Trust me. Let me tell you how it was!

There are threads popping up about those newfangled external cameras and immersion...
For those non believers, sit down and let me tell you a story... You can choose the voice of the narrator.

In 2017, there was this game... can't seem to remember it's name... but anyway, a fabulous game, truly remarkable... It was based on data of ships flying in 3D space, it *actually* rendered those ships on the screen and in VR... IN REAL TIME. I'm not kidding.
It could even render entire battles in VR... There was depth, speed, flashing lights and everything.
It would even simulate their destruction when damaged, etc. really tremendous stuff. Truly.

Even better, you could actually get one of the technicians to paint the outside of your little model at any time for a small fee... about £3 or something.... Hardly seemed worth the time if you ask me, I would have charged at least £30... But I suspect FDEV were only interested in player satisfaction. Perfectionists to the core. Love those guys.

Looking back on that game now, I have no idea how they got the images of those ships to the players' computer screens, sometimes over poor "broad"band and how they managed to have the images move so smoothly, but I suspect they had the entire galaxy stored in a warehouse and each player's ship was 3D printed and modelled on gimbals with tiny little cameras in the front.... Wonderful stuff. Absolutely wonderful, believe me.

They even had an external view, right, external... Not internal, external... Where I suspect a technician would have to set up a temporary mini camera just near the model as it was moving along and send the footage from that camera instead of the usual ship front camera image, to the player. Remarkable.

Sure, there were hiccups, like when the ships hit the end of the high speed rails between all the systems... I think they should have used one of those air buffers, like the sliding doors in my wonderful new house have, that stop people form trapping their little fingers... or some system anyway... because there was often a big bump at the end of each jump and some pause while the technician removed the ship and placed it back on a gimbal in the new system.

Kurosawa and his guided rail cameras chasing horses, can eat his heart out! Terrible director. Shoddy camerawork. Bad man. bad.

And, what's more... There was never a report of a rogue trainer like in the first episode of Star Wars, a so called movie by that bearded man who made fake movies way back... he needs glasses just to see, by the way, unbelievable.... so I suspect FDEV had the highest level of QA and checks in place to make very sure that only actual scale models were used. No really, believe me.
 
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See that cigar. It's the best cigar.... No, it is... I had it hand rolled on the thighs of Cuban virgins. Great girls. All of them... Only beautiful virgins, though. Not the ones who are ugly on the inside and the outside...
Truly. believe me. Unfortunately, many of them whom I got to know personally no longer qualify for their jobs... Too sad. Too sad.


No, but seriously, I'm seeing the most ridiculous arguments against the turrets "360 tactical view" stating that there should be a floating drone or something. Or that it's immersion braking impossible... etc.
People lack imagination. We already have the technology to reconstruct 3D views from 3D data. Elite is such a game. It would be very likely that a gunner would control the turrets from a VR vantage point given working sensors...
Now, if the 160 Metric Tonne sensor array was blown out, THEN they should be limited to first person perspectives.
 
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They're absolutely right to bark at the external view. Elite is not a game. Elite is real life. Everything in Elite makes sense and is totally realistic. We have the definitive scientific explanation for jumping dozens of lightyears in a couple seconds with a tiny ship. We have the definitive scientific explanation for a hologram that can be in real time 50,000ly from the original person and physically act on commands. But an external camera view?! Man, you're insane, you have no idea how it breaks the laws of physics and immersion! I can use a third-party tool outside the Elite reality just fine, but an external camera view? GOD NO! A third-party tool compensate shortcomings in the game --sorry: reality--, and I'm fine with that, but I'll never accept that Elite itself tries to give us one of them tools in its reality. No no no no no sir.
 
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...I had it hand rolled on the thighs of Cuban virgins. Great guys. All of them... Only beautiful virgins, though. Not the ones who are ugly on the inside and the outside...
Truly. believe me. Unfortunately, many of them whom I got to know personally no longer qualify for their jobs... Too sad. Too sad...

Fixed it for ya... ;)
 
Actually, we will be able to see things like that in real life soon. A combat vehicle with cameras that, using real time photogrametry and an VR headset, renders in real time a fairly accurate environment, providing a tactical 3rd person view of the vehicle and its surroundings. After playing a little bit with Google Earth VR, a 3rd person view doesn't look like a huge leap forward.
 
Actually, we will be able to see things like that in real life soon. A combat vehicle with cameras that, using real time photogrametry and an VR headset, renders in real time a fairly accurate environment, providing a tactical 3rd person view of the vehicle and its surroundings. After playing a little bit with Google Earth VR, a 3rd person view doesn't look like a huge leap forward.

Indeed, it doesn't fell like a huge leap... unless one is basing is whole idea of what is sci-fi on 1984 tech... which from reading some posts seems to occur a lot.

The thing that bothers me most is that ships have those silly holo displays, I mean, how immersion breaking is that ? Color CRT's, I could live with, but holo
displays, what nonsense is that !
 
I still miss the classic 2D "HUD"

"You are in a forest, you can go North, South, East or West. There is an Elf here"

[chokes back tears of reminiscence]
 
Rashomon is a great movie. Characters would tell all kinds of versions of the story. Just like the the people here when they talk about ED.

Ah, and btw - have you ever seen a movie filmed in 1st person perspective? The last one I reemember had to resort to lots of inner monologue narration. #youtalktoomuch
 
After having a Resident Evil film marathon this weekend the OP was done in the voice of the Red Queen... Made the whole thing sound very sinister and rather disturbing, thanks for that! :D
 
After having a Resident Evil film marathon this weekend the OP was done in the voice of the Red Queen... Made the whole thing sound very sinister and rather disturbing, thanks for that! :D

Ah the Red Queen.... Actually, I would like to have it narrated in the voice of The Joker. That would be fun.
 
Indeed, it doesn't fell like a huge leap... unless one is basing is whole idea of what is sci-fi on 1984 tech... which from reading some posts seems to occur a lot!

Oh agreed :D

I dare say in 3300, the technology should be there to transmit realtime, no latency interactive holographic projections to the other side of the galaxy.

Which baffles me why it's so difficult for the commodity market to broadcast prices around regional systems.. They either have the tech, or they don't :D
 
Well as I keep saying, the 1st/3rd person for me seems to be some people wanting a 70s/80s version of sci-fi, rather than modern (arguably more accurate and more realistic) sci-fi.

It's about from where the level of sci-fi derives from.
 
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Oh agreed :D

I dare say in 3300, the technology should be there to transmit realtime, no latency interactive holographic projections to the other side of the galaxy.

Which baffles me why it's so difficult for the commodity market to broadcast prices around regional systems.. They either have the tech, or they don't :D

A little bit O/T so I apologise profusely to to the OP (myself) for going off on a tangent.
Two wrods: DRM / licensing....
Even today, I have to use a VPN and other tricks to gain access to BBC's Player videos in Japan... The capability is there, but it is hamstrung by licensing and whatnot (why should the UK pay handsomely for a service freely available to the rest of the world?!?!?!) to protect the cashflow / snowflakes.
3300 is just a more extreme version of this; Prices are withheld to force commanders to actually visit the station and use the facilities, buy a couple of brewskis, stay a night or two in the more "flavoursome" parts of the city... etc.
They are protecting their assets.
 
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