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Show HN: 2D field of view demo

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Re: Show HN: 2D field of view demo

#62
post #40

So... Can anyone explain what is so special or interesting about this? Both the idea and the algorithms are decades old and were already used in the 80s and 90s computer games like Wolf3D and Doom.

Even with a known algorithm, it can be cool to see a clean visualization of it.

OP was clever enough to figure it out, and that's great, but it bugs me some every time I see them say that they couldn't understand other people's explanations of how it works.

Re: Show HN: 2D field of view demo

#64
post #59
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well done! It's almost the same algorithm I came up with in one sleepless night, 7 years ago. I used it in a game that was not finished: http://feiss.be/games/luxi (shameless Show HN)

This looks like something that could do well comercially today, you guys should pick it back up.

I second this.

Re: Show HN: 2D field of view demo

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the result is probably wanted by the CPU -- I think this is a good reason to do it in the CPU. > its not an obvious candidate for offloading the the GPU -- How? Shooting a ray to every vertex comes to my mind.

I did something even worse with WebGL, shooting a ray from every light source and view point to every pixel on the screen in the pixel shader (so something has to be in LOS and and lit to be seen). http://i.imgur.com/ZJhr4Ll.png The "player" is sitting on the "wall" of a room, to the right of it there are stairs going "downwards", it's all just a heightmap. Needless to say it's kinda slow, but I was surprised how nea…

Me too. Though it's just rendered as a 2D raster: http://monkeybrains.net/viewshed

I'm trying to build something that can be used across the DSM we have of SF for better planning our wireless links.

Re: Show HN: 2D field of view demo

#66
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This looks like something that could do well comercially today, you guys should pick it back up.

I second this.

Hah, thanks a lot. We always thought we had something cool in our hands, but our agendas didn't match and our budget was null.. The worst thing is that since then I lost faith in indie teams, and prefer the solo path, like a lone rider.. :/

Re: Show HN: 2D field of view demo

#68
post #43
post #40

So... Can anyone explain what is so special or interesting about this? Both the idea and the algorithms are decades old and were already used in the 80s and 90s computer games like Wolf3D and Doom.

Its not. We've been in the Eternal September of Hacker News for a bit now. This is interesting to all the people learning javascript/programming/graphics for the first time and they're a sizable portion of the users.

It's great on HN when people present things they've made for others to play with, and it's fine for such things to be toys, learning projects, and so on. Some of us are decades out from "learning javascript/programming/graphics for the first time" and still take pleasure in seeing projects like this.

What's not ok is to grouse about it. If you know more than others, share some of what you know. Superciliousness is a degrading spirit, and if you don't want to see HN degrade, that's the kind of thing you should help us cut back on.

Re: Show HN: 2D field of view demo

#69
post #40

So... Can anyone explain what is so special or interesting about this? Both the idea and the algorithms are decades old and were already used in the 80s and 90s computer games like Wolf3D and Doom.

It's fun when people share their work in a way others can play with and give feedback on. This is a classic Show HN—it's fine for such projects to be trinkets. Not everything, lord help us, must be an original contribution to computer science.

And the discussion upthread is superb, so this was an excellent post for HN in every way.

Re: Show HN: 2D field of view demo

#70
post #40

So... Can anyone explain what is so special or interesting about this? Both the idea and the algorithms are decades old and were already used in the 80s and 90s computer games like Wolf3D and Doom.

Even with a known algorithm, it can be cool to see a clean visualization of it. OP was clever enough to figure it out, and that's great, but it bugs me some every time I see them say that they couldn't understand other people's explanations of how it works.

Thanks!

> it bugs me some every time I see them say that they couldn't understand other people's explanations of how it works.

I think I need to explain. Most of them explain their work well, but I cannot reuse them as they all have 360° FoV, not limited by distance, while I wanted something else, hence this mini project.

The ones which had what I wanted were closed source.

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