Cantr II Discussion Forum

Surely it'll be a stupid question and maybe it won't be answered because of IG issues. But since the day I ended the construction of my first boat I am asking the same, and I couldn't find an answer...

Well...

Is the Cantr World an sphere, so if I navigate to north I could appear at the bottom south and, in the time, return to the same place where I undock?
Or it just have "black edges" in the middle of the sea, where there's no other choice of turning back?

Yeah, I know I am like Columbus, maybe I should create a charrie with his name

Wilmer B.

I believe that topologically it's a torus - the world wraps around north-to-south and east-to-west.

http://www.cantr.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1439
http://www.cantr.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1714
http://www.cantr.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6892
http://www.cantr.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8989


The world is a bitmap. West maintains that it is a torus (donut shaped).

I am fairly certain that there is no "edge" to the map (obviously the map file itself has an edge). I don't believe that it is known (publicly) with any certainty how the map wraps, but a torus would make the most sense.

Huh, you wanna to circumnavigate the world? Make sure you have full ship of meat... if world can be circumavigated...

I went ahead and moved this from General Support to General Discussion as it seemed more appropriate here.

I'm still trying to visualise this torus...
Is it that the map is first wrapped north-south, forming a cylinder, then east-west?
If so, I still can't quite figure if you set off in any direction, say 37 degrees just to be awkward, will you come back to your starting point?
It seems that if you go north, you will take the shortest route, and any deviation from this will take longer.

The order of the wrapping doesn't actually make a difference as far as we're concerned; the surface behaves the same way either way. The donut-shaped "torus" is just a way of visualizing the system; in topology jargon it's an embedding of a two-dimensional surface in three-dimensional space.

It depends on whether the base map is square or rectangular, but going north, south, east, west, or on a diagonal (angle depending on the length-width ratio) would be the only ways to finish back at your starting point without going around the world multiple times.

And bear in mind that as far as I know, staff has not officially confirmed that the world is a torus.

tiddy ogg wrote:I'm still trying to visualise this torus...
Is it that the map is first wrapped north-south, forming a cylinder, then east-west?
If so, I still can't quite figure if you set off in any direction, say 37 degrees just to be awkward, will you come back to your starting point?
It seems that if you go north, you will take the shortest route, and any deviation from this will take longer.

Yes you would be correct in your think that if you knew the shortest distance around the world then any devaition would take longer... in fact the smaller the devation the longer it would take to get back to point A. If you even live long enough ! But to truly consider it. I would think if north/south would be the direction for the shortest distance then any 45degree out would be the true circumnavigator. That is all in consideration that the world is a Torus. Many other possiblies are possible... Any one what to start a conversation on the infinate possoble appearance of the cantr world... it might get really interesting and really ugly with our lot.

So, another way to visualize this is:

The map is a square/rectangle... you reach the east edge of the map, you pop to the other side and keep going east.

I mean, if the world is round or torus, that's basically how the map would perform.

Play Civilization for a while. That will get you used to thinking how the map works.

Take or visualise a rectangular piece of paper. That is the equivalent of Cantr world bitmap.

Wrap it round so that the top and bottom are connected (so if you leave the top of the bitmap, you appear at the bottome and vice versa). That gives you a cylinder.

Now, the left and right sides need to be connected. The way to do that, with a cylinder, is to form a torus or donut.

A sphere is a very difficult thing to represent in two dimensions - the top/bottom, left/right connection of a rectangular bitmap, thus creating a torus, is probably the easiest way to reproduce a world that has no edges.

wichita wrote:Play Civilization for a while. That will get you used to thinking how the map works.

World in Sid Maier's Civilization is definietly a cylinder, cause we can't cross the north or south pole. I agree that Cantr World is a torus (if every edge is indeed connected with each other)

Some of the Civilization games have a "torus world" option, which behaves in the same way we believe Cantr does.

I stongly disagree with the toris as being an acurate discription of the Cantr world shape for the same mathimatical reason that it is mostlikely not a sphear. The reason is that a Torus has a smaller circumfrance on the outside than the inside which really screws with any world navitgation you may concieve of for planning a trip on such a globe because to project a rectangular world map on it (as is the most probable format) would result in larger spacial units the farther from the center you go. It's "shape" is actually most likely flat and zero spacial units thick (diging to the other side of the world should be pretty easy in Cantr... just need a botton for it ). Anyway... visually think of it as a map folded in half. When you hit the edge you just have to hop over onto the other side and keep going: no pixel distortions, same rap around features, and few enough poligons that my wee lil graphics card doesn't mind having to render backfaces .