'Elite II' data storage.
Blitz3D Forums/Blitz3D Programming/'Elite II' data storage.
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| Recently I read somewhere that 'Elite II' had a unique system of storing data for an entity galaxy of billions of stars, planets and moons all stored using 2 double digit numbers. I not sure if this is true of even possible. Can anyone shed any light on how this is achieved? Or possibly a code sample? |
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| I read that the original Elite had used something similar... hold on a sec, Il find the details you wanted... |
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| I believe they used the numbers as random number seeds, then generated the areas based on the results of RND. |
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| Here it is... Something to do with the Fibonnacci sequence and some more maths bundled in... (read down about 2/3rds of the page to find it......) |
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| Thanks Malice and WarrenM for replying so quickly. The link you provided above, Malice, is terrific reading. The original Elite was my favorite game when I was a teenager. I probably spent more time playing Elite than any other game to this day. To read about the development of this game by two relatively inexperienced programmers and there subsequent success is truly inspirational. Back to the topic. The Fiboncacci sequence IS used to generate 'pseudo' random numbers. It may be similar to what Blitz already does with SEEDRND. I'll see what I can do now I'm armed with this information. As a side note when you take a number from the Fibonacci series and divide it by the one before, it gives you a ratio of around 1.618 (It changes the higher up the series you go.) This ratio occurs all through nature! From the curve of a fern leaf to the length of the bones in our finger and hands. It's even represented in the coils of our DNA. Michelangelo and DaVinci used the ratio in their piantings and architecture because it is the most pleasing to the eye. Fascinating. |
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| Interesting stuff. It is possible to use Blitz' Pseudo-Random numbers with specific Seeds, as they will create a repeatable list of numbers that can be utilised in the same way. I wonder if not maintaining the ratio you mentioned will adversely affect any outcomes significantly (even aesthetically!) Yeah - I loved Elite, I last played the speccy version about 5 years ago, and Im stillat 'Dangerous' rating... I doubt Il actually find the time to load it up again, maybe Il never see 'Elite' haha! |
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| Check out www.arxspace.com Attics and me have been working hard on a space game you Elite people may like. Ion-Storm |
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| You might also want to read back on some older threads about whether Blitz' inbuilt random number generator will give the same result on all hardware.... The Elite team were writing for a single platform (BBC micro) so the Universe generated each time was guaranteed to be the same for each 'seed.' {Plus the single-player aspect meant that even if it wasn't it was no big deal} For a modern multiplayer game it would seem to be a good idea to use a SeedRnd() function to cut down on network data flowing, but only if the results will be the same for all players. |
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