[Algorithms] Massive spaces

[Sam K. <sa...@ip...>]

Hey,

I've got a little mind game for you lot.

Say you needed to render an entire solar system, in which you can zoom =
down to a planet surface and see detail of about 1/100000 meter, or =
shoot over to the sun and see the same sort of detail. There are a =
couple of immediate problems:

You would need need an enormous view volume (what say 20 lightyears big) =
which gives an appauling zbuffer resolution.
So whats are you to do? Render the distant objects closer than they =
actually are (i.e. at the far end of a planet-sized view volume) and =
scale them down accordingly?. This surely would give incorrect parralax =
between the distant objects

Also you need the planets to be of enormous size so that the front =
clipping plane doesn't cut through the planets fine detail when you are =
in very close (lets say an ant view for example). Which again buggers =
the zbuffer, since you're using a planet sized view volume.

Any ideas?

Regards,

Sam.