        otmvoxel released 11-08-94

        voxel landscape explanation/demo
        by Voltaire/OTM
        all source Copyright (C) 1994 Zach Mortensen

        email -
        mortens1@nersc.gov

CONTENTS -

        OTMVOXEL.NFO    - This file
        OTM-94.NFO      - How to contact OTM

        OTMVOXEL.TXT    - Voxel explanation
        OTMVOXEL.EXE    - Simple voxel landscape
        OTMVOXEL.CPP    - Source of the above
        DOS4GW.EXE      - DOS extender

HISTORY -

        About a week ago I was reading through messages on the FidoNet
        80xxx conference and saw quite a few regarding voxels.  Apparently
        there is a great deal of confusion as to what voxels are and how
        they are implemented.  I do not profess to be an expert in this
        area, but I do have a bit of knowledge I don't mind sharing with
        others.  If you are looking for an expert on voxels, contact
        Tim Clarke, author of the Mars demo.

        Anyway, I found myself with a bit of free time today, and I decided 
        to give voxels a shot.  I originally heard of voxels from Tim Clarke
        several months ago, but was incredibly confused as to how they
        were implemented.  Through a bit of observation and a bit of 
        reasoning I have come up with my own implementation, and I think
        that there are a lot of people out there who could benefit from
        the half hour of coding I have done.  I hope this little demo 
        provides some helpful insights.


A BIT OF PHILOSOPHY -

        Anyone who has spoken with me or read any of my writing knows of my
        feelings about the distribution of source code and ideas.  For those
        groups like OTM who are just getting off the ground, it is very
        difficult to make a name for ourselves without quality coding.  An 
        enormous problem lies in the fact that most coders who know how to
        do something spectacular are very reluctant to share their knowledge
        with others.

        I truly respect those individuals who are humble enough to admit that
        they once knew nothing about coding.  These people are usually very
        sympathetic towards beginners, because they can vividly remember the
        dog days of debugging code that they really did not understand in the
        first place.  I have been helped by a number of these individuals
        over the past few years, and I owe them an awful lot.  I think the 
        least I can do is return the favor, to help those who may be 
        struggling to understand and implement what I already have.

        And are we all not in the same situation?  Who among us can truly say
        "I was NEVER helped by anyone...I came up with ALL this stuff 
        myself!"  Undoubtedly a great deal of code is original, but there is
        also no doubt in my mind that we were all helped by someone at one 
        point in time, and it is our obligation to share our knowledge as 
        well.

        "So what are you sayin' here, Volt...you want me to release ALL of
        my code?!?!"  Well, that's basically it.  What do you have against
        releasing your code anyway?  Are you afraid of losing your 
        competitive edge?  For all the code scrooges out there, I hate to 
        tell you that regardless of whether you release your code or not,
        someday someone WILL figure out how you did everything.  Not to 
        worry though, once something has been done it's novelty is gone.  
        I think I will puke next time I see plasma in a demo, it has been so 
        grossly overdone.  The first few plasmas I saw made my jaw drop, but 
        after that they produced nothing but a yawn.  There is NO HARM in 
        releasing code, because a facsimile will never be as good as the 
        original.

        So why am I on a crusade to get everyone to release their code?  It's
        all about one thing, CREATIVITY.  You see, the best demo groups are
        the most creative.  Because these creative groups will eventually 
        figure out how things are done, they will eventually dominate the 
        scene because they are capable of coming up with new, inventive ideas
        that will dazzle us instead of put us to sleep.  By releasing code,
        the process is accelerated.  Creative groups will appear in a shorter
        amount of time because they will be able to quickly get around the
        coding obstacles that have been holding them back and keeping them
        from making productions.  By introducing new, creative groups into 
        the scene and allowing them to be competitive, we will see an 
        an increase in the quality of productions, because nothing drives a
        market like good old fashioned competition.

        It is useless for us to sit on our code.  By releasing it, we cannot 
        lose our competitive advantage.  On the contrary, releasing code
        makes the demo scene more competitive and therefore increases the
        quality of new productions.  Hopefully, we will all realize that by
        holding back our code, we are only holding ourselves back.


GREETS -

        Siri -  I LOVE YOU! 
        All of OTM
        Hurricane
        Zilym Limms
        John Peasley
        Tim Clarke
        Alex Chalfin
        Patrick Aalto
        Disk Daemon
        Hans
        Lothar
        ShadowH
        MArtist
        Berky (BORKY? ;)
        Bone_
        Error
        TmL
        ATG
        BurnouT
        The Schveedish Chef
        all at #coders
