[Discuss] 3d... stuff?

[me at mattgillen.net (Matthew Gillen)]

Daniel,
For doing 3d modeling of the structures, blender is a good choice:
https://www.blender.org/

There's lot of options for how to do the ray-tracing, it's been a staple 
of computer graphics for a long time.

To help you get started:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_tracing_(graphics)
https://developer.nvidia.com/discover/ray-tracing
https://developer.nvidia.com/rtx/ray-tracing

HTH,
Matt

On 1/29/2022 6:09 PM, Daniel C. wrote:
> Hey gang,
> 
> I'm tilting at a windmill called "simulated evolution," and I'm in over my
> head before I've even started.
> 
> I want to have plants and animals co-evolve, and plants obviously need to
> grow up toward the sun, getting more or less nutrition depending on how
> much of their photosynthesizing surfaces are exposed to sunlight.
> 
> Which means I need a way to represent 3d structures, and then calculate
> which of them can be seen from above. (The first iteration won't include
> orbit or rotation of the planet, so no sunrise / sunset and no seasons.)
> 
> I have absolutely no clue what data structure to use for this, and what
> algorithm is appropriate for doing the projection that calculates sun
> exposure.
> 
> Help? I'm just looking for the names of the appropriate tools, I can teach
> myself to use them.
> 
> Thank you!
> Daniel
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