Doom 3 Engine Ideas 2

[Dima]

1)Why should Doom 3 use NURBS??
2)Why can't today's hardware make it possible or even the hardware that will be out when Doom 3 comes out??

[Disorder]

Excuse me, but what exactly is a NURB ???

[Linguica]

Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines

[Zaldron]

Disorder said:

Excuse me, but what exactly is a NURB ???

As Linguica noted, they are Non-Uniform Rational Bezier Splines.
They are "theorical" surfaces placed in space. They can´t be rendered, they are just mathematical algorithms to calculate a single point of the surface in a "pretty fast" way. Quake 3 engine uses NURBS, what it does is very simple, it calculate many of this points using the equations, and then fill the rest of the surface by approximation, joining this points to create a lot of triangles. If your machine is powerful enough, you can order the Q3A engine to calculate many more points, making the curve much more smooth. Maybe in 2002-2003, computers will be faster enough to render Raytraced NURBS, those are NURBS where ALL the visible pixels of the curve at this moment are rendered, making them perfect (inside the limits of your current resolution)

In the nearby future will see models rendered with NURBS, so, expect VERY smooth bodies and weapon cannons, just to name a few.

[Disorder]

Thanks guys... :)