What better way to explain an intimidating subject ?like special relativity? than with a video game?
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That's what the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) just did with "A Slower Speed of Light," a first-person prototype game for Mac and PC.
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"(P)layers 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," it said.
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It said the game combines accessible gameplay and a fantasy setting with theoretical and computational physics research.
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Visual effects of special relativity gradually become apparent to the player and increase the challenge of gameplay, it added.
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Effects rendered in real time include:
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- 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)
- runtime effect (the ability to see objects as they were in the past, due to the travel time of light)
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"Players can choose to share their mastery and experience of the game through Twitter," MIT said.
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OpenRelativity
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OpenRelativity is a set of tools used for simulating the effects of traveling near the speed of light in the Unity3D game engine.
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The MIT said its team is refining the documentation, usability and features in OpenRelativity, targeted for release as a free, open-source package in 2013.
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It will allow others to produce more simulations and games about traveling near the speed of light.
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System requirements
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"A Slower Speed of Light" may require PCs using an Intel Core 2 Duo T9900 or Core i7 (2.8GHz clock speed); Windows 7 and Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion); AMD Radeon HD 6970M/AMD Mobility Radeon HD 4850/Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT; and 8GB RAM.
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But MIT said some users have reported that the game has been able to run on Windows XP with as little as 2GB RAM.
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It added a bug will crash the game on computers with some Intel graphics chipsets.
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Game premise
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A separate article on Geek.com said the object of the game is to collect 100 floating orbs.
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"Each time you collect an orb the game artificially lowers the speed of light. Walking is no longer an easy stroll through town, but a relativistic adventure," it said.?
"This game really is awesome, and it even teaches you about physics. High school physics teachers, take note," it added. ? TJD, GMA News
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