Posts by AwesomeMan

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Infinity Travel Prototype
« on: January 21, 2009, 11:38:18 PM »

For your amusement and edification, I offer an Infinity Travel Prototype.

Its primary purpose is to give a sense of space in the vicinity of our own Sun with a certain amount of interstellar ship activity. You cannot do anything with it other than watch what it does. There are viewing controls.

1. It shows a sensor volume 8 parsecs in radius. That's 17738 cubic light years.

2. The star distribution matches that described by Wikipedia according to the Harvard Spectral Classification.

3. Star sizes are accurate only in relation to each other. Red giants are not accounted for. There are no O or B class stars because of the small sampling.

4. There are 500 stars in the sensor volume. No other bodies are shown.

5. Ten ships travel optimal routes between two random stars. They fly between the two endpoints over and over again. They are displayed as white stars.

6. Ships have a 2 second turnaround time before they are back into FTL travel. Ships layover for 10 seconds at a destination before beginning the return trip.

7. All ships travel at 1.6 light years per second.

The application is a Windows-only .NET application. It requires that you have .NET 2.0 and DirectX 9.0 installed on your system. It should run on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.

1. Download this zip file.

2. Unpack it into a folder of your choosing.

3. Run the Infinity.exe program file.

That will display a fairly standard Windows user interface. Open a new project by selecting File.New. That will display a new project window with a view of the sensor volume around you. The ships will immediately begin traveling.

Click in the display area to control the display. Your mouse pointer will vanish and you will have control of the display. Press the Escape key to stop controlling the display.

The viewing controls are similar to ASEToBin except that I went with a WASD/Mouse combination. Move the mouse to look around, press the WASD keys to move. The Q and E buttons will rotate the view.

A depth-cueing 'fog' can be toggled by pressing the F key.

The speed at which the camera moves is displayed in the upper left corner of the window. Use the mouse wheel or the PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN keys to control the camera speed.

Kill the application when you've had enough.

Software Disclaimer: this is a piece of software that you involve yourself with at your own risk. It is open source for non-commercial use only. Source code can be extracted from the software by using tools such as Reflector.

This prototype is currently extremely limited. The numbers that I chose are not intended to be suggestions as to how things should work. The prototype is intended to communicate a sense of what we're getting into when we try to sense out over roughly 25 light years in the low-density area of our own solar system. It also attempts to illustrate what ships zipping about might look like when traveling at observable speeds. I suggest moving the camera clear of the sensor volume so that you can see the whole picture.
http://sites.google.com/site/e…Travel.zip?attredirects=0

http://images.google.com/url?s…AOrPsq0T7FzqCgJcDF9eR52sA

With the upcoming disaster film "2012" and the current hype about Mayan calendars and doomsday predictions, it seems like a good time to put such notions in context.

Most prophets of doom come from a religious perspective, though the secular crowd has caused its share of scares as well. One thing the doomsday scenarios tend to share in common: They don't come to pass.

Here are 10 that didn't pan out, so far:

The Prophet Hen of Leeds, 1806

History has countless examples of people who have proclaimed that the return of Jesus Christ is imminent, but perhaps there has never been a stranger messenger than a hen in the English town of Leeds in 1806. It seems that a hen began laying eggs on which the phrase "Christ is coming" was written. As news of this miracle spread, many people became convinced that doomsday was at hand until a curious local actually watched the hen laying one of the prophetic eggs and discovered someone had hatched a hoax.

The Millerites, April 23, 1843

A New England farmer named William Miller, after several years of very careful study of his Bible, concluded that God's chosen time to destroy the world could be divined from a strict literal interpretation of scripture. As he explained to anyone who would listen, the world would end some time between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. He preached and published enough to eventually lead thousands of followers (known as Millerites) who decided that the actual date was April 23, 1843. Many sold or gave away their possessions, assuming they would not be needed; though when April 23 arrived (but Jesus didn't) the group eventually disbandedsome of them forming what is now the Seventh Day Adventists.

Mormon Armageddon, 1891 or earlier

Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon church, called a meeting of his church leaders in February 1835 to tell them that he had spoken to God recently, and during their conversation he learned that Jesus would return within the next 56 years, after which the End Times would begin promptly.

Halley's Comet, 1910

In 1881, an astronomer discovered through spectral analysis that comet tails include a deadly gas called cyanogen (related, as the name imples, to cyanide). This was of only passing interest until someone realized that Earth would pass through the tail of Halley's comet in 1910. Would everyone on the planet be bathed in deadly toxic gas? That was the speculation reprinted on the front pages of "The New York Times" and other newspapers, resulting in a widespread panic across the United States and abroad. Finally even-headed scientists explained that there was nothing to fear.

Pat Robertson, 1982

In May 1980, televangelist and Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson startled and alarmed many when contrary to Matthew 24:36 ("No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven...") he informed his "700 Club" TV show audience around the world that he knew when the world would end. "I guarantee you by the end of 1982 there is going to be a judgment on the world," Robertson said.

Heaven's Gate, 1997

When comet Hale-Bopp appeared in 1997, rumors surfaced that an alien spacecraft was following the comet covered up, of course, by NASA and the astronomical community. Though the claim was refuted by astronomers (and could be refuted by anyone with a good telescope), the rumors were publicized on Art Bell's paranormal radio talk show "Coast to Coast AM." These claims inspired a San Diego UFO cult named Heaven's Gate to conclude that the world would end soon. The world did indeed end for 39 of the cult members, who committed suicide on March 26, 1997.

Nostradamus, August 1999

The heavily obfuscated and metaphorical writings of Michel de Nostrdame have intrigued people for over 400 years. His writings, the accuracy of which relies heavily upon very flexible interpretations, have been translated and re-translated in dozens of different versions. One of the most famous quatrains read, "The year 1999, seventh month / From the sky will come great king of terror." Many Nostradamus

devotees grew concerned that this was the famed prognosticator's vision of Armageddon.

Y2K, Jan. 1, 2000

As the last century drew to a close, many people grew concerned that computers might bring about doomsday. The problem, first noted in the early 1970s, was that many computers would not be able to tell the difference between 2000 and 1900 dates. No one was really sure what that would do, but many suggested catastrophic problems ranging from vast blackouts to nuclear holocaust. Gun sales jumped and survivalists prepared to live in bunkers, but the new millennium began with only a few glitches.

May 5, 2000

In case the Y2K bug didn't do us in, global catastrophe was assured by Richard Noone, author of the 1997 book "5/5/2000 Ice: the Ultimate Disaster." According to Noone, the Antarctic ice mass would be three miles thick by May 5, 2000 a date in which the planets would be aligned in the heavens, somehow resulting in a global icy death (or at least a lot of book sales). Perhaps global warming kept the ice age at bay.

God's Church Ministry, Fall 2008

According to God's Church minister Ronald Weinland, the end times are upon us-- again. His 2006 book "2008: God's Final Witness" states that hundreds of millions of people will die, and by the end of 2006, "there will be a maximum time of two years remaining before the world will be plunged into the worst time of all human history. By the fall of 2008, the United States will have collapsed as a world power, and no longer exist as an independent nation." As the book notes, "Ronald Weinland places his reputation on the line as the end-time prophet of God."

Quote

Originally posted by SWAT_OP-R8R
no, no, no

Then what

I put in the GLS workaround before installing crossfire. That just caught my eye.

Am I seeing double?

Maybe SP shouldn't be from clans so that way they are not biased.

Quote

Originally posted by PipeHitter
yes, it's called "TeamSpeak 2". OP would have to load it onto the SWAT Portal and allow users/clans to manage their own "rooms". then you could even have a main room for anyone to be in (i.e. Freelancers). this would be a very effective way of doing RP without having to get shot while typing your message. LOL!
-PipeHitter.

but then would each client have to have the software?

How can warp gates rust in space where there is no water or air?

BUT THE MOD LOOKS TOTALLY AWESOME!!!

VOICE CHAT VOICE CHAT VOICE CHAT is it possible to be implemented

Fixed some scripting errors added improved lighting and got more level design done.

compatibility mode is crap. It dosent help trust me. There is not much you can do I have the same error

Guess why my buds are happy.

hehe

Command & Conquer is back with C&C 4, the fourth and final chapter in the epic Tiberium saga. With humanity on the verge of extinction due to the ever expanding Tiberium threat, GDI is deep into its darkest hour. Just when extinction seems completely imminent, a surprise visit from an old friend reveals a potential cure for Earths plight. Who is this mysterious visitor, and what exactly does he want in return for mankinds salvation? Watch the trailer to find out!

Here is a new screenshot that has been leaked.

looking good

Why not. my hosting plan allows me to register and host 2 domains for free. I only pay for first one which I already have.

speechless

This was the quickest response to a post I have ever had.