Companies writing programs to model and display large 3D environments in real time face a similar problem, where they only have limited resources. One work around they common use are “imposters”
A solar system sized simulation of a civilisation that has not made observable changes to anything outside our own solar system could take a lot of short cuts when generating the photons that arrive from outside. In particular, until a telescope or camera of particular resolution has been invented, would they need to bother generating thousands of years of such photons in more detail than could be captured by devices yet present?
Companies writing programs to model and display large 3D environments in real time face a similar problem, where they only have limited resources. One work around they common use are “imposters”
A solar system sized simulation of a civilisation that has not made observable changes to anything outside our own solar system could take a lot of short cuts when generating the photons that arrive from outside. In particular, until a telescope or camera of particular resolution has been invented, would they need to bother generating thousands of years of such photons in more detail than could be captured by devices yet present?