Solipsis: Python-powered Metaverse

[Terry Reedy]

"Joseph Garvin" <k04jg02 at kzoo.edu> wrote in message 
news:4280F03E.2070903 at kzoo.edu...
> Terry Reedy wrote:
>
>>Today I followed a link to an interesting Python application I have not
>>seen mentioned here before: 
>>http://solipsis.netofpeers.net/wiki/HomePage/.

> I was looking at this earlier today because I was curious how they were
> going to handle performance concerns (both due to Python and bandwidth).
> I'm having trouble understanding all of the details -- what is the
> significance of the use of a torus for the world space? Does this
> somehow help in the computation of the convex hull?

I can only guess alone with you, but it certainly makes the distance 
calculation needed to identify people in your local area, or a neighbor's 
local area, both simple and uniform (the usual Euclidean formula).  In 
other words, a large torus make everyplace locally flat with normal 
orthogonal coordinates.  On a sphere, you have problems near the poles. 
Several game worlds have had the same double-wraparound topography.

Terry J. Reedy