As part of my algorithms class I need to present an algorithm that I have looked into and analyzed. For this assignment I chose the marching cube algorithm. It's a nice straightforward algorithm that was designed to display 3d volumetric information and it was originally presented in 1987. Anyway I am learning quite a bit about voxels through this, and apparently this algorithm or something very similar is commonly used in place of height maps for creating the base landscape in many games. The reason why is that it make negative spaces like caves and overhangs possible.
So a quick explanation is that you take a large set of cubes put into a 3d array like 512x512x512. Then going through each of the smaller cubes you determine whether one of the 8 corners is either inside or outside of your volume. The program then repeat this for all of the remaining cubes keeping track of which ones are inside and which ones are outside and drawing triangles based on the intersections. In the end you have a rough 3d representation of the volume being measured.
Now I need to go and write a 20 page paper on this, and I find myself wondering what fillers to use to stretch this out. Wish me luck.
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