(Message inbox:99) Return-Path: bov@x.co.uk Received: from mail.fwi.uva.nl by gene.fwi.uva.nl with SMTP (5.65c(FWI)/3.0) id AA26793; Thu Feb 18 10:05:50 1993 Received: by mail.fwi.uva.nl from cambs.x.co.uk with SMTP (5.65c(FWI)/3.0) id AA04350; Thu, 18 Feb 1993 11:06:42 +0100 Message-Id: <199302181006.AA04350@fwi.uva.nl> Received: from essex.x.co.uk by cambs.x.co.uk with v15.11; Thu, 18 Feb 93 10:06:52 gmt Received: by essex.UUCP with v4.1; Thu, 18 Feb 93 10:05:50 GMT Date: Thu, 18 Feb 93 10:05:50 GMT From: bov@x.co.uk (Andy Bovingdon) To: stolk@fwi.uva.nl Hi, You wrote: >For now, it's a Scheppers only privilige :-) ok, I shall have to try harder. >I dont understand what you mean. ok, let me try to explain a bit better. let us say that a scene would benefit from having an animated object in it, say a large flickering fire on a crashed space ship. At the moment how would this be done? would it not have to send a list of polygons for each stage of flickering, then send a change picture to the next set of polygons, is this even possible? If you send the polygons, then send a description of what to do as one message, ie display flame-1 at this position, display flame-2 at this position, display flame-3 at this position and so on finally specifying the sequence should repeat or run backward to the start and then repeat. In this way you can describe a set of polygons (as now) and also a set of repeating actions (frame, position list). The client at my end can then just animate them smoothly, without talking to the server, so the flames flicker in the scene. The client remembers the action lists like polygons etc, so it does not need to be re-sent. Also the actions could be non-repeat so the server could say 'action bart-vomit' which would cause the sequence of frames which shows bart vomiting to be played (the frames specified for the action would be flicked through, the position would be marked as current location) This is a simple extension to the existing protocol, which I feel would add a lot of realism to the environment, just think smooth animated monsters, twinkling stars, lightning - you could specify a delay factor between repeats of a sequence, ie bolt1 - bolt 4 is a set of polygon images for lightning bolts, the protocol sent could be: ACT lightning loop 0 20 4 bolt1 10 10 bolt2 10 10 bolt3 10 10 bolt4 10 10 | | | | | | | \ / \_______ The other frames ________/ Command | | | | | | | | / | | | | position offset ie 10 (or +10)and -10 means action ID / | | | | move object by 10 or -10. 0 means do not move. / | | | \ / | | | Graphics ID (polygon) loop repeat / | | reverse repeat / | | no_repeat etc / | | / | | number of times | | to repeat. where | | 0=forever in this | | scene. / | / | delay between repeats | / number of frames following So in your terms: Server to client: "Please draw scene 'humpback bridge'" Client to server: "I dont know what 'humpback bridge' looks like" Server to client: "'Humpback bridge' consists of the following polygons.." Server to client: "Please show the lightning" Client to server: "I dont how to "show lightning" Server to client: "lightning" consists of this action ..." Client to server: "I dont know what "bolt1" looks like" Client to server: "I dont know what "bolt2" looks like" Client to server: "I dont know what "bolt3" looks like" Client to server: "I dont know what "bolt4" looks like" Server to client: "bolt1" consists of the following polygons..." Server to client: "bolt2" consists of the following polygons..." Server to client: "bolt3" consists of the following polygons..." Server to client: "bolt4" consists of the following polygons..." Server to client: "Please show the fast_lighning" Client to server: "I dont how to "show fast_lighning" Server to client: "fast_lighning" consists of this action ..." and so on. A gain can be seen on any animation over 1 frame. Hope this explains the idea better. If you have any questions etc, just mail me. Have fun Bov!