Hi All,

I'm starting a project at work which is going to involve moving to and from areas in 3d space.  In those spaces, multiple things will be happening and the user can leave and enter a space at will.

I'm deciding on what would be the best way to accomplish this and I've come up with these alternatives:

1.  Center the camera in 3d space and draw the corresponding area objects.  When the user indicates movement to another area, I transition the objects off the screen( left or right ) and bring in the new ones.

2.  Draw *all* the areas and area objects as a linear progression starting from point 0 to point maximum and move the camera along the line of movement, left or right.

3. Draw all the areas and area objects in a circle with a stationary camera, and then rotate the circle a discrete amount clockwise or counter clockwise, depending on the users direction, to enter or leave a new area.

I'm trying to think of the pitfalls of each approach.  Drawing the objects all at once at then having the camera move around to view them seems like the more simple approach, but I guess I'm worried about performance being an issue with all the area objects being updated, even if they aren't visible to the camera.  Conversely, having to update object position and track their entry and exit from the left and right of the screen seems like a fairly complicated task.

Any insight or references to examples would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!