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[uber pye]

MIT makes a game and it is fun and trippy as hell.

basically it is a game that teaches the laws of special relativity (where time and space get weird the closer to the speed of light you
get) in a simple and natural way, by play.

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)... 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.

it is free so download have a fun colorful acid trip!
_{note: if your computer doesn't meet the requirements you can still play you just might not see the fantastic things happening}

[Ozyton]

This reminds me of something.

This looks pretty cool, might have to give it a try.

[Girlinhat]

What...  What is...

Is that a "you can see this spectrum of light" on the HUD?  what kind of game needs THAT on the HUD?

I do not even game.  What is this how do I speed of light?

[Scelly9]

Ah, MIT. I love you so.

[Pnx]

Interesting little widget, though not really much of a game. It's definitely something that I'd like to see more done with.

[alexandertnt]

Whaaaaaaaaaaaat???

I am definetely downloading this right now.

[Imp]

I'm glad this game exists, I approve of games like it, and I strongly approve of combining education/exposure to new experiences and games.

However I am deeply unimpressed with this game.  I am 'shown' to be seeing into infrared and ultraviolet, without much indication of what normal visible light colors have been co-opted for the various degrees of 'shading' that may or may not be present within those expanded spectra.

When I have a high number of orbs collected and move forwards, I get to see the screen appear very different, yes.  But it has a look and feel of an artists very fanciful rendition.  Moving forward produces an odd hue of green, is this the 'true shade of ultraviolet' that the waves are scrunched into 'seeming'?  Moving backwards turns most everything black; except for a few small spots of houses, like the chimney, and a few parts of gates which turn very bright indeed, and almost every bit of the 'giant mushrooms', which glow, whether moving forwards or backwards, with a great many different hues.

I am supposed to derive a feel for what might be visible and what might be invisible at speeds approaching 20% or so of the speed of light?  Because that's what it looks like my character is able to move at, one orb from ending the game.  I'm left to guess if the screen looks black, when moving backwards, because that's so close to the speed of light that effectly 'below vision supporting' levels of light are striking my eyes (dim light = black), or because lots of light is still striking my eyes, but at a downshifted spectrum off the infrared scale that is shown on my screen?

I wanted this game, made by highly educated people for the purpose of using a game-like environment to immerse a player's perspective into a unique and reality-based non-human perspective, to... actually do so.

But the feel of this game is instead like a rather vague artist's rendering of the concepts, I do not feel immersed, I do not feel like I am exploring or experiencing something of 'simulated realism'.  I feel like I'm in a game using visual perspective and visual spectrum shifts pegged to some developer-decided standard to simulate physics - but I don't feel immersed in a simulated-reality physics experience.

Even the perspective shifting has much of the feel of moving your gaze/shifting your head along the boundary of a perfectly calm water-air surface.  Objects appear to bend and colors slightly change, because there is a difference in the refraction of light from the water surface.  But there was nothing I could find in two playthroughs of the game, the first to get the feel of the how to play, and the second to try and really observe what happens as the game moves closer and closer to its conclusion, to make me feel immersed in 'a high quality simulation of being outside my perceptive reality range', 'enshrouded in relativistic physics', or even that I was 'playing a really well made educational game'.

Sadness.  I'm glad I downloaded the game.  I'm glad I got to see it.  I just wish it came closer to being able to give me the feel that it claims it has to offer.

[alexandertnt]

However I am deeply unimpressed with this game.  I am 'shown' to be seeing into infrared and ultraviolet, without much indication of what normal visible light colors have been co-opted for the various degrees of 'shading' that may or may not be present within those expanded spectra.

I think the visible spectrum is "stretched" over the newly-visible light and this bar at the bottom of the screen is there to demonstrate what colours represent what wavelength. There are no discrete shades being substituted, however.

I am supposed to derive a feel for what might be visible and what might be invisible at speeds approaching 20% or so of the speed of light?  Because that's what it looks like my character is able to move at, one orb from ending the game.  I'm left to guess if the screen looks black, when moving backwards, because that's so close to the speed of light that effectly 'below vision supporting' levels of light are striking my eyes (dim light = black), or because lots of light is still striking my eyes, but at a downshifted spectrum off the infrared scale that is shown on my screen?

You are not "left guessing", it is explained in the game. When you collect the orbs, press "What happened?".

But there was nothing I could find in two playthroughs of the game, the first to get the feel of the how to play, and the second to try and really observe what happens as the game moves closer and closer to its conclusion, to make me feel immersed in 'a high quality simulation of being outside my perceptive reality range', 'enshrouded in relativistic physics', or even that I was 'playing a really well made educational game'.

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.

I would be suprised if it was a high quality simulation. Plus I think it is more to show off the open-source set of tools.

To explain the water-refractiony effect, it is probably because the textures can only store RGB values, so the game doesn't have a concept of what "colour" something is in infrared/ultraviolet. So it fakes it.(From the look of it, there are some textures designed to represent specific wavelengths though, for example the last image in the first post shows some patterns on the house that is not visible at normal spectrum).





Your character needs more friction, and more acceleration though. Sometimes getting just one orb was quite fiddly.

[Graknorke]

Anyone know what I can do if the game is immediately crashing when I finish the story intro?
Because that's what's happening.

[sluissa]

I'm impressed by the game, but I have never actually felt motion sick due to a game before (and only rarely in real life.) This, however, did it to the point where I feel I need to go lay down for a moment.

[uber pye]

Interesting little widget, though not really much of a game. It's definitely something that I'd like to see more done with.

Lucky for you, it is open source. So if people want to use it for making their own games they can!

Anyone know what I can do if the game is immediately crashing when I finish the story intro?
Because that's what's happening.

do you have a Intel graphics card? because the site says those cause the game to crash .

[Drakale]

Very nice. I wish it would let you play longer in the endgame mode.