13 New Halo 3 Screens - Pretty

[Sqrl]

tarheel91 said:

Sqrl said:

tarheel91 said:

Yeah, I know all about plasma. Heck, neon signs give off a crapload of light. However, we all know people like to use cool sounding terms like plasma in the SciFi realm without actually meaning to refer to the actual thing. I mean, if that's really ionized gas like plasma actually is, it'd half to be in some sort of container to prevent its dissipation. However, there doesn't appear to be any container (I don't think hitting someone in full armor with a glass tube is going to cut them apart) and the gas isn't dispersing, so we can already assume this isn't the actual plasma we've come to know and (possibly) love. As a result, we can't assume anything about its properties. I like to simply think of it as fancy alien tech that doesn't conform to our normal laws.

Plasma is highly responsive to magnets due to its ionized nature. All they really need is technology to shape a strong magnetic field and it would do the job just fine. So real plasma would work just fine. But you're right it doesn't mean it has to be "real" plasma.

In either case even if we assume its some alien technology the fact remains that since we cannot look past it means it blocks light. If it doesn't cast a shadow then we should see the ground behind it because the only reason we see anything is because light bounces off of it and into our eye.

Not trying to be contrary, but really it makes no sense for alien technology to just up and decide to block some light sources and not others even if we assume it can choose to do it in the first place. =P

PS - Yes I am a geek, and I proudly admit it...but then again isn't anyone who posts on a video game forum?

Oh, crap, me forgots about magnets. The summer break must've really made me rusty. Anyways, while I guess it'd be possible to use some insane magnets to do that, I don't see how they're keeping it in such a form (that little dual hook thing) when it looks like the magnets could be no where besides at the base of the sword. That'd be one insane magnetic field. I'm not going to argue that it's seemingly selectively defying the laws science has created in respects to light, but my whole point, like you acknowledged, is that it can feasibly go beyond our laws. You could argue that they're not trying to get that effect, but it's simply a strange attribute of the sword that goes beyond our limited understanding of the universe. In the end, we all know we're giving the developers too much credit and they just forgot to make shadows for 'em.

 See right there is our middle ground.  The crazy alien technology is extremely small, extremely powerful magnets!  But it is actually kind of fun to think of the ways they could do all this stuff.

I am waiting for an FPS to make a gun that shoots a small ballbearing at 0.9999c.  The effect that would have in atmosphere is catastrophic (even for the shooter).  Realistically it would superheat the air within a fairly large radius of the path but it would also force air out of the path and the air collapsing back in would either crush people or deafen them. I'm not sure how far the ballbearing would go though, there is a lot of things that "could" happen but its all speculation honestly.  The coolest thing would be for it to go until it hits something and explode (Tunguska style).  On second thought that gun would be way too powerful..nevermind =P