



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