The idea is I'll be able to fire virtual photons out of a simulation of the LIDAR system I'm developing. This is essentially because I need to validate that it'll work at the kind of distances it would need to in orbit.
As for how exactly this would manifest itself, I haven't got that far yet, I'm still at the background research stage. I imaging it would have to generate a list of objects at some point, otherwise I wouldn't be able to test photon collisions. This would likely be generated from a probability density function that's been created from a combination of observational data and simulation (for the smallest stuff).
However, I get we don't want 100,000s of objects floating around in the game so I'd probably have to do dynamic generation of the objects from the density function for a volume of space around the player and maybe add some culling.
I've not fleshed these details out yet, just trying to gauge interest because that'll determine whether or not I factor in the potential desire for it to be integrated into this while developing it rather than just making it something I can run on the Uni's SC
