[DGD] using NURBS to generate virtual landscapes

[Shentino]

Perhaps not yet, but also consider that text might not be the only way to
describe things.

Skotos made a good analogy about a text interface and a quake interface
connecting to the same virtual world.  And a quake interface would
definitely need some geometry info just to know where to draw the polygons.

Of course, if I restrict myself to text, NURBS are indeed overkill.
However, I'm feeling a bit ambitious and I'd rather not build in an
infrastructure now that would lock out such an improvement later as being
"banned because it breaks too much"

I can see visions of a gorgeous navigable landscape being generated for the
benefit of any graphical users.  Some math to determine slopes and normals
could conceivably be translated, possibly with fuzzy logic, into grades of
steepness, and whatnot for textual users.

I actually happen to be a wizard on a mud that has been running for 10 years
straight, and try as I may, there are many enhancements that are banned
simply because they break too much stuff.  It is very annoying to see
historical and likely rusty code be mandated as being sacred canon simply
because it was written first.  Incidentally, this culture also keeps it from
switching to DGD, a notion that nearly got me de-wizzed for being a heretic.
:P

On Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 1:02 PM, Noah Gibbs <noah_gibbs at yahoo.com> wrote:

>
>  In general, this kind of thing winds up being a lot, LOT more than you
> need for geometric consistency.  The problem is that you need to usefully
> generate text descriptions of the hillsides and whatnot, and NURBS give you
> *way* too much information in a form that's hard to analyze.  You're usually
> better off using something simpler, like simple grid-based subdivision
> (remember plasma fractals?) that's easier to generate a description for.


What's a plasma fractal?

>
>  In other words, first figure out how your MUD will describe this stuff,
> and then come up with a model that will very conveniently generate that
> description.  NURBS are not that model.
>
> --- On Tue, 3/17/09, Shentino <shentino at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > From: Shentino <shentino at gmail.com>
> > Subject: [DGD] using NURBS to generate virtual landscapes
> > To: "All about Dworkin's Game Driver" <dgd at dworkin.nl>
> > Date: Tuesday, March 17, 2009, 12:22 PM
> > Beckoning to me from the past, I hear NURBS, used in Rhino
> > to generate 3D
> > models.
> >
> > It just occured to me that a super fancy mud might use them
> > to generate
> > hills and mountains and whatnot.
> >
> > First, any technical aspects to worry about besides NURBS
> > itself (which I
> > still have to grok).
> >
> > Second, does anyone have/has anyone had any experience in
> > this sort of thing
> > and/or possible insights?
> >
> > It's still a bit hazy, but I would like to be able to
> > write a geometrically
> > consistent game, possibly on top of kotaka or phantasmal.
> > Having NURBS
> > generate geometry and whatnot would be really cool for
> > modelling landscapes
> > without the "curse of a million polys"
> >
> > Geometric consistency would be to satisfy any
> > propeller-headed guys who
> > would be clever enough to use stuff like triangulation and
> > whatnot to find
> > treasures, monsters, or fallen allies.
> > ___________________________________________
> > https://mail.dworkin.nl/mailman/listinfo/dgd
>
>
>
> ___________________________________________
> https://mail.dworkin.nl/mailman/listinfo/dgd
>