CompuServe Messages

Hi Don, PMJI, but I was curious if: 1) You are working on any new IPAS routines that you can talk about. 2) WRT Flock.axp: A) With IPAS 3, is it possible that the user-defined "bird" particles could have a simple cyclic heirarchy which could loop throughout the animation (such as a "bird" particle flapping it's wings) ? B) Again via IPAS 3, is it possible that you could perform interactive collision detection (bird-to-bird) and specific CD (say, bird-to-building) in a "reasonable" amount of calculation time ? Perhaps the calculations could be speeded up by using a program-defined or user-defined substitute bounding volume around the more complex particles, and user-defined sampling rate (accuracy) as needed for a specific scene's requirements ? As an alternative to testing so many (even simplified bounding) surfaces for CD, perhaps a repulsion force field (collision avoidance) could be employed and detected by the lead "birds" which take evasive action which trickles down through the flock ? C) Also, could a real-time (or quick) preview of the defined flocking pattern as it evolves over time be generated using just (perhaps) a few pixel stand-in for the actual "birds" (similar to the Yost Vapor.axp preview) ? And last, would you consider re-writing flock.axp as above (if possible) if there was enough interest generated by others here <g> ? FEEDBACK FROM OTHERS, PLEASE ! Regards, BILL