Re: GIS Update

[Lincoln Peters <sampln@sbcglobal.net>]

On Tue, 2004-10-26 at 21:01, D. Cooper Stevenson wrote:
> All,
> 
> Quick Take:
> 
> During the game, you might see something like this (review):
> 
>   http://wiki.xconqgis.org/index.php?WhatGisImageMightLookLike
> 
> The world size is the same as Normandy's, 186x159. I've recalibrated the 
> image's resolution to match. The computer "sees" this:
> 
>   http://wiki.xconqgis.org/images/grass2xconq/seattle_lowres_large.jpg
> 
> How about that?

Quite impressive.

> 
> Now, this is really important. Note that these are images not of _elevation_ 
> data; it's actual _landcover_ data! The landcover data translates directly 
> into terrain types. Note too that exporting GIS elevation data is trivial. 
> Very nice!

Do you think that this data map nicely to the terrain types in an
existing terrain module (plains, forest, desert, mountains, swamp,
shallows, sea), or does this call for a new terrain module to be of any
real interest?  If at this point you're just dealing with landcover, I
could create a simplified spin-off of my proposed omniterr.g terrain
module toward that end (no coatings would be needed).

Elevation data, of course, is a fairly simple matter to import. 
Although as far as I can tell, it only affects the isometric view code
and (sometimes) the fractal percentile terrain generator.

> 
> I did a spot check and found that the ascii export and the low res image seem 
> to coincide. I'll know for sure when I'm finished with the conversion script.
> 
> The best news is that the entire process is capable of automation. This has 
> the potential for real-time rendering wherever the tacticians wish to fight 
> (or run).

What kind of CPU and memory does the process require?  It probably
wouldn't be an issue on newer computers (especially those built
specifically for playing games), but somewhere out there, someone is
probably still playing Xconq through an ASCII terminal with the Ncurses
interface, and you can guess how much power that thing would have...

> 
> I hope to have 3D renderings soon. Just for fun, here's an image created with 
> GIS data similar to the elevation data I'm using:
> 
>   http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpegMod/PIA06668_modest.jpg

Looks like we might be able to dramatically improve the isometric view
code (at least for some games) without having to make any major changes
to the actual view code!  Of course, since I've never messed with the UI
code, I'm guessing there.

---
Lincoln Peters
<sampln@sbcglobal.net>

BOFH excuse #13:

we're waiting for [the phone company] to fix that line