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Amiga Vendor Forum · NewTek

#To the Point

14 messages in this thread

#56091From: Peter GreciApr 30, 1993 3:50 PM

UMMMM ISN'T a Single Point Polygon IMPOSSIBLE to Create, Geometry Class was a LONG TIME AGO but I'm relatively sure ya need a minimum of 3 or 4 points to make a Polygon.

#56117From: Erik FlomMay 1, 1993 12:44 AM

Ah, but remember, we're only SIMULATING reality with these 3-D programs. :^) While it's true that you must have a minimum of three points to define a plane, I'm not sure if the same limitation applies to polygons. In LightWave, you can have one or two point polygons. In either case, you are usually left with a polygon that has surface attributes that can be changed, but the facing infomation is lost.

#56235From: John GrossMay 3, 1993 12:20 AM

Another thing to remember about single and dual point polys is that they always appear the same size no matter how close or far away you are to them when you render the image. Single point polys are always dots while dual point polys are always `hairs'.

#56264From: Erik FlomMay 3, 1993 4:04 PM

Yes, that's correct. Thanks for expanding on the definition of single & double point polys. I should also point out that there is no reason a 2 point polygon couldn't have a surface normal (of sorts). I've never tried, but I'd be curious to see what spiral string of 2 point polygons would look like – would it be able to determine proper shading for the curved line? Keep On Toastin' Erik Flom

#56311From: John GrossMay 4, 1993 12:47 AM

I don't believe you would be able to see much shading on the line. It should work tho and allow you to see a spiral (That would never change thickness)

#56353From: Erik FlomMay 4, 1993 1:19 PM

I'll have to test this out sometime. Not this week though . . . . Erik Flom

#56279From: Peter GreciMay 3, 1993 7:05 PM

Thanx for the info. I'll have to try doing some single point poly's myself.

#56475From: Matthew J. W. RatcliffMay 6, 1993 12:00 PM

Semantically, polygon does imply more than one point (the poly part), fortunately, technical jargon can diverge from standard usage, and usually does.

#56497From: Erik FlomMay 6, 1993 5:28 PM

so, what's the singular of POLYgon? UNIgon? :^)

#56810From: Matthew J. W. RatcliffMay 11, 1993 12:48 PM

I think monogon sounds better… but maybe just gon would be accurate.

#56563From: Nathan WahlMay 7, 1993 8:21 PM

Monogon?

#56569From: JERRY HATCHETTMay 7, 1993 9:40 PM

I thought it was UNIGON…

#56607From: John DowdellMay 8, 1993 3:18 PM

'WAY gone, daddy-o!

#56979From: SyndesisMay 13, 1993 11:22 PM

InterChange Plus calls these "lone points" and "lone edges". All of our translators support this notion and translate it between various formats. For example, VideoScape and LightWave recognize "polygons" with just one or just two points. They render as dots and lines, respectively. In Imagine, these do not render, but they are usable in the editor, so we preserve them in both directions.