English lesson: Time lapse

[Shiv Mathur]

Thanks Hardy, Opher and Martin,

Yes, you are all without doubt absolutely right.

I guess this difference in attitude is (one of) the difference/s between
real pilots and student pilots like you, and merely a 747 enthusiast like me.

I'm still gonna get PSX, though !!!

Cheers,
Shiv

[Will]

I guess the decision has been made.  But I like "Time Acceleration."  It sounds a bit sexier than Simulation Rate, but IMHO is just as clear to the user, especially if there are options marked on a slider like this:

0.1x   0.5x   0.75x    1.0   2x   5x   10x   100x

[Hardy Heinlin]

Good morning,

I just woke up with refreshed neurons ... hhh ... yes, perhaps I should reconsider that magic word :-)

I agree, "time acceleration" sounds sexier, more einsteinesque.

What I didn't really like is that "rate" has multiple meanings. It's a word that non-English speakers may not immediately associate with time and velocities.

What I didn't like in "acceleration" is that the sim time is accelerating only while  the slider is being moved. As soon as the slider is set to, say, 32x, the rate stays at 32 and won't accelerate further. But that's hairsplitting :-)

Yes, I'll change it to "time acceleration" :-) Another huge problem solved!


Cheers,

|-|ardy

[Peter Lang]

With "+" and "-" for acceleration and deceleration?  :mrgreen:

[Hardy Heinlin]

A deceleration would be any slider movement to the left.

E.g. from 64 down to 32.

Or from 1 down to 0.25.


:-)

|-|

[JGBxl]

Why not "Simulator Time Flow"? This would be slower than, equal to or faster than real time. It would combine familiar vocabulary with "Einsteinian" concepts of different time "speeds" and familiar concepts (such as "fuel flow").

Cheers.

JGBxl

[Holger Wende]

time acceleration... sounds sexier...

hurray ... so we'll get a sexy simulator  :mrgreen:

I am in two minds about "acceleration".
My engineering neurons then expect something with non-constant speed/rate.
But my instinct tells me the pure wording is less important.

So I wonder whether I shall give my opinion here, is it really important?  :?

Anyway, I still favour names like
- time speed or time rate
- simulation (clock) speed or rate
- (real) time ratio
The prefix "simulation" is obvious within PSX context, isn't it?

And thinking furher, what will be the corresponding wording for "simulator paused"?
Will it be "time acceleration zero"  

Anyway, I will buy PSX even if you would name the "time accelaration option" something like "simulator second to real world second ratio".

Sorry, if I confuse you with my late inputs :roll:

Going to sleep now, good night,
Holger

[Will]

Let me argue (weakly!) that the "Time Acceleration Factor" (*) serves to answer the question "How much has time been accelerated?"  Of course, once the simulator reaches the new rate of passage of time (**), there isn't any acceleration taking place (***).  But the number is still useful, to answer the question about what happened to go from the old value to the new one.  So I think it's quite intuitive, and once can argue (weakly!) that it's factually correct.  Not in the sense that time is still accelerating, but as a measure of what the change was from the old rate of passage of time to the new one.

(*) "Factor:" adds even more sexiness!
(**) Do we even have a word (or a concept) for the rate of passage of time?  If velocity is the rate of change of position, and acceleration is the rate of change of velocity... so time's velocity would be the rate of the passage of "instants," and we really don't have a word for this, do we?  And what would be the rate of change of time's velocity in this case?  Perhaps "Time Acceleration" really is the best term for that.  I think it's a great question.  BTW, I think my definition of time's velocity as the rate of the passage of instants seems to fit nicely in a universe (such as a sim) in which time is quantized.
(***) There might not be any acceleration taking place anyway, as Hardy may have the sim just instantaneously assume the new time.  But seeing time actually accelerate to the new rate: now that would be super-sexy!

[Hardy Heinlin]

Fully agreed, Will.

...

Re smooth acceleration: I could program that, the factor variable type is already a floating point type, not an integer. But I'm not sure if that is useful. I think I like it better if the change is hard and clearly noticeable rather than smooth and creeping.

Good night,

|-|ardy

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

I will make an add-on that creepingly accellerates time during long dark nights over the ocean.


PS. In milling machinery, there is a speed mode used for positioning equipment rapidly.
I do not know the English word, but the Dutch is "ijlgang" and the German "eilgang". Would give a nice twist.

[Mundyas]

Hi
A very interesting discussion. Just makes me more and more interested in getting the new sim Hardy.
I could be flippant and suggest - Graduated Simulator Rate, Simulator Speed Adjustment, Running Time Adjustment.

Or perhaps- label the switch / slider "DO NOT TOUCH - THIS ALTERS EVERYTHING!!"  
Andrew
PS - "Time for a change" Sorry!!

[Hardy Heinlin]

Re smooth acceleration: I could program that, the factor variable type is already a floating point type, not an integer. But I'm not sure if that is useful. I think I like it better if the change is hard and clearly noticeable rather than smooth and creeping.

Confirmed. I like it better when the factor is switched instead of creeping. In the latter case it's not clear if, for example, the increasing scrolling tempo of the PFD tapes is caused by aerodynamic effects or by someone clicking around on the Instructor panel. That's irritating. Not good for educational purposes.


Good morning,

|-|ardy


P.S.: My opinion might be contradictory to the fact that the sliders on the Aerodynamics page (IAS, ALT, HDG etc.) can produce smooth "creeping" effects, too. But there the fine resolution is necessary, on the time factor it's not. So, no reason to apply that on everything :-)

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

Next to Dutch roll, shall we introduce German (Einstein) roll that waves back and forth the time rate? It was observed to increase during flights with heavy alcohol intake.

[Hardy Heinlin]

I don't mind :-)

I just checked if injecting a floating point factor will be accepted by PSX. Yes, it will. But the indicator and slider will truncate it down to the nearest integer. When you inject factor 13.89 the indicator will read 13 and the slider 8 – and the sim will run at 13.89.

If you inject 0 you will not only get an aircraft motion stop, but a (almost) universe motion stop. (So, not to be confused with the aircraft motion stop feature.)


|-|

[Will]

What about a happy medium for the acceleration?  Like 0.5 seconds per doubling?  So accelerating from 1x to 64x takes about 2-3 seconds?  It might look nice, without being confused as a "creep."  (Then again, it may induce motion sickness.)

Jeroen, I think time dilation takes place anyway on long, dark, nights over the ocean... so your add-on would simply apply a corrective factor, in a sesne, smoothing the Einsteinian roll.