SimNation - the countries simulator

[SimNation]

Hi!

I'm yet in the very beginning, but feel like sharing some images. The idea is to display official information about real countries (all of them), mostly for educational purposes. Here you see altitude/vegetation data with states outlined. I plan to include many other kinds of data - all already available over the Internet - as well as analysis and simulations. (You can see part of it in the 2D version here: http://downloads.sourceforge.net/projec ... -0.3.1.zip)

Instructions on how to install the previous versions (2D and 3D, in english and portuguese): http://www.simnation.info/
A video preview: http://www.simnation.info/index.php#FlvPlayer

Hope you like it!

Brasil:




Indonesia:




China:

[Baddcog]

Looks pretty cool, might be a fun app to have.

[SimNation]

Thanks! I hope to release the new version soon, although most of the data is already available in the 2D version.

[SimNation]

Vietnam, population density 1:


Vietnam, population density 2:


Philippines, rainfall:


Brasil, rainfall + mean temperature:

[lingfors]

Looks cool, all that's missing is to render the entire (spherical) planet instead of a small, planar part of it.

[mrmclovin]

This looks very cool, I think my father would be very intrested in an application like this!! I agree with previous writer: a planet sphere would be awesome!

[SimNation]

Thank you both! I was thinking about that, at least a very simple and light sphere where the user can choose the country. Play the whole software in a sphere, I don't know, won't it "eat" too much memory? I want to spend all memory available to show the more detailed maps possible (not to mention the statistical/economical/industrial/pollution/biodiversity data), without having to "pause" to load data sometimes - i.e. I want the application to be as smooth as possible. Also, I cannot count on end users having the best memory/graphical cards in the world, my purpose is education, thus it has to be available to the wider audience, including third-world public schools and government-funded "digital stations" (poor, slow and buggy as they are).

Thinking better, why not do both?

[EricB]

SimNation,

I started working on something very similar to this for my Automobile manufacturing game. However I have switched to a per city bases from a national one. Anyhoo If you ever need old data points such as population, per capita, and historical name changes & ownership from the early 1900s onward in xml format do send me a PM. I should be able to dig them one of my old HDD's somewheres.



look forward to your work.


*Edit*

As far as data, Might want to look into something like SQlite, It's been pretty fast for me in regards to loading and displaying information.

[SimNation]

Hello fellows!

I've just put a new version to be downloaded and tested.

There's a 60 MB version (https://downloads.sourceforge.net/proje ... SN-0.5.zip - with city names) and a 40 MB version (https://downloads.sourceforge.net/proje ... N-0.5a.zip - without city names. In some areas of the so-called "under-developed world" it makes a huge difference).

Now you can:

- change the country (TAB key);
- see how vegetation was roughly in 1950 (according to some United Nations maps/tabs and some calculations by myself);
- return the vegetation to roughly 2000 (first travels in time back and forth are somewhat slow, once in cache it goes pretty fast);
- see population density, mean temperature and annual rainfall;
- see vegetation classes (simplified from a project called GLC2000) and;
- city/locality names (for all options except the first, press right mouse button).

Arrow/ASDW/PgUp/PgDown keys move the camera around; F key hides/shows the frames-per-second panel. G, R and T keys have the same function as in Ogre BaseApplication. IJKL changes the position of directional light.

*EDIT*
You may need to install Windows DirectX: http://download.microsoft.com/download/ ... redist.exe

There's a readme file too: https://downloads.sourceforge.net/proje ... readme.txt

Hope you like it, and help me to fill my bugs/to-do list.

Known issues:
- countries that cross the 180º longitude (i.e. USA, Russia, New Zealand, Fiji) don't work... yet;
- the compass position is wrong in different screen resolutions, or if the user changes screen size, and is deformed when it turns in normal use;
- openGL don't work in my system;
- state borders (available only for a few countries) are visible even behind mountains;
- some memory leak when changing country;
- altitude measures incorrect;
- changing the directional light position (IJKL) won't change the mountains' shades position;
- some incongruencies between maps (e.g. Kashmir doesn't appear in India's vegetation map, but appears as an Indian state - so the lines float in the vacuum).

[reptor]

It's an interesting application. I will check it out.

I was going to comment on the d3d DLL issue but you seem to have figured it out. It is indeed the redistributable which is the solution. Okay I will add some comments about that...

You can include the redistributable in an installer of your application and run it automatically. This requires administrator privileges.

You may also want to look at whether your application requires a Visual C++ redistributable. You may include that as well in an installer of your application and run it automatically.

If you include them and run them automatically then the user doesn't have to know what to do with them as long as he or she can provide the administrator privileges for the installer.

This will ensure that the users of your application will have the correct DirectX and Visual C++ libraries installed before they start your application.

Don't be intimidated by the size of the DirectX redistributable - it can be stripped down by quite a lot. In a project I have created the DirectX redistributable is 16.5 MB unpacked and I don't consider that too much. This size is with the core DirectX files and with the files that my application specifically needs. If you assume Windows XP Service Pack 2 or later then the size can come dramatically down from that because the SP2 includes DirectX and no installation of the core components is then necessary.

The redistributable is intended to be included in your application.

If you don't want to include it in your application's installer then you can point people to http://www.microsoft.com/directx/ so that they can use a web installer "DirectX End-User Runtime" which will only download missing files.

This is well-explained in the DirectX SDK documentation article "DirectX Installation for Game Developers".

[SimNation]

Thanks Reptor, I'll check that out!

[SimNation]

Four more pics, now showing the cultivated area advance from 1950 to 2000, in São Paulo and the country's northeast. Ironically, "bela floresta" means "beautiful forest", and "boca da mata" means "mouth of the forest", which are no longer there, like most of them

Most of the Atlantic Forest was destroyed in only 50 years. It used to be as exuberant as the Amazon. The "mosaic: cultivated/trees/other natural vegetation" may mislead us to think that about half the forest is still there, but the remnants are actualy between 5 and 20% of the original cover. Official figures are 7% of the whole biome, most of it severely fragmented. Thousands of species are already lost, and the number increases year after year. Brazil simply ignores it has the world's greatest biodiversity, and destroys it to gain access to some cheap imports, as the world consumes cheap coffee, ethanol and sugar.

SP, 2000:

SP, 1950:

Northeast, 1950:

Northeast, 2000:

[SimNation]

Hello people! I'm doing some progress, so I've decided to share it with you.

1. I've made a linux version in Ubuntu, but still I'm not sure how to distribute it. I would like to do that with the minimum required Ogre files, but I'm not sure what those are.
2. Now the country is divided into small regions (how many you want), and I'm beginning to calculate some statistics about it (like, how much cultivated areas determine population, etc).
3. I've got names in the screen: for each of the regions above it chooses the bigger locality inside the region for its name.
4. I've just found some good GIS data (http://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/), so the next version will have better quality data, including rivers and states for every countries.
5. I've changed the pink (cultivated areas) for white - it made things clearer, since the preserved areas are highlighted now.

I'm advancing fast recently. Hope to put a new test version soon. Thanks for the attention!

[Slappy]

Looks really interesting, I will definitely try it...
Good luck, is this an University project?

[SimNation]

Hi Slappy, thanks! I'm just about to deliver the most complete version up to now, will update this soon!

Actually is a project for life. I decided doing it after graduating in biology and seeing the rate of deforestation in many areas in the world, so I decided there was some maths and publicity waiting to be done.

[SimNation]

a new HD youtube video

[youtube]P9IOxd3H4AM[/youtube]

How can I add the video in this frame, please? I tried youtube button with url, with new embed code, with old embed code....URL button, Flash button...

[PeterWelzien]

Try using just the youtube id (P9IOxd3H4AM in your case).

[jacmoe]

How can I add the video in this frame, please? I tried youtube button with url, with new embed code, with old embed code....URL button, Flash button...

Try and read the youtube button help hint..
It's too simple.

[SimNation]

Thanks guys. After you see the button has a hint, it's really simple.

[FrozenLogic]

This is awesome! Congrats! keep up this great work!

[Beauty]

4. I've just found some good GIS data (http://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/), so the next version will have better quality data, including rivers and states for every countries.

Great note!!
I like to hear from this GIS database.
Two years ago I wasted much time to find out how to import GIS data to Ogre. Also it was difficult to find GIS data in the internet for my wanted area. (Here is the related forum topic.)

If you find a suitable way to integrate GIS data from this database to Ogre applications, it would be great if you publish some information or code about this.

[SimNation]

Thanks FrozenLogic! Comments like yours give me strength (it's not easy to develop this all alone).

Hi Beauty! (Loved your pic, by the way hehehe)

I put here some code: http://www.ogre3d.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=64039

Tell me if you have any problems running it.

Cheers!

[Beauty]

a new HD youtube video

Especially I like the background sounds.
Perhaps your girl friend takes a shower, then somebody is in the kitchen and a cock is singing.
Very funny.

I put here some code: http://www.ogre3d.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=64039
Tell me if you have any problems running it.

Thanks for your offer!