um...Bloodscourge, you said that twice. Good point though. I am really starting to like math now! Woohoo!



"I Vanna Fryyyy Skyyyy Hiiiiiiigh! Vroooll to get Vyyy!" -Sega''''s "Daytona USA"

As my physics teacher said :
''when I''m stuck I call my colleague who''s a maths teacher and this last bring me the right formula that simplify or solve my problem !''

JesperT - thats a pretty fractal picture I like it!

any info on the algorithm type/special features etc...?

Jack;

Yep, thats a recursion equation of complex numbers:

Z[n] = Z[n-1] * Z[n-2] + P

(zoomed in on a very small area)

P is a constant and the point in the plane, Z is looped up to n= 499 to check if it converge or diverge. The white areas are where it converges.

I calculate the light effects by making approx normals by using |Z| as a heightmap when it exits the loop.

My post up, your post down, my site here

Edited by - Jesper T on February 8, 2002 7:27:41 PM

Edited by - Jesper T on February 8, 2002 7:30:23 PM

I used to just count maths and physics like any other subject, albeit ones i was good at, i got a good grade in physics GCSE(im in england) so i went on to take physics A level (in year two at the moment) but about september i realised that i found EVERY aspect of physics incredibly interesting, and have now applied for Physics Masters degrees at university.

In a way, i suppose it is because Physics Runs the universe, so there is not a much more fundamental Science. (incidentally, i believe that this is why i originally was interested in programming, to know how things worked.)

Math is a part of life, you have to take it as it is. Sometimes it seems frustrating and foreign, but thats no reason to avoid it.

-Sepsis
2002

For me, math is the basis of all learning.

-Math is absolute. While other courses can be open to instructor biased (ie. English, Social Studies), if a math teacher asked you to add 50+1, and you answer 51, it''s right, no question about it.

I love math simply because it''s logical and I did better in it than any other subject through High School.

Just my personal opinion.

''''You shall be as Gods!'''' Xenogears
''''You work on the salads until you get killed!'''' Space Ghost C2C

I''ve always liked maths because it''s so precise. You''re either right or wrong not like when writing an essay. I still like history don''t get me wrong but I prefer maths because it makes more sense to me, it''s more definate.

I used to like math a lot. I was also very good at it, doing multiplication and division when the rest of my class was still learning addition... Then once I hit fourth grade, all interest suddenly dropped... I think its because we changed our math books, which resulted in more homework.

Here's why I love math...

For a while I did great in math but simply didn't like it. I don't know why, maybe because the teacher was stupid, or because it was going WAAAAAAAAAY too slow. Anyway, my point is, I write code since the age of 12 (ok, I REALLY started at 16, but I wrote little apps before) and I soon became attracted by 3D programming, especially games and movies (wow, Jurassic Park, I mean, SoftImage rules !) and I knew I wanted to work in this field. But after learning OpenGL and C++ and a lot of other things, I realized that I wanted to go further and investigate really interesting things like Bézier surfaces, illumination models, etc. I had always been fascinated by how we can use computers to create realistic, yet virtual, images. When I saw Jurassic Park (I was about 13 or 14) I realized how fascinating it was. BUT... now came the troubles. Every time I wanted to do something, there was that problem. Math. Every time I had to think in order to solve a problem, I realized that it was in fact a pure math problem and that I was completely stuck due to my lack of knowledge. So... I began to learn mathematics. And to like them. And now... hey, last week in my linear algebra class, we calculated orthogonal projection matrices... and in my other class we use triple integrals to find the volume of 3D shapes (rigid bodies, anyone?), etc... and now when I come back to programming, I find everything so easy I almost laugh. Want to display a Bézier surface with an optimized polygons set without partial derivatives? Hehehe... GOOD LUCK ! Using a constant tesselation interval for "t" in the formula is not exactly optimized Math is just the base of computer science. Once you understand it, you will find everything else in computer science a lot easier. You can always ignore math in general programming. But you won't be able to avoid math in the game programming industry unless you really want to avoid engine and physics code. So... if you like game programming, thats a very good motivation, isn't it? :-)

So, in conclusion, that's why I used to avoid math and why I'm right now a math addict.


Edited by - ET on February 16, 2002 11:19:15 AM