News Archive
2003-04-15
The last three weeks have been very intensive. First
there was quite a lot of literature to read through and understand. Some of
what was learnt through the literature studies have been presented under the
document section. The Crystal Space engine has also been studied to see if it
will be suitable for the task at hand; rendering an entire landscape with city
and surroundings.
Work has begun programming different modules in C++.
One of these, the MapGen has been partially completed and is presented in the
documents section. Work has now begun on the much more complex RoadGen, which
will create the entire road system. The Extended L-system, which is a part of
the road generation, is explained in the document section.
No replies have been received from Parish and Müller,
but that was as expected.
The people at
the Crystal Space IRC channel were very helpful when it came to questions
surrounding the engine, and they saved us quite some time when studying the
terrain engine of Crystal Space.
2003-03-20
Access-cards, time-plans, computers, printers and
software; almost all practical aspects have been taken care of, except for the fact that our computer still does not
have Microsoft Office, which hinders us from updating the webpage from our
workstation. Apart from the practical issues, time has been spent studying
already established methods for procedural cites, as well as literature
covering procedural graphic and fractals. One VR-engine, Maverik, has been
downloaded and tested to see if it could meet our demands. Some additional
testing will be needed before making a decision. In addition to trying to find a suitable
renderer, time will also be spent preparing to come up with a generation
algorithm. Also the project description has been completed and can now be found
under the Project Description link.
Mails has been sent to both Pascal Müller , asking
about availability of the source code for the CityEngine, and to Carmenta AB,
asking questions concerning their product SpatialAce.
2003-03-17
The first day was spent trying to get a webpage
operational. This included rewriting the project description to reflect upon
the most recent meeting with Lennart Ohlsson and Michael Johansson. After
careful consideration, it was decided that some additional research was needed
before the project description could be completed. This included already
established methods for procedural cities and other items of information
relevant to the project. More practical issues like time-plans, trying to get
access-cards, and waiting for our computer to arrive at the Computer Science
Department were also handled during the day.