Re: Horizons and maps, and re: Glorantha the 3D model

From: Jonathan Coxhead <jonathan_at_doves.demon.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 13 Mar 1998 16:21:37 +0000


| From: TTrotsky <TTrotsky_at_aol.com>
|
| Jonathan Coxhead:
|
| << By the way, I'm enjoying the discussion on the appearance of the sun at
| various points times in the day, and the discussion I read recently on the
| appearance of the horizon in a flat earth. (Essentially, there isn't one.
| If you go out on aclear day by the coast and look out to sea, the horizon
| is very obvious. It's an interesting mental exercise to try to imagine
| what you would see if the earth were flat.)>>
|
| Strangely, Glorantha *does* have a horizon - even though we are
| specifically told it doesn't in Strangers in Prax (p36). It's assumed this is
| because Gloranthan light is bendy, since the world is well known to be flat.

   Why would it have a horizon?

   The way I think of it is like this: any light ray that enters your eye horizontally, or from above, has come through lots of air, and so is blue. Anything from below the horizontal has come from land, at some distance, possibly very large, and so fades from whatever colour the land actually is (nearby) to blue (far away). This applies no matter how high up you are (unless your height above ground becomes a sizable fraction of the width of the lozenge. So if you climb a
mountain, the circle around you at which land becomes sky (the non-horizon) remains at eye-level. It might give the psychological impression that you were in a huge bowl.

   This is why I'd like to see---and get inside---a model of it!

   If light really is bendy, all bets are off, but I think you're just making it up!! Moonlight is bendy---it travels in a nice curve that hits the ground just far enough to illuminate the Empire, but no further. This means that within the Empire, the moon is always above the horizon, but you can't see it from outside.

| From: "Jane Williams" <jane_at_williams.nildram.co.uk>
|
| Well, I do have the ability to create (simple) VRML files and put them on
| the Web. A detailed model would break most browsers, but a simple one:
| yes, something could be done. All I need is some dimensions to work with.
| I can get the basics of the Lozenge from a map of Glorantha. Would
| someone like to supply me with the *universally* *accepted* measurements
| for:
|
| a) the radius of the Sky Dome
| b) the position and path of the Sun
| c) ditto for the Red Moon
| d) heights of all significant mountain ranges and other features of
| interest.
|
| Note that "significant" means a measurement greater than 1/1000 of the
| dimensions of the entire model: browsers tend to get upset about showing
| very small things in a very big universe.

   From looking at your home page, I'm sure your resources (both Gloranthan and software) must exceed mine. I'd love to see the rsults, if you do it though, and if I can help, I'd be happy to!

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