/*
 * FLINT PARTICLE SYSTEM
 * .....................
 * 
 * Author: Richard Lord
 * Copyright (c) Richard Lord 2008-2011
 * http://flintparticles.org
 * 
 * 
 * Licence Agreement
 * 
 * Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
 * of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
 * in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
 * to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
 * copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
 * furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
 * 
 * The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
 * all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
 * 
 * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
 * IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
 * AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
 * LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
 * OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
 * THE SOFTWARE.
 */

package classes.org.flintparticles.threeD.zones
{
	import flash.geom.Vector3D;					

	/**
	 * The Zones interface must be implemented by all zones.
	 * 
	 * <p>A zone is a class that defined a region in 2d space. The two required methods 
	 * make it easy to get a random point within the zone and to find whether a specific
	 * point is within the zone. Zones are used to define the start location for particles
	 * (in the Position initializer), to define the start velocity for particles (in the
	 * Velocity initializer), and to define zones within which the particles die.</p>
	 */
	public interface Zone3D
	{
		/**
		 * The contains method determines whether a point is inside the zone.
		 * 
		 * @param x The x coordinate of the location to test for.
		 * @param y The y coordinate of the location to test for.
		 * @return true if point is inside the zone, false if it is outside.
		 */
		function contains( p:Vector3D ):Boolean;

		/**
		 * The getLocation method returns a random point inside the zone.
		 * 
		 * @return a random point inside the zone.
		 */
		function getLocation():Vector3D;
		

		/**
		 * The getArea method returns the size of the zone.
		 * It's used by the MultiZone class to manage the balancing between the
		 * different zones.
		 * 
		 * @return the size of the zone.
		 */
		function getVolume():Number;
	}
}