Operation Survival needs a three dimensional view of the whole globe. I have managed to get a first prototype working: Try it here.
Lots of learning was involved before I got this far:
- evaluating and deciding on a flash 3D engine (Away3d)
- efficiently implementing and caching filters for large images
- perspective projections. Note for next time: you do _not_ see half the sphere after projecting it to 2D but significantly less
- The day/night line is calculated and updated in realtime (let the program run for a while to see it). Some funky math and astronomy was required to get this just right
- Quaternions. For smoothly rotating the camera around the globe without running into gimbal lock
- lots of Actionscript idiosyncracies, this is my first flash program after all
I'm quite satisfied with the results. Now I need to add stars to the background and figure out how to best draw flight paths and markers on the surface of the sphere.
Very shiny.
ReplyDeleteI am always shocked how much light there is, even in parts of Siberia. And it is already pitchdark in Iceland while it is still daylight here.
Which gives me an idea: maybe the Aliens are drawn by the light ... we could take the night texture of the globe and say the aliens have a bigger chance to appear close to sources of bright lights. This would lead to only a few alien ships appearing over oceans or empty land masses. I will wrestle that around a bit over the holidays.
very very impressive!!
ReplyDeleteMa