Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => Gaming Discussion => Topic started by: watsisname on November 01, 2012, 11:48:41 pm
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A game developed by MIT to teach people about special relativity. Relativity seems so weird and 'theoretical' to us because we don't travel at even remotely relativistic speeds. But if the speed of light could be reduced to our pace, then it would be obvious.
A Slower Speed of Light is a first-person game prototype in which players navigate a 3D space while picking up orbs that reduce the speed of light in increments. Custom-built, open-source relativistic graphics code allows the speed of light in the game to approach the player's own maximum walking speed. Visual effects of special relativity gradually become apparent to the player, increasing the challenge of gameplay. These effects, rendered in realtime to vertex accuracy, include the Doppler effect (red- and blue-shifting of visible light, and the shifting of infrared and ultraviolet light into the visible spectrum); the searchlight effect (increased brightness in the direction of travel); time dilation (differences in the perceived passage of time from the player and the outside world); Lorentz transformation (warping of space at near-light speeds); and the runtime effect (the ability to see objects as they were in the past, due to the travel time of light). Players can choose to share their mastery and experience of the game through Twitter. A Slower Speed of Light combines accessible gameplay and a fantasy setting with theoretical and computational physics research to deliver an engaging and pedagogically rich experience.
The game also looks like a dozen hits of LSD injected directly into your eyeballs. :wakkawakka:
Trailer and free download (http://gamelab.mit.edu/games/a-slower-speed-of-light/)
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ow my head. it looks like an acid dream which must mean it's bedtime for myself. :banghead:
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This is what I see when my brother's driving
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I must say that this is really quite cool
As for the code being available to everyone... someone do something with it with regards to FreeSpace
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What. I don't have the minimum system specs?! What is this?
Later: It didn't seem to matter at all. So is your speed vectorial (er, velocity then) just to make moving that much harder, or is it something else?
Freaking cool though.
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What. I don't have the minimum system specs?! What is this?
Later: It didn't seem to matter at all. So is your speed vectorial (er, velocity then) just to make moving that much harder, or is it something else?
Freaking cool though.
No no, it doesn't affect your speed, it affects the speed of light. If it affected the speed at which you where going then then you'd be bumping into everything by barely tapping the directional keys. :p
The whole point is to show how it would like when the speed of light is relativistically much slower than it actually is. The Red/Blue shifts occur when stuff is moving away/towards the camera, and the perspective distortion is due to light entering the camera's eye-point at significantly different times... although now that I think about it, everything might be red-shifted even if you where just standing still.
It doesn't seem as cool to me for some reason... maybe its because augmented reality/simulations have been used for years?
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It's definitely vector. I start moving, then it takes me a moment to stop. I get caught trying to move forward but just ending up going in a circle around where I want go; circular motion.
On another note: when I move, distances should contract, so shouldn't you move "quicker" (the world look smaller) as you go?
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Moving near c may not exactly correspond to intuitive readings.
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Sorry I don't get you. Do you mean that my intuition is wrong?
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There are other distortions that apply near c that overwhelm the visual effect of distances contracting.
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Ah.
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Very cool. I'll need to download and try this.
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Just finished, this is pretty mind-bending. Recommended.
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This looks interesting. Will provide a trip report after I download and play through.
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Just finished, this is pretty mind-bending. Recommended.
This looks interesting. Will provide a trip report after I download and play through.
:lol:
Just downloaded, finding it a bit nauseating, but still rather interesting.
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Just finished, this is pretty mind-bending. Recommended.
This looks interesting. Will provide a trip report after I download and play through.
I see what you did there.
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Just finished, this is pretty mind-bending. Recommended.
This looks interesting. Will provide a trip report after I download and play through.
I see what you did there.
:( I was going to say that and make a stupid pun but I can't do that now.
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I'm pretty sure playing this has given me a headache. Worth it though.
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Just finished, this is pretty mind-bending. Recommended.
This looks interesting. Will provide a trip report after I download and play through.
I see what you did there.
:( I was going to say that and make a stupid pun but I can't do that now.
I guess General Battuta... :cool:
...hit 59.9 miles per hour.
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Tread lightly, this game made me dizzy.
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On another note: when I move, distances should contract, so shouldn't you move "quicker" (the world look smaller) as you go?
Aye, it does show length contraction (and time dilation, too), but they are not as apparent as the Doppler or searchlight effects until you get to much higher fractions of c. The world doesn't exactly look 'smaller' with length contraction because aberration brings more of it into view and concentrates things toward the center. That's why objects seem to suddenly get farther away as you accelerate, and things behind your field of vision are brought into view. The aberration effect is best seen if you accelerate sideways.
Time dilation was very hard for me to notice until I had at least 90 orbs, and compared the speed at which the villagers were moving when I was going right at them vs. going directly away. Of course, with such high Doppler shift they become invisible when you move away from them, so I had to look at their silhouettes against the giant glowing mushrooms.
Once you collect the 100th orb your speed goes muuuch closer to c and the game only renders the Lorentz transformations. The length contraction is very obvious at that point -- once you accelerate to full running speed you'll clear the map almost immediately. Wheeeeeeeee!
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Uh, moving directly towards/away from a villager will also speed or slow their apparent movement due to light lag; to only see the Lorenz dilation I think you'd have to move sideways. Or better still, have a clock somewhere in the map.
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Will have to try this out. :yes:
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@Phantom
Whoops, you're right. Time dilation is independent of the direction of motion; I was speaking of light lag.
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You can't actually see Lorentz contraction, anyway, due to those same light travel time effects. If you look at the distance between the two legs of those gate thingies as you zoom past, you'll notice that it never changes no matter how fast you're going. What you get instead is rotation, distortion, and a change in position due to the aberration of light. Objects ahead of you appear to elongate, while objects behind you appear to contract (this is why everything seems to get farther away as you accelerate forward, but much closer if you look behind you after gathering the 100th orb).
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I got stuck in a fence :(
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Dont you know light travels in pickets