This reminds me of an idea that struck me last year while chatting with Jeff one night around the time I was designing the POP Forums logo for him. The idea was to create a "Virtual Cedar Point" that could be viewed online, and even used as an analysis tool. Real time implementation of this could be through JAVA using reduced geometry and texturing, which would be derived from a photorealistic model used for stills and bragging rights, of cousre. Something like this is a massive undertaking, though, requiring the work of a group of moderately skilled rendering artists, one highly skilled roller coaster rendering artist--(Badnitrus??), a JAVA programmer if the model were to be made interactive, and consulting. I never really took it any further than the initial idea, as it required time and skills that I didn't have at the time. Now thanks to my budding degree in architecture, I have the skills using FORM Z (the best architectural 3d design program out there), but I still don't know about the time...
Oh well, the idea is now out on the table.
-Dave Kochman
Pittsburgh
*** This post was edited by DaveTKoch on 7/13/2001. ***