Every 3D modelling software simply uses a series of flat polygons, small enough to appear curved, to created spheres etc. Why? Why can technology even today find it easier to render literally millions of little triangles, than just one curve?
In: Technology
Fun thing.
How long is a coast line? Measure it with a meter stick you get one measurement. Measure it with a centimeter stick and convert to meters you get a different larger measurement. Measure with a kilometer stick and convert to meters you get a smaller measurement. Measure with a millimeter stick, or a micrometer stick you get larger and larger measurements. As you decrease the length of your measuring stick you increase the resolution of your measurements. Your micrometer stick can get into all the little tiny crevasses and overall the bumps. Your kilometer stick skips huge gaps and even the whole shore line of a bay.
So what? It’s just cool.
But… the real world has “pixels” just like a monitor. They are spherical-like and are 3 dimensional. Usually they are called atoms.
If you measure with a planck-length stick you can measure the circumference of the atoms and add those to your coastline measurement too.
Now your monitor has sub-pixels that are square and much much larger than atoms. You don’t have to work as hard to make a circle look smooth on a monitor because you will never make one smoother than the sub-pixels. So approximating the curve with straight lines does a pretty good enough job.
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