Dear Elite: Dangerous team and forum users,
I am an avid Elite player and also a soon to be PhD computational chemist with a deep respect for the Elite team for their efforts to improve the game as well as the representation of the celestial bodies within our galaxy. I am organizing this post with a preface and suggestion section for ease of reading. If you just want to know the suggestions then skip to that section.
I. preface to suggestions
I have yet to see a black hole myself in the game, but I have seen the numerous videos on youtube that users have posted of their experiences with black hole exploration in ED. The rendering black holes in ED is already decent, however there are various improvements that I would like to suggest. Before I make my suggestions, let me express my great joy and thankfulness for the ED teams decision to be open to suggestion and future development of this game. I personally think that creating the vast gaming environment that is the Milky Way is an unprecedented feat, let alone rendering it accurately and efficiently with the help procedural generation algorithms. With this stated, it is my hope that the ED team will (of course in due time) do their best to create the most brilliant representation of celestial bodies in the galaxy to provide the player with an unprecedented and truly heavenly experience of exploring and experiencing the true and awe inspiring nature of the cosmos. Obviously there are many exotic objects within the milky way but black holes are among the most popular, which is why my suggestions are aimed at the true representation of these objects.
II. Suggestions
Correct Gravitational lensing - The way black holes bend light in ED is a good start although inaccurate. light approaching the viewer from objects (stars and such) around the on the sides and opposite side of the black hole will be severely distorted on its way to the players viewing location. I believe that this was incorporated into the current rendering, but the gravitational lensing is so severe near the black hole that objects will appear to double as their light approaches the black hole and even closer to the event horizon (point of no return for light), the light from other objects will become immensely smeared.
Correct head on view of black hole - When approaching and viewing a black hole head on, the viewer shouldn't just see distorted light, but rather a black circle in which light truly cannot escape to reach the viewers eye. As the user approaches closer, this circle becomes larger and larger. This circle is in fact observational evidence of the event horizon whose diameter is proportional to the mass of the black hole (Schwarzchild radius). In ED, it appears the user does not see this black circle at all.
Spaghettification - This word, coined by none other than Albert Einstein, refers to the stretching experience we, or any object with mass, would experience if falling toward a black hole. Not that its entirely important (in my opinion) to include in the game, but it is a real phenomena that would occur on approach to a black hole and worth considering as it would be pretty mind bending to experience with an Oculus Rift.
Approaching VERY close to the event horizon - Although beyond the event horizon, there is a lot of theory and conjecture of what would happen, one thing is certain on the approach, the black circle (event horizon) that the viewer would see on approach would eventually swallow up the viewable universe that the viewer could see before approaching the black hole. At some point in the final steps before crossing the event horizon, the viewable universe would shrink into a point and seemingly disappear (terrifying right). From the youtube videos I saw, the user simply just sees more gravitational lensing on approach the black hole but none of what I described is really happening in ED. It would be nice to incorporate this experience into the game.
Beyond the event horizion - Now it is safe to say that no human really knows what will happen once the player crosses beyond the event horizon, which is nice as it allows anyone pondering black holes to come up with seemingly outlandish experiences that could theoretically occur. Now on that note, there are many theories that stem from the question of what happens when stuff gets sucked into black holes (multiverse theory, white holes, wormholes, etc.), but obviously we do not currently have the means of validating any of these. The point of explaining this is that in my strong opinion, the ED team should make something happen when you get sucked into a black hole in the game. Why not? The videos I saw on youtube show that whatever happens is just confusing as the ships systems fail and everything around you just looks distorted. Then again, I couldn't even tell from the videos if the players were even able to go into the black holes or instead if they just hit some boundary. I read on another forum that the ED team did not want to pursue the idea of wormholes and navigating vast distances easily just by entering a black hole, but I may have a solution that would prevent the exploitation of black hole wormhole traversal.
Solution for over-exploitation of galactic travel in ED by means of black hole induced wormholes - The ED team is correct in assuming that if the players could use black holes to traverse through milky way, then they would exploit that to their fullest capacity for the sake of exploration (I know I would). However, players would be less likely to do this if there was a price for entering the black hole, and let me assure you all that there is a horrible price in reality (as any reasonable person might expect). Black holes, being the massive objects they are create massive gravitational tidal forces that make the rigidness of the strongest metal look like jelly. What is surprising is that the more massive a black hole becomes, the further an explorer could traverse into a black hole without being ripped apart by these tidal forces (among other things). My main suggestion here, is that the ED team generate a field gradient of tidal forces near the black holes in the game that would damage any ship that comes near. This would be a realistic addition to the game in my opinion and also a deterrent for players to not get too close to a black hole in the game. This would also allow the ED team to regulate the amount of trans-galactic warping players are able to do by entering black holes. Now of course some (MASSIVE) black holes could be entered with minimal ship damage, fortunately however there probably isn't very many supermassive black holes in the galaxy (like the one at the very center of the galaxy, if you can get there). Anyways, I hope that even if the ED team doesn't incorporate this suggestion in the future along with warping through black hole, at least they introduce the gravitational tidal forces that definitely exist and would destroy anything that got too close (anything that possesses the symmetry of gravity).
The way a player would look to another watching that player enter or get closer to a black hole - ED is multiplayer, and although it might seldom happen, it would be pretty fun to watch your friend regretfully and courageously plummet into a black hole. But what would you actually see? Well it turns out, the light you would see reflected off your friends ship would get more and more red-shifted as they get closer to the black hole until eventually they would seem to just disappear. Also, they would seem to fall slower and slower as a result of time dilation (which would be very difficult to implement to a realistic means as it would require knowledge of a players future actions). My suggestion here is that the ED team incorporate the redshifting of light coming off a player or object as it falls into a black hole according to a static observer.
Other suggestions -Although black holes create of the strange experiences I covered above (and more I have not discussed), other celestial bodies do as well such as pulsars, neutron stars and super compact stars. If the ED team decides or already has created these objects for the game, please allow for the effects above to be appropriately assigned to these other objects as well.
Once again let me express my deep respect for the ED team for their ongoing efforts to create on of the most amazing and beautiful games ever created. I hope you will take these suggestions to heart as I know I and many other players would be very grateful. Also, please check out the following link to a website in which physicists have simulated the correct experiences one would have near black holes and other objects. They have posted small movies on the website so anyone can freely watch and adore these simulations.
http://apod.nasa.gov/htmltest/rjn_bht.html
Furthermore, the game developers for ED might be pleased to know that at the following link, much of the code responsible for rendering interesting black hole visuals and experiences can be found (with a little searching).
http://ascl.net/
The developers just need to find the correct paper in which the code was written and then they should be able to find the code itself at ASCL.
Cheers
I am an avid Elite player and also a soon to be PhD computational chemist with a deep respect for the Elite team for their efforts to improve the game as well as the representation of the celestial bodies within our galaxy. I am organizing this post with a preface and suggestion section for ease of reading. If you just want to know the suggestions then skip to that section.
I. preface to suggestions
I have yet to see a black hole myself in the game, but I have seen the numerous videos on youtube that users have posted of their experiences with black hole exploration in ED. The rendering black holes in ED is already decent, however there are various improvements that I would like to suggest. Before I make my suggestions, let me express my great joy and thankfulness for the ED teams decision to be open to suggestion and future development of this game. I personally think that creating the vast gaming environment that is the Milky Way is an unprecedented feat, let alone rendering it accurately and efficiently with the help procedural generation algorithms. With this stated, it is my hope that the ED team will (of course in due time) do their best to create the most brilliant representation of celestial bodies in the galaxy to provide the player with an unprecedented and truly heavenly experience of exploring and experiencing the true and awe inspiring nature of the cosmos. Obviously there are many exotic objects within the milky way but black holes are among the most popular, which is why my suggestions are aimed at the true representation of these objects.
II. Suggestions
Correct Gravitational lensing - The way black holes bend light in ED is a good start although inaccurate. light approaching the viewer from objects (stars and such) around the on the sides and opposite side of the black hole will be severely distorted on its way to the players viewing location. I believe that this was incorporated into the current rendering, but the gravitational lensing is so severe near the black hole that objects will appear to double as their light approaches the black hole and even closer to the event horizon (point of no return for light), the light from other objects will become immensely smeared.
Correct head on view of black hole - When approaching and viewing a black hole head on, the viewer shouldn't just see distorted light, but rather a black circle in which light truly cannot escape to reach the viewers eye. As the user approaches closer, this circle becomes larger and larger. This circle is in fact observational evidence of the event horizon whose diameter is proportional to the mass of the black hole (Schwarzchild radius). In ED, it appears the user does not see this black circle at all.
Spaghettification - This word, coined by none other than Albert Einstein, refers to the stretching experience we, or any object with mass, would experience if falling toward a black hole. Not that its entirely important (in my opinion) to include in the game, but it is a real phenomena that would occur on approach to a black hole and worth considering as it would be pretty mind bending to experience with an Oculus Rift.
Approaching VERY close to the event horizon - Although beyond the event horizon, there is a lot of theory and conjecture of what would happen, one thing is certain on the approach, the black circle (event horizon) that the viewer would see on approach would eventually swallow up the viewable universe that the viewer could see before approaching the black hole. At some point in the final steps before crossing the event horizon, the viewable universe would shrink into a point and seemingly disappear (terrifying right). From the youtube videos I saw, the user simply just sees more gravitational lensing on approach the black hole but none of what I described is really happening in ED. It would be nice to incorporate this experience into the game.
Beyond the event horizion - Now it is safe to say that no human really knows what will happen once the player crosses beyond the event horizon, which is nice as it allows anyone pondering black holes to come up with seemingly outlandish experiences that could theoretically occur. Now on that note, there are many theories that stem from the question of what happens when stuff gets sucked into black holes (multiverse theory, white holes, wormholes, etc.), but obviously we do not currently have the means of validating any of these. The point of explaining this is that in my strong opinion, the ED team should make something happen when you get sucked into a black hole in the game. Why not? The videos I saw on youtube show that whatever happens is just confusing as the ships systems fail and everything around you just looks distorted. Then again, I couldn't even tell from the videos if the players were even able to go into the black holes or instead if they just hit some boundary. I read on another forum that the ED team did not want to pursue the idea of wormholes and navigating vast distances easily just by entering a black hole, but I may have a solution that would prevent the exploitation of black hole wormhole traversal.
Solution for over-exploitation of galactic travel in ED by means of black hole induced wormholes - The ED team is correct in assuming that if the players could use black holes to traverse through milky way, then they would exploit that to their fullest capacity for the sake of exploration (I know I would). However, players would be less likely to do this if there was a price for entering the black hole, and let me assure you all that there is a horrible price in reality (as any reasonable person might expect). Black holes, being the massive objects they are create massive gravitational tidal forces that make the rigidness of the strongest metal look like jelly. What is surprising is that the more massive a black hole becomes, the further an explorer could traverse into a black hole without being ripped apart by these tidal forces (among other things). My main suggestion here, is that the ED team generate a field gradient of tidal forces near the black holes in the game that would damage any ship that comes near. This would be a realistic addition to the game in my opinion and also a deterrent for players to not get too close to a black hole in the game. This would also allow the ED team to regulate the amount of trans-galactic warping players are able to do by entering black holes. Now of course some (MASSIVE) black holes could be entered with minimal ship damage, fortunately however there probably isn't very many supermassive black holes in the galaxy (like the one at the very center of the galaxy, if you can get there). Anyways, I hope that even if the ED team doesn't incorporate this suggestion in the future along with warping through black hole, at least they introduce the gravitational tidal forces that definitely exist and would destroy anything that got too close (anything that possesses the symmetry of gravity).
The way a player would look to another watching that player enter or get closer to a black hole - ED is multiplayer, and although it might seldom happen, it would be pretty fun to watch your friend regretfully and courageously plummet into a black hole. But what would you actually see? Well it turns out, the light you would see reflected off your friends ship would get more and more red-shifted as they get closer to the black hole until eventually they would seem to just disappear. Also, they would seem to fall slower and slower as a result of time dilation (which would be very difficult to implement to a realistic means as it would require knowledge of a players future actions). My suggestion here is that the ED team incorporate the redshifting of light coming off a player or object as it falls into a black hole according to a static observer.
Other suggestions -Although black holes create of the strange experiences I covered above (and more I have not discussed), other celestial bodies do as well such as pulsars, neutron stars and super compact stars. If the ED team decides or already has created these objects for the game, please allow for the effects above to be appropriately assigned to these other objects as well.
Once again let me express my deep respect for the ED team for their ongoing efforts to create on of the most amazing and beautiful games ever created. I hope you will take these suggestions to heart as I know I and many other players would be very grateful. Also, please check out the following link to a website in which physicists have simulated the correct experiences one would have near black holes and other objects. They have posted small movies on the website so anyone can freely watch and adore these simulations.
http://apod.nasa.gov/htmltest/rjn_bht.html
Furthermore, the game developers for ED might be pleased to know that at the following link, much of the code responsible for rendering interesting black hole visuals and experiences can be found (with a little searching).
http://ascl.net/
The developers just need to find the correct paper in which the code was written and then they should be able to find the code itself at ASCL.
Cheers