Bending Solid Geometry in PA

Hi, all.

I'm a programmer intern at Uber. Recently I've finished implementing the bending of solid geometry, so things like mountains and cracks can better conform to the planet's curvature. I wrote a blog post about it. Please have a look if you're interested

http://allenchou.net/2013/07/bending-solid-geometry-in-planetary-annihilation/

Thanks a lot for the interesting post.

Now I want a bunny commander! :mrgreen:

Perfect example how something that looks all innocent in the game actually requires more math under the hood than you would think. Good read!

I like your avatar! =3

A wild Allen appears. Ryan told me you worked at Uber. That is pretty sweet! Also keep up the good work, and don't ever take a break, the more you work the faster I get this awesome game =P

Awesomeness! Good work with that.

Interesting! Can this behaviour be changed on a brush-by-brush basis? I can imagine some brushes would not work well with this, for example city biomes - skyscrapers would need to remain un-bent.

Yes. You can specify the projection method on a per brush basis. Right now there is arching, bending, and none.

At first I thought this was a topic about a weird idea someone had.
Nice to see the planet generation is still being worked on.
Good work!

So when was this added? Has it been in since day one?

Nope. Its going to be in the next update.

Ah, I see. I presume current brushes have no bending or arching then, it'll be interesting to see what kind of new geometry this allows. I'm expecting big mountains, BIG mountains.

This was a fantastic start to a Friday morning. ^_^


Excellent blog. 10/10, would read again.

I had a small book on computer graphics that I have somehow lost

It had more math than a Stephen Hawking book :shock: Realistically though, whenever someone jokes that they'll never use the trig/vector math they learned in school, I tell em to look into graphic rendering

Stuff like this makes me wish I had the money 10 years ago to afford a computer science degree.

I enjoy technical dev blogs far too much for someone who knows nothing about programming or 3d modelling.

Same =x

Good blog.

Good work.

Do the CSG brushes support animation? e.g. in frame one you have a small crack, and then as you animate the crack grows in size and shape?

Unfortunately, no.
Planet geometry is fully constructed before a game starts.

I remember I have seen achou on the ptt(http://www.ptt.cc/bbs/RTS/M.1370477044.A.E38.html).
Glad to see there is taiwanese working with Uber, I'm from china mainland.

Great write-up, thanks for sharing. I'm a developer myself and those inside views on game development are awesome and always appreciated.