3 ms·

What was the EDMS business? Also, any good stories from your origin days?

dfan 9y ago
EDMS = Electronic Document Management System? Like source control? I honestly don't remember. These source files all have rcsid tags so probably we were using CVS? In our previous project (Ultima Underworld) our computers weren't even networked and I would go around grabbing floppies with changes from coworkers and merging their code into the master by hand. Here are some of my Ultima Underworld stories: https://dfan.org/blog/2011/02/20/the-dangers-of-self-modifying-code/ https://dfan.org/blog/2011/02/20/the-dangers-of-self-modifyi... https://dfan.org/blog/2011/02/21/ultima-underworld-bugs/ https://dfan.org/blog/2011/02/21/ultima-underworld-bugs/ https://dfan.org/blog/2011/03/17/one-more-ultima-underworld-story/ https://dfan.org/blog/2011/03/17/one-more-ultima-underworld-...
hacoo 9y ago
According to a Kickstarter update from Nightdive, EDMS was the physics system, written by Seamus Blackley. It stands for 'Emetic Dynamics Modeling System'... Possibly a reference to the way discarded items would go flying out the center of the viewport :) Edit: EDMS/SOLITON.CC confirms above is correct (speculation about origin of the name is still speculation, however)
- dfan 9y ago
  Oh, that EDMS! I had totally forgotten its code name. Seamus's physics system was really ahead of its time, but unfortunately a ton of the work of getting a physics system to work in a real game is dealing with edge cases, numerical stability, etc., and we had huge problems getting everything to an industrial-strength state. (You will probably not be surprised if you look at the code.) Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri's full biped physics eventually had to be replaced by run-of-the-mill sphere physics just to make sure that things worked 100% of the time instead of 95%. Flight Unlimited was the real culmination of Seamus's physics work.

dfan 9y ago

EDMS = Electronic Document Management System? Like source control? I honestly don't remember. These source files all have rcsid tags so probably we were using CVS? In our previous project (Ultima Underworld) our computers weren't even networked and I would go around grabbing floppies with changes from coworkers and merging their code into the master by hand. Here are some of my Ultima Underworld stories: https://dfan.org/blog/2011/02/20/the-dangers-of-self-modifying-code/ https://dfan.org/blog/2011/02/20/the-dangers-of-self-modifyi... https://dfan.org/blog/2011/02/21/ultima-underworld-bugs/ https://dfan.org/blog/2011/02/21/ultima-underworld-bugs/ https://dfan.org/blog/2011/03/17/one-more-ultima-underworld-story/ https://dfan.org/blog/2011/03/17/one-more-ultima-underworld-...

hacoo 9y ago

According to a Kickstarter update from Nightdive, EDMS was the physics system, written by Seamus Blackley. It stands for 'Emetic Dynamics Modeling System'... Possibly a reference to the way discarded items would go flying out the center of the viewport :) Edit: EDMS/SOLITON.CC confirms above is correct (speculation about origin of the name is still speculation, however)

dfan 9y ago
Oh, that EDMS! I had totally forgotten its code name. Seamus's physics system was really ahead of its time, but unfortunately a ton of the work of getting a physics system to work in a real game is dealing with edge cases, numerical stability, etc., and we had huge problems getting everything to an industrial-strength state. (You will probably not be surprised if you look at the code.) Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri's full biped physics eventually had to be replaced by run-of-the-mill sphere physics just to make sure that things worked 100% of the time instead of 95%. Flight Unlimited was the real culmination of Seamus's physics work.