18 October 2006

An Fhionnachtain

Tá eolas ag roinnt mhaith agaibh go bhfuil mé ag obair ar chluiche eachtra, as Gaeilge agus mionteangacha eile. Nuair a thosaigh mé an tionscadal seo, cheap mé go mbeinn ábalta an córas grafach a bhí le fáil le Java 2D a úsáid, ach ní raibh mé sásta go leor leis an toradh. Agus ní raibh mé sásta leis na hinnill ghrafach ("graphics engines") a bhí le fáil ach oiread. Ba mhaith liom rud níos sofaisticiúla ná Flash nó Shockwave, ach teastaíonn foireann ríomhchláraitheoirí agus ealaíontóirí ó grafach 3D. Ní ach duine aonair mé. Dá bhrí sin, chruthaigh mé inneall nua. Tá cuma cartún beo air, ach tá eolas 3D ann. Tá mé ag obair air le dhá bhliain anuas, agus tá sé beagnach críochnaithe anois.

Nuair a bhí mé ag obair ar an inneall, cheap mé saghas ailgéabar nua. Bhí eolas agam ar quaternions (4D veicteoirí), agus go raibh siad ábalta seasamh do rothlaithe thar trí haiseanna. Thánig an smaoineamh chugam: Cén fáth nach gcuirfidh mé dhá quaternions le chéile, ceann acu ag seasamh do rothlaithe agus an ceann eile don aistriúchán? Thosaigh mé ag obair ar an chaoi is fearr iad a chur le chéile, agus an ailgéabar nua a chur i m'inneall grafach nua.

Smaoineamh maith a bhí ann, gan dabht. Agus smaoineamh maith a bhí ann nuair a cheap Hamilton é, thart fa dhá chéad bliana ó shin i mBaile Átha Cliath. Ach ní raibh mé míshásta nuair a fuair mé é sin amach. Cheap muid an ailgéabar nua, ach rinne seisean é beagán ní ba luaithe!

Many of you know that I am working on an adventure game, in Irish and other minority languages. When I started this project, I thought I would be able to use the 2D graphics supported by Java, but I wasn't satisfied with the result. And I wasn't happy with the graphics engines that were available either. I wanted something more sophisticated than Flash or Shockwave. But 3D graphics requires teams of programmers and graphic artists. I'm only one person. So I created a new engine. It has the look of an animated cartoon, but internally it's 3D. I've been working on it for two years, and it's nearly finished now.

When I was working on the engine, I developed a new type of algebra. I was familiar with quaternions (4D vectors) and that they could represent rotations around 3 axes. The idea came to me: why not put two quaternions together, one to represent rotations and the other for translations? I began working on the best way to put them together, and I put the new algebra in my graphics engine.

It was a good idea, without doubt. And it was a good idea when Hamilton invented it in Dublin, about two hundred years ago.But I wasn't unhappy when I found that out. We both invented the new algebra, he just did it a bit earlier.




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