# Dynamic Ray-Triangle Intersection

I am working on a small simulation software which has a 3D Renderer that is using OpenGL. I render objects to the screen as triangle meshes. To be able to select the triangles on the screen, I have implemented the Möller–Trumbore ray-triangle intersection algorithm. The algorithm works fine. However, I have another problem. My triangles are not static in the world. When I change the location of the triangle on the screen, I have to change the input vertices of the triangle in the algorithm but I don't know how to do it mathematically. Is there a way to use this algorithm for dynamic objects?

New contributor
cemklkn is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering. Check out our Code of Conduct.
• How do you change the location of the triangles then? – lightxbulb 2 days ago
• @lightxbulb , I use model matrix to change the location of the triangle. The algorithm is using the vertices of this triangle. When I change the location of triangle, the input vertices of the algorithm should also change according to new location of the triangle. I am asking for this change, I am not asking how to change the location of the triangle on the screen. Sorry if it was ambiguous. – cemklkn 2 days ago
• To change the location of the triangle you multiply the vertices with the model matrix. That's it really - the new location is what you get from the matrix-vector product. – lightxbulb 2 days ago
• A matrix-vector product yields a vector. If a vertex has position $(x,y,z)$ and your model matrix is M, then make a 4d vector $v=(x,y,z,1)$ and then compute $v' = Mv$. The first 3 components of $v'$ are the coordinates of $v$ transformed with $M$. If you do that for the 3 vertices you can compute the new locations. – lightxbulb 2 days ago
• Thank you very much! That was exactly answer of my question. Can you please send it as an answer so I select it ? It might help people with similar question. – cemklkn yesterday

There are 2 ways to go about intersecting the triangle. Let the vertices of the triangle have positions $$v_1, v_2, v_3$$. Let the ray have origin $$o$$ and direction $$d$$. Let the model (4x4) matrix be $$M$$.
To find the new vertex coordinates one extends the positions with a 1 (to allow for translations) and multiplies by the model matrix. Let $$u_i = (v_{i,x}, v_{i,y}, v_{i,z}, 1)$$ then $$w_i = Mu_i$$. The resulting vertex positions are: $$v_i' = (w_{i,x}, w_{i,y}, w_{i,z})$$.
The other option is to transform the ray with the inverse matrix $$M^{-1}$$ and intersect with the non-transformed triangle. To achieve this extend $$o$$ with a 4th coord of 1 (to account for translation) and extend $$d$$ with a 4th coord of 0 (to ignore translation) then multiply both with $$M^{-1}$$: $$o' = M^{-1}(o_x, o_y, o_z, 1)$$ $$d' = M^{-1}(d_x, d_y, d_z, 0)$$ Drop the 4th coordinate of $$o'$$ and $$d'$$ then intersect with the triangle formed by $$v_1, v_2, v_3$$.