It has been 6 months and one day since this project began and to the unfamiliar user the application Nervana 0.1 and Nervana 0.3 may appear to be quite similar. Rather than going through lengthy descriptions of version changes I will simply explain the features of this program.
Nervana 0.3 contains an my infinite (sine-based) virtual reality engine as well as my Vector3 virtual reality engine. The program currently has 9 modes;
Contour/Apes
Observe/Control
Vector
∂z/∂x
∂z/∂y
Δz
Area
Height
Water
'∂z/∂x', '∂z/∂y' and 'Δz' are mathematical modes and are unnecessary in the true function of the program.
'Area', 'Height' and 'Water' are Nervana operators which are explained in the manual but they are unnecessary unless you are interested in this aspect of the program. The real interest comes in 'Contour/Apes', 'Observe/Control' and 'Vector'.
Vector Mode
The program begins in Vector mode which just shows a 3D-esque representation of the island. Please note that the mapped section represents a section of land 3.2km x 3.2km.
Contour/Apes
This is a control-stripped version of Observe/Control. There is no 'View' feature in this mode.
Observe/Control
This is the main control point on the island. The keyboard commands for this mode are;
V - View Vector3 mode (V again to escape back to Observe/Control mode)
arrow keys - move ape
Option-up/down arrow key - change selected ape
Option-left/right arrow key - change ape direction facing
All the arrow and the Option-arrow commands work in the View Vector3 mode which provides a description of the ape's circle of view. Could be popularly called 'ape's eye view' mode.
Some interesting effects occur when the user pauses the simulation with Apple-P and then moves into Vector3 mode through Apple-2 (Observe/Control mode) and the V key to View Vector3. This creates a simple Vector3 landscape where the user can travel over the island (in the body of an ape).
To maximise the speed of the simulation, close the viewing window (Apple-W) and move into the Event Off mode (Apple-E). Each tick sound represents a day of Nervana time passing. The '~' key turns the events back on and open window (Apple-D) will re-open the window.
This code of this program was solely generated by Tom Barbalet June-December 1996. Tom Barbalet will be 'on holiday' over January completing university exams. Please feel free to email him at;
tsb107@rsphy7.anu.edu.au
if you have any queries/comments over this period. He will just be unable to release new versions of the software in January. There is a regularly updated web-site which can be viewed at;
