Transform Any Unity Project Into a Relativistic Playground With OpenRelativity 40
schirra writes "The MIT Game Lab has just released the graphics/physics engine from its popular game A Slower Speed of Light as an open-source project, allowing anyone to play around with the effects of special relativity using Unity3D. While the hope is that game developers and educators will use OpenRelativity to develop new kinds of relativistic games and simulations, that shouldn't stop those with a casual interest from playing around with these wicked cool effects. For the physics inclined, these effects include Lorentz contraction, time dilation, Doppler shift, and the searchlight effect--though a PhD in theoretical physics isn't required to enjoy or use the project."
What about (Score:3, Funny)
spaghettification? What good isa physics engine if it can't turn every day objects into noodles?
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Screw your spaghetti. I want a physics engine that turns every day objects pink and invisible.
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Whooosh!
That was the pink and invisible unicorn [wikipedia.org] flying just above your head!
Cheers
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spaghettification? What good isa physics engine if it can't turn every day objects into noodles?
Spaghettification is classical tidal forces, you don't need a special relativity engine for that, just a compact heavy object. What I would like to know is whether the engine also considers general relativity? Probably too complicated though, deforming space and so forth.
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From playing with the demo last time it was mentioned, their implementation simulates the optical effects of varying the speed of light(getting massive doppler shifts at walking pace made me want to puke); but doesn't simulate(beyond a very rudimentary 'running and jumping on a plane with some scattered scenery) changes in mass, deformation of either objects or space or both. The new release may be more comprehensive, haven't had a chance to look at it yet.
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I just wanted an excuse to mention spaghettification.
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What I would like to know is whether the engine also considers general relativity?
Apparently it considers quantum effects, too - at high speeds I was able to tunnel through the fence, but then I didn't have enough room get to back up to speed to tunnel out!
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From what I can tell (I just played their example game), its not a physics engine, just some tweaked shaders (and likely tweaked culling to match). The only stuff of real interest here are the rendering changes. There may be some physics in there, but the dynamics type physics wasn't very interesting/apparent.
It looks like the distortions are done in the vertex shader, which means you need high vertex densities for high distortions to look reasonable (geometry shader based tessellation would resolve this).
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After playing a bit more, some more bugs:
Mushrooms, and a couple other things glow really bright in the far UV. Much brighter than any place in the sky, so it can't be scattered light, they are just powerful UV lightbulbs.
If you just hold "s" to move backwards, even if up against a wall and thus not moving, the relativistic effects are out in full force, as if you were moving.
Also, the complete lack of any directional lighting is kinda strange. No sun, no shadows. Everything is just kinda lit, and some thin
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With all the copulating in your post, I imagine the things you wished for will happen all by themselves.
a newer version.. (Score:2)
..for those wondering if this was a cyclic time thing from slashdot.
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This hypothesis is constantly disproven. Search for Boltzmann brains for research, or this neat talk [youtube.com]:
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This hypothesis is constantly disproven.
Surely the whole point of that hypothesis is that it can't be disproven? You can declare it as unlikely as you want, but can you really prove it can't have happened?
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This hypothesis is constantly disproven. Search for Boltzmann brains for research, or this neat talk [youtube.com]:
it doesn't disprove the possibility nor does it have anything to do with the idea that everything was kickstarted five seconds ago with everything in place. though I admit that I don't like the idea that world was created so that it already had my signature written ready for me and that I would have already an intention to press submit at creation, it's kind of a kick in the nuts since if it was so then I was kickstarted with the idea that I have some kind of free will as well - fucking pranksters whoever d
KSP (Score:3, Insightful)
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velocities requiring relativistic corrections
"Requiring" is such a strong word. GPS satellites in orbit REQUIRE adjusting for time dilation due to their speed. You know, cause we care about nano seconds when placing our quadcopters between three satellites. That's current modern technology, not science fiction. Welcome to the future.
Do we care that the Kerbal (who are currently immortal, do not breath, and can withstand infinite G forces) that is coming back from his decade long mission that overshot the moon has experienced an extra second or two? E
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I'm working on an unreasonable modded part right now, as a matter of fact. Ever hear about Project Orion?
http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/28428-Orion-aka-Ol-Boom-boom [kerbalspaceprogram.com]
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I second the motion. Can't wait to see Kerbal Interstellar Program.
Devs: Holler if you need help.
OTOH, OpenRelativity is open source. Can an API to KSP be worked out to work with OpenRelativity? We'll take care of the rest.
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Every so often, an idea that I thought maybe I at least semi-understood just goes and throws a fresh curveball.
That is bug-fuck insane and I love it (well, more properly, our intuitions are bug-fuck insane when applied to things moving at relativstic speeds, but I guess insanity is also relative)
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Maybe you mean things moving at sufficient speeds relative to the observer to render Relativistic effects noticeable.
Yes, that is the definition of relativistic. The V^2/C^2 factor in the equation has to be greater than 1%, I believe.
Link to the game (Score:5, Informative)
How about linking to it [mit.edu]?
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Unity _engine_, not the Unity _UI_.
As in a _game_ engine that runs on Windows, mobile, etc.
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Dang, if I didn't have projects already... (Score:2)
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It's a relativistic dupe! (Score:1)
http://games.slashdot.org/story/12/11/07/1559210/mit-slows-down-speed-of-light-in-new-game [slashdot.org]
Well, sort of. I'm going to guess that the difference is now they've released their code.
cheap jordan shoes jordan shoes wholesale (Score:1)