From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 15204 invoked by alias); 16 Jul 2004 03:07:38 -0000 Mailing-List: contact xconq7-help@sources.redhat.com; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: xconq7-owner@sources.redhat.com Received: (qmail 15196 invoked from network); 16 Jul 2004 03:07:37 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO sccrmhc13.comcast.net) (204.127.202.64) by sourceware.org with SMTP; 16 Jul 2004 03:07:37 -0000 Received: from [192.168.181.128] (c-67-172-156-222.client.comcast.net[67.172.156.222]) by comcast.net (sccrmhc13) with ESMTP id <2004071603073701600bb71le>; Fri, 16 Jul 2004 03:07:37 +0000 Message-ID: <40F7465D.5070304@phy.cmich.edu> Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 18:04:00 -0000 From: Eric McDonald User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 0.7.1 (Windows/20040626) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Jim Kingdon CC: xconq7@sources.redhat.com Subject: Re: possibility of emulation References: <200407160134.i6G1YV527251@panix5.panix.com> In-Reply-To: <200407160134.i6G1YV527251@panix5.panix.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-SW-Source: 2004/txt/msg00749.txt.bz2 Jim Kingdon wrote: >>Xconq on a Klein Bottle map, anyone? > > Oh, that's different from hex vs non-hex (and probably easier). Yes, I know. That's why I mentioned it in a different paragraph. However, the best type of tiling might change with the topology that one is dealing with. > xconq has the start of a cylindrical map (edges on top and bottom, but > if you go off the left edge you appear on the right with the same y > coordinate). Right. All that you need to do is set the width of the playing area larger than the circumference. > There are plenty of computer games with a doughnut-shaped map (like > cylindrical, but wrap around top/bottom as well). (Mathematicians call > this one a torus). Tori simply require two aligned folds of opposite edges. By aligned, I mean that each pair of corners that are to be joined share a common edge prior to being joined. > But twist one of the joins as we did for the Moebius > strip. An anti-aligned fold. >Actually, it is probably easier to implement in xconq than it > is to visualize. I would agree. > What all this does for gameplay, I don't know. Might have a big > effect, given how easy it is to sneak past the AI at the edge of the > map. But maybe the AI would just have another weak spot - I'm not > sure whether this weakness of the AI is a matter of geometry or just > of the AI not protecting its flanks/rear in general. If the AI was properly done, it could have an advantage in the Klein Bottle case, just because the poor humans might get disoriented. >>local plane approximations of multi-dimensional saddle curves or >>spheroidal pieces. (There probably couldn't be any decent, >>comprehensible representation beyond a certain zoom factor, so there >>would be no world map.) > > That would be interesting too (in mathematical terms, it is a question > of changing the geometry, not just the topology). I would consider it to be pretty much of a necessity in presenting the playing surface to the player. Eric