NAME

Math::Zap::Draw - supplies methods to draw a scene, containing three dimensional objects, as a two dimensional image, using lighting and shadowing to assist the human observer in reconstructing the original three dimensional scene.

 #!perl -w
 #______________________________________________________________________
 # Draw cube floating against triangular corner in 3d with shadows.
 # Perl License.
 # PhilipRBrenan@yahoo.com, 2004.
 #______________________________________________________________________ 

 use Math::Zap::Draw;
 use Math::Zap::Color;
 use Math::Zap::Cube;
 use Math::Zap::Triangle;
 use Math::Zap::Vector;

 #_ Draw _______________________________________________________________
 # Draw this set of objects.
 #______________________________________________________________________

 draw 
   ->from    (vector( 10,   10,  10))
   ->to      (vector(  0,    0,   0))
   ->horizon (vector(  1,  0.5,   0))
   ->light   (vector( 20,   30, -20))

     ->object(triangle(vector( 0,  0,  0), vector( 8,  0,  0), vector( 0,  8,  0)),                         'red')
     ->object(triangle(vector( 0,  0,  0), vector( 0,  0,  8), vector( 0,  8,  0)),                         'green')
     ->object(triangle(vector( 0,  0,  0), vector(12,  0,  0), vector( 0,  0, 12)) - vector(2.5,  0,  2.5), 'blue')
     ->object(triangle(vector( 0,  0,  0), vector( 8,  0,  0), vector( 0, -8,  0)),                         'pink')
     ->object(triangle(vector( 0,  0,  0), vector( 0,  0,  8), vector( 0, -8,  0)),                         'orange')
     ->object(Math::Zap::Cube::unit()*2+vector(3,5,1), 'lightblue')

 ->done; 

DESCRIPTION

This package supplies methods to draw a scene, containing three dimensional objects, as a two dimensional image, using lighting and shadowing to assist the human observer in reconstructing the original three dimensional scene.

There are many existing packages to perform this important task: this package is the only one to make the attempt in Pure Perl. Pending the power of Petaflop Parallel Perl (when we will be set free from C), this approach is slow. However, it is not so slow as to be completely useless for simple scenes as might be encountered inside, say for instance, beam lines used in high energy particle physics, the owners of which often have large Perl computers.

The key advantage of this package is that is open: you can manipulate both the objects to be drawn and the drawing itself all in Pure Perl.

AUTHOR

Philip R Brenan at philiprbrenan@yahoo.com