Alright folks, let’s dive into my recent project, “Alter Constellation.” It was a wild ride, let me tell you. I started out with this vague idea, you know, tweaking the star positions in a 3D space. Sounded simple enough, right? Wrong.
First, I had to figure out how to even represent a constellation. I went with a simple approach – a bunch of points in 3D space, connected by lines. Easy peasy, until I realized I needed to account for the perspective, so it wouldn’t look like a flat, 2D mess on the screen. That involved a whole bunch of matrix math, which, let’s be honest, I’d forgotten most of from college. Had to dust off those textbooks, and let me tell you, linear algebra is not my friend.
Then came the “alter” part. I wanted to be able to move the stars around, like, grab one and drag it to a new location. That part wasn’t too bad, just some basic raycasting to find the closest star to the cursor. But then I ran into the problem of keeping the connections between the stars intact. It was a real headache. I had to implement some fancy algorithms to maintain the lines, even as the stars shifted. I tried a couple of approaches, one failed spectacularly – stars were disappearing, lines were all over the place – it was a disaster. The second one worked alright, but it wasn’t very elegant.
The biggest challenge, though, was rendering it all. I’m no graphics guru. I struggled with lighting, shadows, and getting the stars to look… well, star-like. I spent days messing around with different shaders, trying to get that perfect glow. And let me tell you, the debugging process was brutal.
But I finally got there. After countless hours of coding, debugging, and pulling my hair out, I managed to get a working prototype. It’s not perfect, it’s still a bit clunky in places, but it does the job. I can now grab and move the stars, and the constellation updates dynamically.
Here’s a quick rundown of the technical stuff I used:
- Language: C# (because that’s what I’m most comfortable with)
- Engine: Unity (because it handles the 3D graphics pretty well)
- Data Structures: A combination of arrays and custom classes to hold the star data.
Honestly, the whole experience was a great learning curve. I learned a ton about 3D graphics, game development, and most importantly, the value of patience (because I needed a LOT of it).
So, there you have it. My “Alter Constellation” project. It wasn’t easy, but it was definitely rewarding.
