I'm back to the idea of a mini-summit featuring game engineers, physics engine designers, and First Person Physics, the latter being a joint project of myself and Dr. Bob.
The idea is of course didactic simulations, featuring forces, such as attractive and repulsive, in some game situation. The point of view may be first person, one it always pays to think about, and one could say is always first person, but in the context of the genre, you'll go third person just as much. We sometimes call it "god mode".
The one I always come back to is the "hexa pent" shell, what Glenn called a Global Matrix (meaning coordinate system and mapping grid), say a buckminsterfullerene broken up into hexagonal and pentagonal pieces. The fit together to form a hollow sphere, plus they attract one another. The force is akin to gravity in not having a repulsive element, as we have in the magnetosphere.
However, my "test pattern" simulation is only meant to be suggestive. What we're facing is the prospect of mixed-use high rises filling with game pods and students needing simulations mixed with reading programs of various types. Not every discipline communicates through game pods alone, and in fact few do, but the pods help and double as workstations.
Some of these workstations will be piloting physical devices remotely. The level of bandwidth matters, but then some robots have a lot of onboard capability and don't need to be micromanaged. Likewise drones. The pod design has the advantage of offering simulated acceleration along with other haptic feedback, which keeps pilots sensitized to their remote environments.
