The Universe Project - An ambitious take on real life
Just found this on the usual feeds, a quite ambitious project called The Universe. It basically wants to imitate real life by creating a virtual world that houses our universe, with Earth being the starting planet. Initially it would start off desolate and rich with sources of survival with players beginning the very early life. As players progress they can develop infinite sets of skills ranging from really whatever you want to do.
As you progress, you'll be able to explore more of the world, including the chance to explore the galaxy and what it holds. Apparently it will be to scale of the earth, meaning walking around the entire circumference would take 1 year. It really is quite an ambitious project, one that has seen the light with smaller projects like Darkfall or Second Life but never this big. Honestly, I think it might be possible if the assets aren't to heavy on servers, but it would be amazing to watch evolve. Seeing people work together as a group or fight it out alone would definitely simulate real world ethics and growth. You could even have crazy people claim the world is going to be destroyed because an ancient race said so. You can check out the YouTube pre-Kickstarter video below but they do have one screenshot that I found on there Facebook, which obviously looks well under-developed, but that style of art could work well. The developers have mentioned they want it to be 2D/2.5D to begin with, but cross to full 3D later on in development. It will also be cross-platform on multiple devices (mobile, console and PC/Mac/Linux) with every device being able to connect to the world. Website Edit: Added links |
10:15pm 06/12/12 Permalink
Any links?
¿their I'm interested, very interested. Edit: can just see www.universeprojects.com in the youtube title(I'm on phone). last edited by mental at 22:26:04 06/Dec/12 |
10:19pm 06/12/12 Permalink
I don't get it, there is f*** all information?
Is it pretty much, they have a half baked idea to simulate reality, it'll start off really s*** but people will keep upgrading it to make it more realistic? Because that's risky, it might be such a let down to start with that people lose interest and it dies. last edited by thermite at 22:31:43 06/Dec/12 |
10:28pm 06/12/12 Permalink
It's not going to happen in one fell swoop. It's been dreamed up a million times by a million devs, and there are technical reasons why it hasn't been done already.
They might make some excellent innovations which move the genre forward, which could be awesome on their own, just don't expect the universe. |
10:30pm 06/12/12 Permalink
I don't get it, there is f*** all information? It looks to be in pre-development stages with mock ups etc to showcase towards Kickstarter later on. Basically from what I've gathered its an open-world simulator where the tools and skills are infinite to what players decide to do. You'll advance in what seems to be stages ala Stone Age, Iron Age etc, but this may just be a way to classify what players have the chance to do, but through common sense it will be the likely situation. Can't have rockets without technology. I just love the fact that my mind has already raced off into numerous ways I could play this. Imagine logging into a virtual world where we have created vaccines for diseases, explored worlds outside of ours or lived through various changes to the world. Would we repeat our own real life mistakes? I think that is why it is probably a little too ambitious, because it is quite a large scope and developers have tried beforehand and had to take what small sections they could develop. |
10:35pm 06/12/12 Permalink
It looks to be in pre-development stages with mock ups etc to showcase towards Kickstarter later on. Basically from what I've gathered its an open-world simulator where the tools and skills are infinite to what players decide to do. You'll advance in what seems to be stages ala Stone Age, Iron Age etc, but this may just be a way to classify what players have the chance to do, but through common sense it will be the likely situation. Can't have rockets without technology. OK if it was like the real universe, simply the fact that the player knows about iron, and science stuff, means you would be able to work towards that fairly quickly. I guess the information I want to know is what exactly is their idea of "the universe"? how far do they wanna take this? and what is the approach to making something like this? Do you program every little thing someone can do into it, or is it more hands off somehow allowing for spontaneous possibilities? I also get the feeling that since it will be playable on iphone and such it will be limited and lame and just a fad. last edited by thermite at 22:56:51 06/Dec/12 |
10:51pm 06/12/12 Permalink
Unless they're going to simulate all of physics (which we can't even do for one atom, and need enormous computing power to handle a few molecules with rough precision), this is going to necessitate being dumbed down dramatically until you're making tools from a set list with perhaps minor visual variation, finding predefined ore nodes, moving about a gameworld by predefined rules, gimmicky and probably frustrating building which can't possibly match real life, bland endless terrain, etc.
Wurm Online promised much of the same and actually did turn out to be moderately interesting from what I heard, but took 7 years (and had people like Notch working on it, and despite minecraft's s***** performance, Notch is an amazing programmer), yet still didn't come close to meeting its goals from the looks of things. |
11:10pm 06/12/12 Permalink
I wonder if it could offer programming skills like Scribblenauts or Little Big Planet, where you are given classes that the game knows can be filled with certain objects, and then allows players to create whatever they want.
It is definitely a genre that would benefit the most from technological advancements, and hopefully we will see more as we get older. I'd love to one day be able to play a game like this, where I'd login to a virtual world that is parallel to what we currently have. |
11:22pm 06/12/12 Permalink
For once, god help me, I actually agree with nerf
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11:41pm 14/01/13 Permalink
I just have this vision of minecraft in space... with trading.
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11:43pm 14/01/13 Permalink
I just have this vision of minecraft in space... with trading. I see that in the pitch, I also see some sort of Civilization-type tech tree... Sadly, the pessimist in me doesn't see this gaining traction. I'll keep this on my radar for a little while, but I can't see 'gameplay' mechanics that allow this to be quick and easy enough, whilst maintaining a challenge. Don't people know we've ALL been playing the 'hardcore' version of this for millenia already? |
11:53pm 14/01/13 Permalink
This is an idea for the future.
I don't think its feasible today. |
12:11am 15/01/13 Permalink
Not going to happen. 'On mobiles at the same time'. We havent even mastered cross platform console <--> PC yet let alone all at once with mobiles. (Which don't they still have troubles getting apps to work effortlessly on all mobiles?)
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07:13am 15/01/13 Permalink
It just sounds like a bunch of gamers got high and started throwing out ideas and convinced each other they could make it "Woooaaahh man, wouldn't it be cool if like, there was this game, and while you were playing the game you were, like, playing REAL LIFE in a parallel universe. And then it'd evolve and stuff and people could do anything they wanted!"
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11:15am 15/01/13 Permalink
Don't people know we've ALL been playing the 'hardcore' version of this for millenia already? Once again, greedy developers dumbing down a core experience for the casual gamer. |
12:48pm 15/01/13 Permalink
The Universe Project might work on 'tablet gaming' but everyone these days is looking to a PC lounge room environment. Console environment well that depends how you define "console."
On the ongoing development size of things. There already is a MMOG game that is aiming for open world and user feedback... Oh and staged content: Also they are trying to make their own youtube channel and have updates usually every Friday: http://www.youtube.com/user/stagefivetv/feed |
10:09pm 15/01/13 Permalink
I'm thinking "The Universe Project" is aiming at an up and coming Tablet or palm/tabtop market.
Firefall is kind of aiming at a wider margin. In one of the videos there was a proposal to have airstrike authorization via tablet / smartphone / ??? which was slightly different in the terms of MMOG venturing out into different areas. If I could find the video it would be great but theres a lot of hours to watch. My best guess is the video in question is Day 4 under Firefall Fest. |
11:21pm 15/01/13 Permalink
computational power doubles roughly every 18 months. This won't be technically possible for around a decade and even then if it does actually happen we would become 'god' by our own definition and prove the theory of simulated reality.
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01:11pm 17/01/13 Permalink
I don't even think it has anything to do with computational power, think of how much content you'd need to build if players can do absolutely anything, go absolutely anywhere and make whatever they can imagine. Even if the game is player driven, someone still has to be making models and textures and sounds and animations for every conceiveable thing a player could make or every place they could go. Even if its randomly generated to an extent, the base building blocks still need to be there, and to build such an infinite number of possibilities you would need a LOT of building blocks.
Unless you wrote an AI that could dynamically build its own content and recode the game on the fly as needed, but then comes Skynet and the war against the machines begins. |
01:23pm 17/01/13 Permalink
there is a finite amount of matter in the universe
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01:33pm 17/01/13 Permalink
Khel all you really need to do is simulate the big bang, and then have a 'fast forward' function to a more interesting time.
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01:49pm 17/01/13 Permalink
Sounds cool but the pessimist inside me says it's too ambitious.
but everyone these days is looking to a PC lounge room environment. No. |
01:59pm 17/01/13 Permalink
whats to say all you c**** aren't in a simulation of its own and what you think is reality is just a computer game/simulation that you as an AI became conscious in ?
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03:15pm 17/01/13 Permalink
whats to say all you c**** aren't in a simulation of its own and what you think is reality is just a computer game/simulation that you as an AI became conscious in ?We don't think this because we aren't schizophrenic. |
03:17pm 17/01/13 Permalink
whats to say all you c**** aren't in a simulation of its own and what you think is reality is just a computer game/simulation that you as an AI became conscious in ? That is a very common idea in philosophy, it might even be considered a core concept. People were talking about that idea hundreds of years ago before any computers or anything even existed to give plausibility to such a notion. Various lines of scientific inquiry, religion and spirituality, art, and literature are concerned with this topic. |
03:28pm 17/01/13 Permalink
1. Overly dramatic music stolen from a blockbuster film... check
2. Cherry picked science... check 3. A whole bunch of unverifiable facts... check 4. Posted by a known internet conspiracy retard... check. I was just going to say that it was just a big of a waste of time to watch your video as it would be to watch a faceman video, but I knew you'd have a little victimised hissy fit and claim that I am just avoiding the truth or scared or something so I decided to watch the whole thing. I'll know better next time. |
03:42pm 17/01/13 Permalink
I thought the first part of the video where Neil Degrasse Tyson was talking to the guy was interesting, was only from the 6:40 or so point where the other guy and the dramatic music started that it got ridiculous. I think its pretty interesting that at the sub-atomic level theres some kind of error correction built into the fabric of the universe, thats an interesting theory, but its a pretty retarded leap to them assume the universe is a computer program (a leap that the actual scientists and smart people working on it obviously don't make or the video wouldn't need to cut away to a crackpot).
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03:56pm 17/01/13 Permalink
it must be awesome knowing you're just absolutely right about everything. even though you don't know what you don't know, you're still right about that as well!
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03:56pm 17/01/13 Permalink
Yeah and notice he encouraged us to skip over that bit straight into the Inception/Matrix virtual reality BOMBSHELL.
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04:04pm 17/01/13 Permalink
i thought the first part was beyond your intellectual comprehension fpot so i suggested you goto the sensationalised bit. seeing as you already dismissed something you didnt know about i'd just have to assume you mental capacity to absorb any technical gobbledeg*** as a basis for the theory in question, it was a no brainer.
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04:10pm 17/01/13 Permalink
I don't assume I'm right, I just don't jump to ridiculous conclusions based on nothing. A quick slash with Occam's Razor usually cuts away the crazy and leaves the more realistic theories behind.
I think a big problem is they keep calling it 'computer code', even the guy in the initial bit goes on about it being computer code, and I think thats a bit misleading. These block linear self-dual error correcting codes he mentions are just an application of self-dual linear algebraic equations, used by computers sure, but at the core its just maths. Mathematics has been used to describe various aspects of the natural world and sub-atomic world for as long as theres been mathematicians and scientists. So while I find it interesting that it appears these particular sets of algebraic equations have been found in the building blocks of the universe, its not really at all suprising to find that another aspect of the physical world can be described with mathematics. it doesn't make me leap to the conclusion that we're all living in a computer, but it does make me think how f*****g amazing s*** really is. |
04:10pm 17/01/13 Permalink
i thought the first part was beyond your intellectual comprehension fpot so i suggested you goto the sensationalised bit. seeing as you already dismissed something you didnt know about i'd just have to assume you mental capacity to absorb any technical gobbledeg*** as a basis for the theory in question, it was a no brainer.You are just adorable, aren't you? |
04:12pm 17/01/13 Permalink
For anyone who's interested, the first part of the video was taken from a debate about string theory and a unified theory of everything. Of course the actual debating where people would respond to that guy's points was edited out in the video above, so its interesting to hear it in context (and they do actually bring it around to being about mathematics being used to describe the universe rather than continuing to refer to it as computer code).
Its long, but interesting watch if you're interested in stuff like this, and its chaired by Neil Degrasse Tyson |
04:23pm 17/01/13 Permalink
I'd love to hear cainer's thoughts on the Sandy Hook shooting.
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05:05pm 17/01/13 Permalink
I love Neil Degrasse Tyson, thanks for that video.
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05:15pm 17/01/13 Permalink
whats to say all you c**** aren't in a simulation of its own and what you think is reality is just a computer game/simulation that you as an AI became conscious in ?http://www.memes.at/generate/conspiracy_keanu.jpg |
05:18pm 18/01/13 Permalink
well i spose in fpot's situation, he's an AUI
hohoho |
06:29pm 18/01/13 Permalink
Hey cainer come on don't be shy we need to hear your Sandy Hook thoughts. There were so many inconsistencies and obvious crisis actors at play there. Surely it's not as simple as the lamestream media (voice of the sheeple) is saying. Start a thread about it the truth-voice of QGL needs to be heard.
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06:40pm 18/01/13 Permalink
some dude on prozac went nuts with his mom's guns and took out a heap of kids ?
pretty self explanatory.(but ya moms still a)ho ho ho |
06:47pm 18/01/13 Permalink
So you're balls-out retarded about 9/11 and global warming yet you buy the whole Sandy Hook thing? Really odd.
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06:53pm 18/01/13 Permalink
cmon fpot, you cant call anyone else out on being balls out retarded when youve been immortalised eating samboy chips
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06:55pm 18/01/13 Permalink
Whoa, a slugman joke. That's fresh.
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07:10pm 18/01/13 Permalink
if this life is a game the guy playing me must be really bored
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07:11pm 18/01/13 Permalink
09:08pm 18/01/13 Permalink
