26 June, 2008

SimulaE Cartography Program - simulae-kaart.py

As a quick follow up to the previous entry regarding rooms being a void and not an object, I can happily announce that the first working alpha of simulae-kaart has been committed to code this evening.

The function of this bit of code is simple:  Produce the necessary wall/barrier objects needed to create the voidspaces we call rooms.

The current working codebase does the following already:

* Allow graphical design in a 2d environment utilising unicode representative tokens.
* Returns Multidimensional Lists designating literal start & end points of wall objects
* Allows for walls in traditional cardinal orientation (north-south, east-west, nw-se & ne-sw)
* Also allows for arbitrary wall/barrier positioning at any angle (true 360 degrees).
* Default scale based on cubic decimetres, variable scaling coming soon.

Upcoming functionality to be added:

- Auto population of a given map grid
- Auto insertion of portal objects inside any giveen barrier/wall object.
- Automatic map scaling down to the smallest micro and largest macro levels

Stay tuned for further information.  If anyone else is interested in signing up for future beta
testing, I can be reached at this domain, under the email account of eric. 

-e

05 June, 2008

Simulae3 Update: Room Object? What ever do you mean?

This is just a simple, quick update to let it be known that the issue pertaining to how to accurately represent a room in Simulae3 has been resolved.  I spent about an hour with a blank book of graph paper and pen poised in my hand and thought about the problem till the following realisation hit me:

Rooms are an abstract, a void.  They only exist as a concept without substance to us.  They are the empty space created by barriers, some of those barriers contain portal objects (e.g. windows, doors, openings).  It is using this logic that the next piece of Simulae3 can be designed.  

SimulaeKaart.py

A simple cartography-based program (kaart) being the word for map in Nederlands (Dutch).  Physical space will be represented in 10 centimeter square grids (though variable map design may be possible).  The whole point of this is that in the real world, we use GPS and surveying to accurately place physical locations, Simulae3 will be no different. 

The other quick note is that the concept of rooms are also knocked out in that a room knows not of its purpose, it is only by human reasoning and deduction that a particular enclosure/void/"room"'s purpose can be ascertained.  If you take an empty house with two rooms near the room with the stove and dishwasher, how does one know which is the dining room (if either).  One doesn't, one chooses to assign that role by the placement of the appropriate objects (appropriate to a dining room that is) within said void. 

Simply put, this conundrum has been resolved and the next phase of design and coding can continue.