detect if object is near

General Discussion
1

Any way to detect if object is near another object?

2

You can check the distance from one node to another, but if you want to do it often (each frame) and/or on many objects then put a collision sphere on each object and let the collision detection system do that for you.

3

I guess one lightweight way to do that is to compare the squared distance.

radius = 2.0
radiusSq = radius * radius
isNear = (obj.getPos() - target.getPos()).lengthSquared() <= radiusSq

Or even, if you do not want to take the Z into account:

radius = 2.0
radiusSq = radius * radius
isNear = (obj.getXy() - target.getXy()).lengthSquared() <= radiusSq