Eric Bruneton Is a name that should be known to anyone interested in modern procedural worldbuilding. His project: PROLAND was and is a spiritual ancestor of Outerra, but after the Proland project, I heard little of him until in the last few days he suddenly resurfaced with new videos to add to his scholarly papers. Fascinating stuff, as always.

 

I always loved his RAMA stuff, and as usual there are probably insights useful to many other types of project.

 

And of course, if you are inclined to play, Mr Bruneton provides a real-time demo where the user can navigate in Rama with a helicopter-like vehicle, and view each light path contribution separately or combined with others, for a single or six linear source(s), and with or without ground textures. The demo provides a precompiled binary for Windows, as well as the full source code and a simple Makefile.

 

http://ebruneton.free.fr/rama-physics/physics.html

 

http://ebruneton.free.fr/rama-lighting/lighting.html

 

 

Rama higher resolution, non real time demo. I had forgotten how cool this looked, but with the mathematical conclusion that clouds would not form within Rama, it's out of date.

 

Still, beautiful stuff.

 

I really enjoyed "Rendezvous with Rama," but for some reason could never warm up to "Rama II" or any of the other sequels/continuations of the stories.

I really enjoyed "Rendezvous with Rama," but for some reason could never warm up to "Rama II" or any of the other sequels/continuations of the stories.

 

Same here. Modern continuations of classic sci-fi, even when from the same author rarely can recapture the magic. Rama the original was totally enigmatic; no real explanations of exactly what it was, or what might be it's certain goal.

 

The same was true for The monolith in 2001 a Space odyssey. The book and then the Movie left you feeling small and speculative about humanity's place in it all, after a brush with something strange/eerie.

 

Modern additions are almost always full of elaborate explanations that ruin the original mystery.

 

The continuation of HG. Wells time machine (Stephan Baxters The Time Ships) was flat out depressing.(The Morlocks become the good guys? The Time traveller is an idiot?)

 

The modern continuation of The City And The Stars (Gregory Benford's Beyond The Fall Of Night) was also depressing, and replaced the sense of wonder with a "realistic" sense of mans insignificance. (Note when I said "small" earlier, those books had a sense of hope that humankind might grow. This is opposed to" insignificant" where we remain pretty much nothing for all time before finally fading away, unmissed)

 

Probably the only classic Sci-Fi continuation I ever saw that captured the original magic was The Gripping Hand, the sequel to The Mote in God's Eye. :-/

 

 

Modern continuations of classic sci-fi, even when from the same author rarely can recapture the magic.

I think that, if the sequels had been pure Arthur Clarke rather than collaborations, they would have been more successful. Although I enjoyed the Rama books, I think my favourite is still Childhood's End.

 

 

I think my favourite is still Childhood's End.

 

Well..... speaking of that.......

 

Patiently waiting..

I really enjoyed "Rendezvous with Rama," but for some reason could never warm up to "Rama II" or any of the other sequels/continuations of the stories.

 

Exactly the same here. The original novel is one of my favourite books of any genre, let alone science fiction. Arthur C. Clarke described the interior of Rama so perfectly that it was always easy to picture in the mind what the exploration team were experiencing, and how the internal physics were influenced by Rama's approach towards the sun. A work of extraordinary imagination - but as you say, the sequels were probably best left unwritten.

Same here. Modern continuations of classic sci-fi, even when from the same author rarely can recapture the magic. Rama the original was totally enigmatic; no real explanations of exactly what it was, or what might be it's certain goal.

A.C. Clarke made it clear that he did not intend to continue the storyline beyond the original. I'm surprised that he allowed himself to be 'bullied' by his publisher to write "Rama II."

 

There have been very few authors who have the talent for creating excellent massive arc stories. One of my contemporary favorites is David Weber, who's Safehold series is thoroughly engrossing and memorable. His Honor Harrington series is likewise engaging and enjoyable.

 

David Drake is another of my contemporary favorites. His General Series has been very entertaining, as was his Belisarius saga.

 

Eric Flint's opus of stories published include his collaboration with David Drake on the aforementioned Belisarius stories, but his Ring of Fire series has been a favorite of mine as well.

 

Mercedes Lackey's marvelous Valdemar stories have been a never-ending delight for me to collect and read. All thirty-nine of them!

Thirty nine books.........

 

Yikes!

 

On a stick.

 

Having just reluctantly (I didn't want it to end) read the last book of the Wheel of Time (and it feels like I have been reading that since toddlerdom) I can't even imagine how long it must have taken to write 39 books.....

 

You know, since my teens I have had a standing policy of never buying an incomplete series because I had experienced too many where the author died, or lost interest, or it was not a financial success and the series ended unfinished; but I never seem able to stick to that policy. Despite my determination, I must be in the midst of at least ten series.

 

Yuck.

I always regarded the sequels as fan fiction.

By the way, does anyone else have the 'Rendezvous with Rama' computer game, by Sierra ?

Having just reluctantly (I didn't want it to end) read the last book of the Wheel of Time (and it feels like I have been reading that since toddlerdom) I can't even imagine how long it must have taken to write 39 books.....

Each of the volumes in the Wheel of Time series is massive, each being ~900 pages!  

 

The unfortunate demise of Robert Jordan prior to completing the series really left a sour note with me. While I believe that Brandon Sanderson is an accomplished author in his own right, the sudden shift in style and voice in the final three volumes was jarring, and especially just didn't make A Memory of Light quite as enjoyable a read for me. Having the Rand al 'Thor - main hero of the story - just wander off on his own at the end was quite a let down.

 

I have to say that having that devious harridan Cadsuane being forced into the post of Amyrlin was cosmic justice.

Each of the volumes in the Wheel of Time series is massive, each being ~900 pages!  

 

The unfortunate demise of Robert Jordan prior to completing the series really left a sour note with me. While I believe that Brandon Sanderson is an accomplished author in his own right, the sudden shift in style and voice in the final three volumes was jarring, and especially just didn't make A Memory of Light quite as enjoyable a read for me. Having the Rand al 'Thor - main hero of the story - just wander off on his own at the end was quite a let down.

 

I have to say that having that devious harridan Cadsuane being forced into the post of Amyrlin was cosmic justice.

 

Yes, the ending was......

 

Well actually it was kind of good, but it isn't (I believe) how Jordan would have done it. In the course of Mr Jordan's novels, the characters came very much alive, each with his/her own unique story arc, and there was a palpable feeling that all of this was combining in a way that would all come together in the conclusion, which it did.

 

But.

 

While the conclusion we got was a good novel in its own way, it was very clear that the once vibrant and quirky cast of characters had abruptly became extremely one dimensional; just chess pieces being moved across the board to their proper place in the final confrontation.

 

Story points years in the making were brought to a close in ways that felt rushed and strangely flat, as if the author had a numbered list of story arcs that needed concluding, and went about it in a completely workmanlike manner.....

 

In the end, the expansively epic scale was severely reduced, and nothing indicates it more then the conclusion of Rand's story, limping anti climatically to its conclusion. I felt like I had waited forever while a huge balloon was blown to massive proportions, that I was sure would detonate with an enormous boom when a pin was finally taken to it in the end.

 

Instead somebody simply let the air out.

 

Ruarcs story? (raspberry sound)

 

Nynaeve? (ends as a flat character with all the fire and spice gone)

 

Princess of the nine moons and all that protracted playing with "Toy"? (eh)

 

The dagger and the evil wind? (if you blinked, you could miss them being disposed of)

 

The horn of Valere? The final battle? (blah!)

 

The Seanchan? A non-conclusion.

 

It was pretty much all like that.  think Sanderson did what he could, but......... it all just ended on a flat note, for me.