Proposal Discussion GALA mapping We need Frontier to delay by a year!
- Thread starter sp33dy
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D'oh! That makes sense... it too early in the morninig for me to compute (why is everyone hearing about it all of a sudden)
. There would be very little point in acting on anything other than the final data release 
One of the things that allowed Frontier on Amiga to have 100,000,000 celestial objects possible in a single 770K executable file was the ability to have all but the nearest objects generated from an algorithm that approximated the "design" of the galaxy.
Because this mapping effort will only increase the accuracy of our already existing measurements and should not fundamentally change the algorithm for generating those distant star systems, it would only increase the workload on the team by effectively requiring hand-coding minor "tweaks" for billions of stars.
I like the fact that the galaxy is function generated and takes artistic liberties for the sake of efficiency. It was fun to think they could fit an entire galaxy into that single file WITH all of those splined ship and station designs, cities, missions, economic models, spaceflight models, geologic models (mining), administration rules (laws and police), combat artificial intelligence, and music!
It does sound like an interesting idea to include that data, but I prefer they take the already great data they have and employ it in the most efficient way possible so they can focus on features that make the universe "alive" rather than "accurate".
Because this mapping effort will only increase the accuracy of our already existing measurements and should not fundamentally change the algorithm for generating those distant star systems, it would only increase the workload on the team by effectively requiring hand-coding minor "tweaks" for billions of stars.
I like the fact that the galaxy is function generated and takes artistic liberties for the sake of efficiency. It was fun to think they could fit an entire galaxy into that single file WITH all of those splined ship and station designs, cities, missions, economic models, spaceflight models, geologic models (mining), administration rules (laws and police), combat artificial intelligence, and music!
It does sound like an interesting idea to include that data, but I prefer they take the already great data they have and employ it in the most efficient way possible so they can focus on features that make the universe "alive" rather than "accurate".
Yeah, adding 150,000 stars by hand is already a mammoth task
I have some torches and pitchforks you may be interested in. Only 35 credits each.
Yes, I just saw that news item too.... I'm sure FD will be able to work in some of the changes somehow later on....
It's not about discovering new stars, it's all about discovering how far away they are using the parallax effect. If you look out of the window on a train, the nearby stuff zooms past, but more distant objects seem to go more slowly. So if you can see how much the object appears to move after you change position, then you can tell how far away it is
. By the way. this is how the parsec is defined. If you take two observations of a star 6 months apart (so the Earth is the other side of the Sun for the second observation), then an object 1 parsec away will appear to move by 1 arc second (1/3600 degree). One parsec = 3.26 light years
Probably worth mentioning that in interview, David recalled that the version of the galaxy from FFE has proven pretty accurate, in spite of the amount of new information we've discovered about our corner of the galaxy in the last 25 years (flattening aside).
So even if it's not 100% accurate, it's going to be pretty darn close and has already been mentioned, as it's online it can be tweaked as new proofs are revealed.
So even if it's not 100% accurate, it's going to be pretty darn close and has already been mentioned, as it's online it can be tweaked as new proofs are revealed.
Interesting detail I almost missed as I read the news that they used a 'Europeanized Russian Soyuz' and my mind said 'say what'?
I googled this up:
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Launchers/Launch_vehicles/Soyuz
http://www.spacenews.com/article/la...-launched-on-five-year-galaxy-mapping-mission
Looks like this was the first use of a Soyuz rocket outside Russia in French Guiana. I am glad to see that the rocket went up smooothly.
I googled this up:
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Launchers/Launch_vehicles/Soyuz
http://www.spacenews.com/article/la...-launched-on-five-year-galaxy-mapping-mission
Looks like this was the first use of a Soyuz rocket outside Russia in French Guiana. I am glad to see that the rocket went up smooothly.
Delay for a year? You do realise how long it's been delayed for already, don't you? We don't want it falling into a black hole again now, do we chaps/chapesses?
At least SC will be able to use it for the background to the dogfighting module then ;-)
what delay?
