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@@ -172,44 +172,35 @@ Let me repeat: <b style="color:red">Don't do this.</b>
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But you know what isn't complicated, but **extremely important** to know?
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## The Square-Cube Law
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## Volume = Distance ³
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{% figure(class="float", caption="Relationship between Length, Area & Volume.", author="[Cmglee](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Cmglee)", license="[CC-BY-SA-4.0](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Relationship_between_length_and_area_and_volume.svg)") %}https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Relationship_between_length_and_area_and_volume.svg{% end %}
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When dealing with voxels/bloxels and their various algorithms,
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you'll quite often be up against the **Square‑Cube Law**:
When an object undergoes a proportional *increase in size*, its new **surface area** is proportional to the *square* of the multiplier and its new **volume** is proportional to the *cube* of the multiplier.
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{% end %}
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<divstyle="clear:both"></div>
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A fundamental reality of many voxel algorithms
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is that the data they deal with **cubically**[^squarecube].
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What does that mean, in practice?
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Let's do a tiny bit of math (<small>feel free to grab a calculator</small>):
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1. Think of how far into the distance you want to 'see', in meters/voxels.
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2. Using that distance, calculate `(D*2)³` to get the visible volume.
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3. Assume a voxel takes 64 bits, i.e. 8 bytes of space...
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4. ...so multiply the volume by 8 bytes.
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5. Divide by `1024` to get it as kilobytes.
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6. Divide by `1024`, again, for megabytes.
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3. Assume a voxel takes just a single byte of space...
If you solve for the size of the earth (a radius of 6371km), you will get a fun number of roughly **16550 exabyte**... which is more than half of the *entire* contents of the world-wide-web (in ~2024) at about **27000 exabyte**!
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If you solve the volume for the size of the earth (a radius of 6371km), you will get a fun number of roughly **2068 exabyte**... which is roughly seven percent of the world-wide-webs *entire* contents (in ~2024), at about **27000 exabyte**!
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Luckily, most of any planets volume is unreachable, hidden under the surface,
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so it can be treated as if it didn't exist, vastly reducing the needed volume.
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{% end %}
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While computers these days are pretty darn powerful, **they still have limits**,
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and working with voxels can push things there *very* quickly...
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and working with voxels can push them there *very* quickly...
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- Your RAM may be large (many gigabytes, usually ~4-8 GB),<br/>
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but the bits'n'bytes still need to go to/fro the CPU and back.
@@ -251,3 +242,7 @@ Perhaps [share](/wiki/community) your creation?
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