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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    "new" science application - is it worth a dot article?
From:       "Raphael Langerhorst" <raphael-langerhorst () gmx ! at>
Date:       2004-07-25 16:54:11
Message-ID: 11444.1090774451 () www47 ! gmx ! net
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Hi,

[I' try to keep it short, sorry if it get's longer]

I will release a version of my application on 27th of July (Tuesday) for the
first time - that means, make an entry in www.kde-apps.org (and an
announcement on kde-announce).


The basic question I have is, whether it's worth to write a dot article.

what is it? It's a virtual reality simulation with a mixture of an online
game and a scientific playground. The scientific thing about it is that the
software is designed to simulate evolution, the online game part is that
everyone can join this "simulation" with a 3D client - and then the "user"
also takes part in the simulation itself. [skipping detailed description]

The goal is a virtual reality in which simulation of evolution just happens
and where users take part in it (so it will have the realism of cause and
effect for everything [people] are doing, ... for all participants. I think
this is a thing simply not present in today's online games. AND it will have
the scientific side of evolution simulation, which also includes artificial
intelligence - as the "research field" - which is ... basically the same
thing but one group sees it from the users perspective and the other group
sees it as a scientific simulation).

[leaving out many details again]

I think it's quite unique in the sense that there are (almost?) no
applications that try to do this: simulate evolution... now, I myself
wouldn't try if I hadn't a few ideas about this. (besides: with evolution I
not only mean evolution of "form" but also of "life" itself).

... if you come to the conclusion that this needs somehow a bit of work then
you are right, with this first release the base system is actually there
(and basically functional) but the "content" is missing. Also there is no
network code, only primitive 3D rendering and as I said not much simulation
content. There is only a small demo included that actually shows that the
base system works. (And we have a website, a mailing list, a subversion
repository and currently 5 developers). So what I actually intend with this
release is to attract new developers (and whatever else is needed) that are
interested in this kind of simulation, but also that are experts in ... say,
network code, 3D graphics and so on - and never forget about documentation.
I expect that the project takes about 5 years until we have a virtual
reality that can be opened to public fully (as "stable" and "functional" -
the 1.0 release).


Also... another thought is, whether we should introduce a mailing list for
scientific applications. So far there is one for educational stuff, but
there are also a few apps in the scientific category on www.kde-apps.org so
I guess interest is there. But I think this also depends on whether the
application itself get's integrated in KDE (which by no means I want to
"force" at all). But this is not urgent to decide at all (IMO).

... so... I hope that was not too much to read. Should I write a dot
article? - You think this kind of project is worth the publicity? What I
want to reach is to provide a platform for scientific research for
evolution. Visualizing the stuff in a 3D world makes the scientific research
humane and interesting I think.

[ok, in some sense this email is already a bit of training - I think I wrote
about 10 descriptions about the project already. Hope it was not too long to
read].


Regards,
Raphael

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