[Dmrpg-devel] Graphics delivery from server to client side

[doron m. <do...@ho...>]

let me first introduce myself my name is Doron , or Nightspy on ircnet/efnet 
, i'm a friend of nakee and we often talked about

the conversion of moo into a 3d env. i'm interested in dealing with the 3d 
desgin and graphics side of the rpg project atm
if i could contribute in other ways i will do my best :)

-----------------------------------------------------------


Graphics delivery from server to client side
To minimize bandwidth and to make things more flexible and programable here 
is my view of how it should be done

the idea of useing simple 3d poly shapes and compressed image files to 
create small filesize is well known and used
to the extreme on the internet nowdays , however this comes on the expense 
of quality and can only be done a little if you still

wish to preserve a pleasing gaming exprience. even so, most objects avatars 
or weapons etc. when done in 3d  take alot of

disk space and are not very suitable for an rpg environment where players 
are invited to create their own scene that may include

original objects and avatars , even when useing broadband internet 
connections there is a limit to the number of components

you're able to pass to players (via downloading patches or model packs) this 
is not a convnient methood of delivery for new

content and not at all what i have in mind for this project.

players should be able to walk into a new scene and wait a few seconds a 
time seeing that new objects are being added into

the game env. in realtime this should not slow down the server by much if 
the information being passed but is a simple

collection of instructions telling the client how to generate new objects 
based of existing information

my idea is the implimination of a graphics description language and 
independent parsing on the client side:
scene objects are defined useing a text descriprion language which can be 
easily human readable but not overly simplified
as not to not exculde other types of content but make it optional to use 
only when cannot be done otherwise (data files can be

attached to the text form in this case).

a similar graphics description language to that of Povray raytracer can be 
used for a quick scene generation while the rendering
itself would be done by the client useing opengl insted , this gives the 
ability to declare new objects from existing primitives (

polyhedron , cube , plane , sphere , cylinder, cone , etc.) or make changes 
in objects and manipulating their properties by

includeing some code , such as type of of object , scale , location , size 
and appearance , special objects can be used to

create things as well , such as lofting (which uses 2d pathes extruded to 3d 
on another path) , boolean objects (by intersecting

3d objects) , fractal objects (such as lsystems used with cylinders insted 
of lines in 3d)  also the use of textures and materials

can be declared the same way useing filters like noise plasma and other 
things and colors can be assigned to vertexes and

objects and the various optical properties such as opacity specular 
reflection bumpmapping and whatever opengl
can do in realtime useing geforce cards today this may include the use of 
vertex and pixel shaders as well.

also in order to make it simple for the user to create his own objects there 
will be a need for a simple editor and toolswhich will

automate the writing of script by more standard modeling technique , as in 
drag and drop objects into place without the need to

decalre their location via x,y,z text format or the generation of lsystems 
and other procedural objects , many tools exist
for the povray script nowdays , we might borrow opensource code and convert 
them into our own use

here is an example of some povray script to make it more understandable for 
more info http://www.povray.org/
there are many amazing pictures of render results by the povray engine on 
the site for illustration , you need to remember
we won't do raytracing however but realtime (but technicly it would be 
possible if you want :)

//#include "flareblocker.inc"


light_source {
	<-500,-50,-500>
	rgb <.1,.2,.5>
}
camera {
	location camera_location
	angle camera_angle
	look_at camera_look_at
}



sky_sphere {
	pigment {
		crackle form <1,0,0>
		color_map {
			[0 rgb 5]
			[.1 rgb 0]
		}
		scale .03
	}
}



/*
#declare Gloed=
cylinder {
	-y,y,1
	pigment {rgbt 1}
	interior {
		media {
			emission 3
			method 3
			samples 1,10
			intervals 1

			density {
				spherical
				color_map {
					[0 rgb 0]
					[1 rgb 1]
				}
				poly_wave 5
				scale 2
				//scale <1,2,1>
			}
			density {
				cylindrical
				//spherical
				color_map {
					[0 rgb 0]
					[.75 rgb <.1,.01,.02>]
					[.85 rgb <1,.1,.2>]
					[1 rgb <1,.85,.9>]
				}
			}

	scale <.5,.5,.5>
	rotate -x*90
	scale <1.5,1.5,.5>
	scale 2


		}
	}
	hollow
	no_shadow
	scale <.5,.25,.5>
	rotate -x*90
	scale <1.5,1.5,1>
}




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