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[Rowanas]

I was over in another thread when a thought struck me. how about light and heat affect each other, specifically in the form of excess light producing heat. If the levels of light (in arbitrary units) reach a certain (raw editable) level, the excess light would become heat. This would be offset by whatever else affects it, but it would mean that places with a lot of sun are naturally hotter, which seems pretty reasonable to me.

It also opens the door for dwarfy light contraptions based on the light levels (perhaps different months are brighter than others?), Rube-Goldberg devices of greater complexity and glass lenses for focusing and directing light! Think of the possibilities!

The light could be checked without too much FPS drop by having the game check the map every so often, compare the light results with the light maximum (see above) and turn anything over that into heat, perhaps 1 for 1 or whatever.

Thoughts? Ideas? Problems?

[thijser]

It would require a completly new system with light. It would be like tempreture. I think we should first find more uses for tempreture and make shure that if this is implented it will actually be worth the fps loss.

[JoshuaFH]

I read this and immediately thought "Refracted mirror laserbeams ohgodyes".

But it does seem like it would be a hardware intensive aspect for an already hardware intensive game.

[Rowanas]

I agree, it's another burden that DF doesn't need right now, but the moment Toady (armok be with him) makes DF dual-core compatible, people will stop complaining about FPS deaths.

I'm asking mainly for feedback on the idea, not the FPS fallout.

[TheyTarget]

I agree, it's another burden that DF doesn't need right now, but the moment Toady (armok be with him) makes DF dual-core compatible, people will stop complaining about FPS deaths.

I'm asking mainly for feedback on the idea, not the FPS fallout.

I'm just gonna wait till they make processors better, and stop gluing them together. I dont need your damn six core processor.

[NW_Kohaku]

I'm just gonna wait till they make processors better, and stop gluing them together. I dont need your damn six core processor.

You do realize that the reason they are doing the "glue them together" thing is because there is a physical limit to the miniaturization and efficiency of processors, and that processors essentially cannot be made smaller than they are now without making them out of completley different materials, right? 

A leap forward will come, but it may be quite a ways off, yet.

I do like lighting issues, but honestly, I'd like to see air quality issues come into play before light comes into play.  I want oxygen-producing molds and lichens (especially ones that grow on magma vents... using noxious vapors like carbon monoxide that come off of magma vents to generate oxygen is just so dwarfy I get shivers) as well as ventilation systems and fans (possibly large enough for spies to crawl through the ventilation system)...

As for light, I'd like to see some sort of photoluminescent lichens come into play.  Even better if they have some interplay with oxygen levels in the caves.  Even better STILL if you have to keep both of those oxygen-producing and light-producing molds fed with minerals and fertilizer as per the Improved Farming upgrades.

The idea of organic cultivated fungus machines that rely upon beams of light as points of data for the inner workings of a megaproject makes me giggle like a child with a new toy.

[Urist McCheeseMaker]

And then someone modded a glow in the dark dragon and NW_Kohaku sponaneously orgasm'd.
Oh. It also shoots lazor beams from it's mouth. And farts NOx. Yes.

[Hyndis]

While I would absolutely love both lighting and air to be tracked such that a fortress will require elaborate ventilation systems and torches become important features, I think this should not be a priority until Toady figures out how to drastically streamline the temperature system.

Lighting and air would probably both be as complex as temperature. Perhaps even more complex, which means it would eat up a huge chunk of processing power.

It would be very awesome. It would also kill all FPS for all fortresses to near unplayable levels.

Playable FPS is a higher priority than even a very awesome feature. Whats the point of an awesome feature if you can't enjoy it?

[Hyndis]

I do like lighting issues, but honestly, I'd like to see air quality issues come into play before light comes into play.  I want oxygen-producing molds and lichens (especially ones that grow on magma vents... using noxious vapors like carbon monoxide that come off of magma vents to generate oxygen is just so dwarfy I get shivers) as well as ventilation systems and fans (possibly large enough for spies to crawl through the ventilation system)...

Assuming magma gives off noxious fumes, and assuming said fumes are lighter than air and treated like a liquid, you could even build asphyxiation traps. It would be an elevated walkway close to the ceiling, with the air up there being toxic. Anyone walking along that walkway better not need to breath or they're in trouble. They would "drown", sort of like being submerged in water. They can't breath the toxic fumes. It would essentially be a liquid that flows up off into the sky, rather than down.

However this would murder my FPS. 

[TomiTapio]

I think we should first find more uses for temperature

You mean... lock the goblins in a steam-room / sauna, and watch them sweat to death?

[NW_Kohaku]

I do like lighting issues, but honestly, I'd like to see air quality issues come into play before light comes into play.  I want oxygen-producing molds and lichens (especially ones that grow on magma vents... using noxious vapors like carbon monoxide that come off of magma vents to generate oxygen is just so dwarfy I get shivers) as well as ventilation systems and fans (possibly large enough for spies to crawl through the ventilation system)...

Assuming magma gives off noxious fumes, and assuming said fumes are lighter than air and treated like a liquid, you could even build asphyxiation traps. It would be an elevated walkway close to the ceiling, with the air up there being toxic. Anyone walking along that walkway better not need to breath or they're in trouble. They would "drown", sort of like being submerged in water. They can't breath the toxic fumes. It would essentially be a liquid that flows up off into the sky, rather than down.

However this would murder my FPS. 

Actually, noxious fumes from volcanic activity are heavier than air, and tend to pool in low-lying pits.  (Could use code from fluid system... although the fluid system needs serious reworking, as I have detailed in the Volume and Mass thread.)

Believe me, I do indeed want a much better temperature system, and I have argued against some light system proposals I've seen in the past specifically on FPS grounds.

That said, it is entirely possible to optimize the code a bit, and, at the very least, make checks less frequent in general.