Re: 3DLDF

[Hans Aberg]

At 11:30 +0200 2004/08/14, Laurence Finston wrote:
>> It sounds as you are making a program for archaic computers :-): Most
>> computers, PC and up, have a FPU which computes with 64-bit IEEE floats
>> (typically a "double" in C on a 32-bit computer), and memory is not anymore
>> an issue in normal use. And one is now shifting to genuinely 64-bit CPU's
>> on the PC level (as the Mac G5).
>
>I'd like to implement rendering within 3DLDF, someday
>even real-time rendering, so I do have to consider run-time
>and memory constraints.  I'd also like it to be runnable on
>less powerful platforms.  I believe this is in the spirit of
>the GNU Coding Standards.

The problem is that at the time you get to this, the least powerful
computers expected to run your program will be 64-bit machines. The G4/G5
CPU's can probably serve as definition of what is less powerful today. You
might check (at <http://www.apple.com>) what kind of numeric types these
CPU's are using to generate renderings.

>> The quaternions were created in order to describe 3D-rotations, but the
>> underlying math will be the same as if you work with matrices. So I am not
>> sure you want to get out there.
>
>I thought it might at least help me to spread the error more
>evenly.  I'd really appreciate it if you (or anyone else)
>could suggest something that might work better.

I think you will have to hang out in newsgroups/lists where people are
specializing in this kind of things. You might ask in
comp.lang.c++.moderated for further directions. There are also newsgroups
such as comp.graphics.algorithms (and comp.graphics.apps.gnuplot)
comp.graphics.rendering.misc, comp.graphics.rendering.raytracing,
comp.graphics.visualization.

  Hans Aberg