3 ms·

Would adding the ability to control altitude make it useful?

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
dylan604 4y ago
yes. winds change at altitudes, so you might find it faster/slower depending on your altitude. or even going in the opposite direction
beambot 4y ago
Definitely. Programs such as Google's Project Loon used altitude to access different wind profiles so that they could plan & control the balloons' paths. You see this a lot with hot air balloons: The wind at one altitude can be going the opposite direction than the wind a few hundred feet below. https://x.company/projects/loon/ https://x.company/projects/loon/
shagie 4y ago
It would provide a better representation of the ability to steer the balloon. As it is now, it suggests "you launch it and it goes somewhere randomly." But if you were able to demonstrate that it is able to steer by changing its altitude it becomes more clear that overflying an area can be a deliberate act. Additionally, the data of "here is the current vector map for the winds at some altitude" doesn't handle the forecast of what they will be at a different location in 6 hours. Having this as a game with "overfly these cities and score points" combined with using one month's worth of wind data and forecast information for 6h and 12h from now (rather than a point in time) would be more accurate for what it can do.
hluska 4y ago
Maybe. On one hand, yes controlling altitude will provide better results. One quirk of balloons is that winds can move at dramatically different directions/speeds at different altitudes. On the other hand, this seems to be a solo developer working on something for the pure challenge of it. Adding different altitudes would have dramatically increased both the work and money required to build/display this. In other words, adding features might make it more useful if you’re purely interested in accurately forecasting balloon flight. But prematurely adding features might mean that we wouldn’t have gotten to play with it now. Would that really be an improvement? Who knows? If you want to accurately forecast balloon flight, there are already built resources for you. But this is hacker news, let’s leave those concerns for another time and celebrate hacking. OP, I dig balloons. This simulation isn’t perfect but you have done some really good work. Keep at it!!

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

yes. winds change at altitudes, so you might find it faster/slower depending on your altitude. or even going in the opposite direction

beambot 4y ago

Definitely. Programs such as Google's Project Loon used altitude to access different wind profiles so that they could plan & control the balloons' paths. You see this a lot with hot air balloons: The wind at one altitude can be going the opposite direction than the wind a few hundred feet below. https://x.company/projects/loon/ https://x.company/projects/loon/

shagie 4y ago

It would provide a better representation of the ability to steer the balloon. As it is now, it suggests "you launch it and it goes somewhere randomly." But if you were able to demonstrate that it is able to steer by changing its altitude it becomes more clear that overflying an area can be a deliberate act. Additionally, the data of "here is the current vector map for the winds at some altitude" doesn't handle the forecast of what they will be at a different location in 6 hours. Having this as a game with "overfly these cities and score points" combined with using one month's worth of wind data and forecast information for 6h and 12h from now (rather than a point in time) would be more accurate for what it can do.

hluska 4y ago

Maybe. On one hand, yes controlling altitude will provide better results. One quirk of balloons is that winds can move at dramatically different directions/speeds at different altitudes. On the other hand, this seems to be a solo developer working on something for the pure challenge of it. Adding different altitudes would have dramatically increased both the work and money required to build/display this. In other words, adding features might make it more useful if you’re purely interested in accurately forecasting balloon flight. But prematurely adding features might mean that we wouldn’t have gotten to play with it now. Would that really be an improvement? Who knows? If you want to accurately forecast balloon flight, there are already built resources for you. But this is hacker news, let’s leave those concerns for another time and celebrate hacking. OP, I dig balloons. This simulation isn’t perfect but you have done some really good work. Keep at it!!