Freeworlds: Tides of War is a fan built Star Wars total conversion mod for Digital Anvil's Freelancer game that was released several years ago. When fans began to make mods for Freelancer, one of the many things people were keen on seeing was a Freelancer mod based on the Star Wars universe developed by George Lucas. Freeworlds and Tides of War were the answer to this outcry. The development team of both mods have now joined forces to create an epic new Star Wars TC, Freeworlds: Tides of War.
Unknown Anomaly
(view original)
Post a comment
Description
Sensors are scrambled.
Nice. Does the anomaly actually do anything or is it just eye candy?
Read the description
looks like a Pulsar inside a small nebula =]
nice!
thats the first thing that came to my mind as well, but the lower right tail looks somewhat wrong. pulsars are symmetrical, arent they?
Hmm... I wonder what angle we're looking at this from (/devhint)
Soo.. unknown!! :D It's beautiful!
Perhaps it is a ship with a cloaking device?
it's a trap!
your tongues can't reply flavour of this magnitude!
It's a Tarp!
Cylons are coming out!!! arf...wrong universe, sorry.
Indeed, beautiful.
Could it be... a Black Hole?
Something similar was in the Qi's Development blog. Check the news section in "One incredible month of development" (around the middle). When you're in the blog, search for "What About The M A W?".
Sorry, but I can't post URLs yet.
Community.mmozone.nl
You must be referencing this. Interesting, isn't it?
Thank you! It's definitely that.
Also, the Guest's comments in that particular topic are mine (at least till post #6).
Anyway, am I right about the Black Hole?
P.S. FriendlyFire, I was wondering what does TSP mean in your username? As far as I remember, in the Forum of FWTOW you're only FriendlyFire... Or you are a different FriendlyFire?
Yeah. It's still a work in progress, mainly because it seems to kill everybody's computer, but it will be a black hole. As for where you'll see it... That remains to be seen :)
As for my name, TSP stands for The Starport, a Freelancer fansite I've co-founded (you can find it at The-starport.net [/shamelessplug]). "FriendlyFire" was already taken.
In the Qi's Blog (the MAW topic) I proposed the Black Hole(s) (read The Maw) to be only in the background picture and to have a number of miny systems for the Kessel Run. Won't it be easier for the computers in this case? Read my posts for more details.
======================
* There is sense of the BH (Black Hole) being a disk. Remember the planet Earth? The planet you're living on right now? There is small difference between the diameter if it's measured from pole to pole and the equatorial diameter. A further proof of the concept: read about the star Achernar in Wikipedia (and look at the picture!).
Of course, the BH is much more dense from a planet, not to mention a star, but saying that it's flat - many will believe you. But there is always a chance that it's not flat, but small sphere. (Unfortunately we can't measure the diameters of fast-rotating neutron stars, there's no way to prove or discard the theory of the BHs being flat).
P.S. The picture really looks like a pulsar with a nebula.
Also, you shouldn't be able to see the jets. For two reasons:
1) Those jets are composed of X-rays and X-rays are not visible light. So, we can't see them.
2) They are highly directional. The only reason we can detect them is because they are pinpointing us. So, if you're standing in the beside the Black Hole - you can't see those jets. And if you're able to see them (you're standing above the poles), there will be so much radiation that you're toast. Literally!
So, we removed the jets. Now let's see how we can lighten the BH some more... Hmm... The black holes should be almost flat (at least by theory) because of the "conservation of angular momentum" or something between those lines (check Wikipedia's entry on Black Holes)*. So, making it a circle should ease the rendering a little bit.
But that's not he main problem. I think the computer complains because of the moving nebula(s). The Freelancer's engine is not used to such exotics, so it's probably a torture for him. Maybe, if you make the nebula(s) NPC ships (with their bodies being the particles) would make it easier for the PC. Of course, I might be wrong.
If you wish - send me a PM with explanation of how you've done the Black Hole and where are the main performance problems (or expect them to be) with I'll try to find a solution. Can't promise anything, but still better than nothing.
There's no explanation to be done... It's an ALE. Go read up on how ALEs work in Freelancer and you'll see how it works. Nothing is going to be more efficient, especially not NPCs (the *least* efficient piece of code of the game). The problem is simple: too many particles. I'm working on making it more efficient, just need to sit down and use a weaker computer to see the effects firsthand.
As for the appearance... Google "black hole" and look at the images. I'm reproducing the traditional appearance of a black hole, nothing more. Don't bring science in this, please. This *is* Star Wars :P
Check Freelancer's UnderVerse Mod. It has a BH picture in the gallery. There it looks great just great. And no jets. The same goes for many of the images in the Google's gallery (after typing "Black Hole"). The reason for having so many different looks is because non of them are canon - no one knows exactly how the Blacks Holes really look like! So, you're a free to choose the option that works the best. And if the best option and the Physics coincide, then why not bring the Science in? It's true that Science and Star Wars are not always working together, but also they're not always against each other.
Also, those jets are depicted that either to show that they (probably) exist or because people don't know that they should actually be invisible. It's just like the myth that there's sound in space or that space is cold and you'll freeze right away.
Also, the BH jest are whole parsecs long, some of them being intergalactic, so it'll make sense to at least extend the jets to infinity if you're gonna make them anyway.
Is it possible the animate the background image? To use animated .gif or .svg, for instance? If it's possible then making a slowly rotating BH in the background won't be that big of a problem.
We appreciate your commentary, but we've settled on the path we are going to take. It is our opinion that using the game-supported .ALE format to create actual physical manifestations in game is a superior method to using any sort of static or animated image. As for realism, there wouldn't bee ALL that much visible to an actual black hole, just a gravity lensing effect and maybe some gas traces if it was close enough to pull something in. Here, the Rule of Cool applies. It looks good, and most people don't actually know the physics behind black holes. And as FF previously stated, SW =/= Realism.
The Black Hole in the Star Wars: Galaxies: Starwars.wikia.com
For more: Starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com
You can't go more cannon than that (or can you?). It's good looking, anyway.