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> Chips, blocks, player character all tend to be better described as mutable objects That is just one way to look at it. You could also say that they can all b

by lucian1900 12y ago

> Chips, blocks, player character all tend to be better described as mutable objects That is just one way to look at it. You could also say that they can all be described by the universe's state at a point in time. Then, you'd have a function that takes the old state and some actions to produce a new state, by recursively doing the same to each object within the universe.

bpage 12y ago
This wording sounds remarkably similar to quantum mechanics. I wonder how far you could take the idea of building a game out of state vectors and linear transformations.
- Zeebrommer 12y ago
  State vectors and linear transformations are by no means unique to quantum mechanics. A lot of dynamic systems can be described this way: robot arms, chemical plants, airplanes, even network dynamics.
  - bpage 12y ago
    Naively I can guess how robot arms and networks could be spoken of in terms of states (and perhaps even chemical plants), but airplanes? Do you have any more information on the topic?
    - Zeebrommer 12y ago
      The technique is called a state space model [0]. A complete airplane might have been a bit hyperbolic, but as long as the assumption of linear dynamics is allowable, extremely large systems with multiple inputs and outputs and thousands of states can be simulated. What's more, there are some elegant and practical ways to find controllers with mathematically proven performance (like LQG control, or Model Predictive Control). This field of study has lead to the Kalman filter, which might ring a bell. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_space_representation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_space_representation
- JadeNB 12y ago
  > This wording sounds remarkably similar to quantum mechanics. I wonder how far you could take the idea of building a game out of state vectors and linear transformations. That's an interesting idea (and might fit in with "math / science gamification" software). Terry Tao used the opposite point of view, describing quantum mechanics in terms of video games: http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/quantum-mechanics-and-tomb-raider http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/quantum-mechanics-a....

bpage 12y ago

This wording sounds remarkably similar to quantum mechanics. I wonder how far you could take the idea of building a game out of state vectors and linear transformations.

Zeebrommer 12y ago
State vectors and linear transformations are by no means unique to quantum mechanics. A lot of dynamic systems can be described this way: robot arms, chemical plants, airplanes, even network dynamics.
- bpage 12y ago
  Naively I can guess how robot arms and networks could be spoken of in terms of states (and perhaps even chemical plants), but airplanes? Do you have any more information on the topic?
  - Zeebrommer 12y ago
    The technique is called a state space model [0]. A complete airplane might have been a bit hyperbolic, but as long as the assumption of linear dynamics is allowable, extremely large systems with multiple inputs and outputs and thousands of states can be simulated. What's more, there are some elegant and practical ways to find controllers with mathematically proven performance (like LQG control, or Model Predictive Control). This field of study has lead to the Kalman filter, which might ring a bell. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_space_representation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_space_representation
JadeNB 12y ago
> This wording sounds remarkably similar to quantum mechanics. I wonder how far you could take the idea of building a game out of state vectors and linear transformations. That's an interesting idea (and might fit in with "math / science gamification" software). Terry Tao used the opposite point of view, describing quantum mechanics in terms of video games: http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/quantum-mechanics-and-tomb-raider http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/quantum-mechanics-a....