CSG Notation

[Keiji]

I've spent awhile coming up with this idea; let me know what you think of it!

http://inv-host.no-ip.org?preview=x&fin ... cts%20(CSG)

I may sometime make a CSG->POV-Ray converter

[pat]

That's a cool idea. The only glitch that I see is that R1, R2, R3, R4 is not sufficient.

[Keiji]

Yea, if you needed more dimensions you could continue just increasing the numbers.

It'd be nice to work out the CSG notation for all the regular polygons... the octagon was hard enough.

One thing I haven't clarified is that anything constructed is by default 2 units in the relavent dimension: from -1 to 1. This is why you have to use an argument of n>1 to get a torus (the radius of the hole is n-1).

Also, with single tapers, the +1 cross-section of the object is the original shape, and the -1 cross-section of the object is a point. With double tapers, the 0 cross-section is the original shape, and the +/-1 cross-section is a point. So double tapers are twice as "steep" as the single ones.

[pat]

Sorry, I wasn't clear enough. That's not what I meant.

You cannot rotate around the x-axis in four dimensions. You can rotate in the yz-plane. You can rotate in the yw-plane. You can rotate in the zw-plane. All of those rotations leave the x-axis fixed.

[Keiji]

DAMN! That never occured to me.

Hmm, I'll have to think of some way to allow for rotating by planes (and realms, and flunes, etc) without breaking the conventions too much...