答案取决于你用的是简单多边形还是复杂多边形。简单多边形不能有任何线段交点。所以它们可以有洞，但线不能交叉。复杂区域可以有直线交点，所以它们可以有重叠的区域，或者只有一点相交的区域。

对于简单多边形，最好的算法是光线投射(交叉数)算法。对于复杂多边形，该算法不检测重叠区域内的点。所以对于复杂多边形你必须使用圈数算法。

下面是一篇用C实现这两种算法的优秀文章。我试过了，效果不错。

http://geomalgorithms.com/a03-_inclusion.html

bobobobo引用的Eric Haines的文章真的很棒。特别有趣的是比较算法性能的表格;角度求和法和其他方法比起来真的很差。同样有趣的是，使用查找网格将多边形进一步细分为“in”和“out”扇区的优化可以使测试非常快，即使是在> 1000条边的多边形上。

不管怎样，现在还为时过早，但我的投票倾向于“交叉”方法，我认为这几乎就是Mecki所描述的。然而，我发现大卫·伯克(David Bourke)对它进行了最简洁的描述和编纂。我喜欢它不需要真正的三角函数，它适用于凸和凹，而且随着边数的增加，它的表现也相当不错。

顺便说一下，这是Eric Haines文章中的一个性能表，在随机多边形上进行测试。

                       number of edges per polygon
                         3       4      10      100    1000
MacMartin               2.9     3.2     5.9     50.6    485
Crossings               3.1     3.4     6.8     60.0    624
Triangle Fan+edge sort  1.1     1.8     6.5     77.6    787
Triangle Fan            1.2     2.1     7.3     85.4    865
Barycentric             2.1     3.8    13.8    160.7   1665
Angle Summation        56.2    70.4   153.6   1403.8  14693

Grid (100x100)          1.5     1.5     1.6      2.1      9.8
Grid (20x20)            1.7     1.7     1.9      5.7     42.2
Bins (100)              1.8     1.9     2.7     15.1    117
Bins (20)               2.1     2.2     3.7     26.3    278

为了完整性，这里是nirg提供的算法的lua实现，由Mecki讨论:

function pnpoly(area, test)
    local inside = false
    local tx, ty = table.unpack(test)
    local j = #area
    for i=1, #area do
        local vxi, vyi = table.unpack(area[i])
        local vxj, vyj = table.unpack(area[j])
        if (vyi > ty) ~= (vyj > ty)
        and tx < (vxj - vxi)*(ty - vyi)/(vyj - vyi) + vxi
        then
            inside = not inside
        end
        j = i
    end
    return inside
end

变量区域是一个点的表，这些点依次存储为2D表。例子:

> A = {{2, 1}, {1, 2}, {15, 3}, {3, 4}, {5, 3}, {4, 1.5}}
> T = {2, 1.1}
> pnpoly(A, T)
true

GitHub Gist的链接。

我已经做了nirg的c++代码的Python实现:

输入

Bounding_points:组成多边形的节点。 Bounding_box_positions:筛选的候选点。(在我从边界框创建的实现中。 (输入为元组列表，格式为:[(xcord, ycord)，…])

返回

多边形内的所有点。

def polygon_ray_casting(self, bounding_points, bounding_box_positions):
    # Arrays containing the x- and y-coordinates of the polygon's vertices.
    vertx = [point[0] for point in bounding_points]
    verty = [point[1] for point in bounding_points]
    # Number of vertices in the polygon
    nvert = len(bounding_points)
    # Points that are inside
    points_inside = []

    # For every candidate position within the bounding box
    for idx, pos in enumerate(bounding_box_positions):
        testx, testy = (pos[0], pos[1])
        c = 0
        for i in range(0, nvert):
            j = i - 1 if i != 0 else nvert - 1
            if( ((verty[i] > testy ) != (verty[j] > testy))   and
                    (testx < (vertx[j] - vertx[i]) * (testy - verty[i]) / (verty[j] - verty[i]) + vertx[i]) ):
                c += 1
        # If odd, that means that we are inside the polygon
        if c % 2 == 1: 
            points_inside.append(pos)


    return points_inside

同样，这个想法也是从这里得来的

我知道这是旧的，但这里是一个在Cocoa实现的光线投射算法，如果有人感兴趣的话。不确定这是最有效的方法，但它可能会帮助别人。

- (BOOL)shape:(NSBezierPath *)path containsPoint:(NSPoint)point
{
    NSBezierPath *currentPath = [path bezierPathByFlatteningPath];
    BOOL result;
    float aggregateX = 0; //I use these to calculate the centroid of the shape
    float aggregateY = 0;
    NSPoint firstPoint[1];
    [currentPath elementAtIndex:0 associatedPoints:firstPoint];
    float olderX = firstPoint[0].x;
    float olderY = firstPoint[0].y;
    NSPoint interPoint;
    int noOfIntersections = 0;

    for (int n = 0; n < [currentPath elementCount]; n++) {
        NSPoint points[1];
        [currentPath elementAtIndex:n associatedPoints:points];
        aggregateX += points[0].x;
        aggregateY += points[0].y;
    }

    for (int n = 0; n < [currentPath elementCount]; n++) {
        NSPoint points[1];

        [currentPath elementAtIndex:n associatedPoints:points];
        //line equations in Ax + By = C form
        float _A_FOO = (aggregateY/[currentPath elementCount]) - point.y;  
        float _B_FOO = point.x - (aggregateX/[currentPath elementCount]);
        float _C_FOO = (_A_FOO * point.x) + (_B_FOO * point.y);

        float _A_BAR = olderY - points[0].y;
        float _B_BAR = points[0].x - olderX;
        float _C_BAR = (_A_BAR * olderX) + (_B_BAR * olderY);

        float det = (_A_FOO * _B_BAR) - (_A_BAR * _B_FOO);
        if (det != 0) {
            //intersection points with the edges
            float xIntersectionPoint = ((_B_BAR * _C_FOO) - (_B_FOO * _C_BAR)) / det;
            float yIntersectionPoint = ((_A_FOO * _C_BAR) - (_A_BAR * _C_FOO)) / det;
            interPoint = NSMakePoint(xIntersectionPoint, yIntersectionPoint);
            if (olderX <= points[0].x) {
                //doesn't matter in which direction the ray goes, so I send it right-ward.
                if ((interPoint.x >= olderX && interPoint.x <= points[0].x) && (interPoint.x > point.x)) {  
                    noOfIntersections++;
                }
            } else {
                if ((interPoint.x >= points[0].x && interPoint.x <= olderX) && (interPoint.x > point.x)) {
                     noOfIntersections++;
                } 
            }
        }
        olderX = points[0].x;
        olderY = points[0].y;
    }
    if (noOfIntersections % 2 == 0) {
        result = FALSE;
    } else {
        result = TRUE;
    }
    return result;
}

当使用qt (qt 4.3+)时，可以使用QPolygon的函数containsPoint