Hi Jeff!

--- Jeff Pierce <jpierce at cs.cmu.edu> wrote:
> You don't even need to work that hard.  You can
> simply doing the following:
> 
> w makeActorFrom: 'square.mdl'
> square setTexture: 'image.bmp'
> square doEachFrame: [ square pointAt: camera ]
> 
> Now you've got an image that always faces the camera
> (commonly referred to
> as a "billboard").
> 
> Jeff

I remember this type of action from the Alice demo in
'Play With Me 7', the bunnys head did the same thing
(neato). However, what about creating a star field of
100 points distribuited within a defined bounding box.
For this star field model, (based on the proposed
sub-class) you would be able to assign an image which
creates a proportional plane for each point, centered
in that points location. The pointAt: method would
definately be the most intuitive way to handle the
presentation of the points image, but i think you'd
definately want a subclass to handle transformations,
file I/O, collective and singular manipulation of the
used images size and proportion, and the general setup
of a grouped collection of points which arn't really
forming a mesh, but simply a free-form collection of
image locations. Also, adding a conversion method in
the standard Alice actor, to convert all the points of
the solid mesh to a "point" model.

Also, i think a collection of model/shape
auto-generators would be a good addition for Alice.
Getting more towards creating geometry
programmatically rather than via files. Star field
generator, stairs, sphere, the usual primatives like
spheres/cubes/pyramids/cylinders/cones, maybe even
some fractal technique to do trees, land form mesh
generators, fractal mountains, spirals, tornado. All
with "point" or "solid" output. (I'll do these, once
my Alice theory grows).

My background includes 3D production work (Electric
Image, 3DSM), and i'd be more than happy to work on
any Alice projects. I couldn't even begin to
understand the work load of a PHD, but i would be most
glad to enhance these features - any help to learn the
Alice structure would be great. Any tips? ;)

Peace & Luck,
Ali.
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