Isn't this called procedurally generated content? Not entirely unlike what they did with .kkrieger (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.kkrieger) ...
On 1/15/07, Or Botton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Sorry for the late reply, just noticed this discussion. > > Secondlife supports cutting but no boolean. You can link several > links together, and position them one inside the other to simulate a > new surface - but in truth, it will still be a group of separate > primitives, and no boolean operations are possible. Infact, we've > been asking for it for awhile. > > There are several types of graphics i've spotted in SecondLife: > A terrain bumpmap - for the world's terrain, can be edited via a > standard raw file. > A poser avatar mesh - The avatars are poser 2 models. We believe they > messed with the design abit, but thats what they are. > Primitives - pretty much everything else, other then the standard > issue skybox. > Particles - Clouds, several UI effects, and other effects that can be > generated via scripted objects. > > The physics engine treats all the objects as individual primitives. > Infact, for this reason, physics-enabled objects have been > artificially limited to 31 primitives - LL says that too many > physical objects with more primitives then this can cause the physics > engine of the local simulator to slow down drastically and possibly > "deep think" and halt. > > Every primitive can stand for itself. Each of them has their own > personal "inventory" which can contain symlinks to other objects, > including their own personal instances of script bytecodes - enabling > each primitive to be individually scripted and have its own > programmed reaction, including communication with other primitives > within the same object as they. Most of the complex 3D effects are > currently achieved by commanding the various primitives to move or > transform in a certain way to simulate all sorts of motions. > Commanding the "Root" primitive will cause the entire linked set to > move in the world itself. > > The physics engine is Havoc 1. It is running on the sim, sending > updates on all objects to connected viewers. Objects will always > continue the previously given movement and will even clip through > other objects in the scene unless another command is sent as > override. (Not very good for games - slow reaction time) > > After playing with various streaming 3D clients - from Active Worlds > to Blaxxun, Plastic Planet, Caligari, Terangreal and even GuildWars > (Zone art files are only downloaded on demand, when you cross the > border or enter a building - from that point onward they are > available on disk), I can safely say that Linden Lab's primitives > method is pretty good for streaming: It provides the fastest results. > > With most systems I had to wait up to several minutes to download a > complex scene. With SecondLife the wait is limited to 5 seconds at > best, with everything else finishing to render as you move in about > 30 seconds to a minute even in a very complex scene. > > The problem is - SecondLife have not progressed this technology very > far beyond adding afew features such as new primitive shapes, light > sources and flexible primitives. > > One feature that would be interesting to see would be the ability to > "fuse" the edges of primitives together to create a skinned object on > the client side, boolean operations, or even the ability to specify > "custom" primitive designs. As long as the server see the primitives > only as such or possibly "nodes", it should be possible to create all > sort of interesting effects purely client-side to enhance the graphics. > > On Jan 11, 2007, at 4:58 AM, Mark Wagner wrote: > > > On 1/10/07, Reed Hedges <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> > >> Does anyone know if you can do boolean operations with prims? I > >> vaguely > >> recall that you can apply a few "cut out" operations but not > >> completely > >> general prim-prim boolean ops?? > >> > > > > You can perform various CSG-like transformations on prims, but > > SecondLIfe does not support CSG. I suspect that this is because the > > prims are converted into meshes for rendering: CSG on meshes is a > > non-trivial problem. It may also be related to the physics engine > > they use. > > > > -- > > Mark Wagner > > > > _______________________________________________ > > vos-d mailing list > > vos-d@interreality.org > > http://www.interreality.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vos-d > > > _______________________________________________ > vos-d mailing list > vos-d@interreality.org > http://www.interreality.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vos-d > -- QOTD: "Violence is the last resort of the incompetent" -- Isaac Asimov GPG Public Key: http://www.jargonjunkie.com/rants/scones.asc Website: http://www.jargonjunkie.com/ _______________________________________________ vos-d mailing list vos-d@interreality.org http://www.interreality.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vos-d
