AndyH comments on Open Thread, August 16-31, 2012 - Less Wrong

3 Post author: OpenThreadGuy 15 August 2012 03:25AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (313)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: AndyH 16 August 2012 01:14:16AM 30 points [-]

Hi all, I'm Andy, the guy who made the game. I stumbled across this posting and am glad people are both enjoying the game and thoroughly infuriated by it :)

I had that scene in Cosmos vividly in mind as I created VR. It's amazing how well that series stands up to the test of time.

Another neat resource for that 'seen' view is http://www.spacetimetravel.org

They have a bunch of videos and explanations, too. In fact, the big inspiration for this game came from an exhibit that group built. It was in a museum years ago, and you'd physically ride a stationary bike around their simulation. A giant screen in front of you showed what you'd see as you rode through the streets of Bern (supposing light was traveling at 5 mph). It was completely interactive, and completely rad.

I've got other links posted if you're interested in more, but that's the one that sticks out to me.

Comment author: iDante 16 August 2012 04:26:41AM 7 points [-]

Well you managed to entertain a lab full of astrophysicists and me for longer than I care to admit, so that was awesome ty.

It would be neat in a game to have objects/stuff that emits light outside of visible light that can only be seen by humans when they're doppler shifted into visible range.

Comment author: AndyH 16 August 2012 03:51:11PM 4 points [-]

I quite like that idea. Make the objects invisible (instead of black, as they are now). That could lead to some nice puzzles. I'll keep that in mind for the future, thanks!

Comment author: Xachariah 21 August 2012 03:50:39AM 5 points [-]

I can't wait for the first time a student goes into Phys 200 and passes easily because quote "It's just like the time I was an ice skating raptor, dodging bullets while on fire and doppler-shifting doors open" unquote.

My only wish is that you add a little more to the congratulation screen for master of relativity. Even just a picture of the same raptor with a party hat on top would be awesome. You know, just to show that the poor raptor is doing okay after running into so many walls at a significant fraction of C.

Comment author: AndyH 22 August 2012 02:39:53PM 3 points [-]

Ooh, a party hat, I like it! Yeah, I agree the player could use a little more positive feedback.

Comment author: komponisto 16 August 2012 07:50:08AM 5 points [-]

Hi all, I'm Andy, the guy who made the game.

Wow. Hats off to you. This game is exactly the kind of thing I've been dreaming of.

Comment author: AndyH 16 August 2012 04:00:13PM 3 points [-]

You and me both. (And by that you mean literal dreams of being a velociraptor, right?)

Comment author: vi21maobk9vp 17 August 2012 05:04:52PM 3 points [-]

If you change the game, please, please add possibility to save progress inside level. It would make the arcade-hard SR-easy levels somewhat more feasible. I gave up when I was offerred to do the fire-snow-run among timed trapdoors.

Comment author: AndyH 22 August 2012 02:44:48PM 0 points [-]

I'll keep that in mind. While I (clearly) don't want the game to be easy... I also don't want it to be too unreasonably hard.

Comment author: Decius 01 September 2012 04:02:56AM 1 point [-]

Well done. I can't tell though if what we're seeing is perceived view what happened n ticks 'ago', where n is the distance we were from the trap n ticks ago in our current speed or at the previous speed. General relativity would have it as the former, but it seems like everything catches up instantly when you stop, rather than the area of altered perception spreading when you stop spreading outward at the local speed of light.

Comment author: Douglas_Knight 16 August 2012 03:31:58AM 1 point [-]

Have you considered doing Galilean relativity? I don't think it would make much difference.

Comment author: AndyH 16 August 2012 03:56:13PM 2 points [-]

In a Newtonian world? No way you could make a game like that. It'd hurt people's eyes! ;)