"The world described by Einstein's theory of special relativity is one not explored by many game designers," says Steven Schirra of MIT Game Lab. Which is a pretty strong opener for an email. Not only is it true, but Schirra's pointing us in the direction of OpenRelativity , MIT's solution to this alarming design void. It's a new open-source Unity toolkit, designed to let developers easily integrate spacetime-bending madness into their games.
"Designed for Unity3D, OpenRelativity allows game developers to transform any game in to a relativistic playground," Schirra writes, "accurately simulating the effects of Einstein's special relativity, such as Lorentz contraction, time dilation, Doppler shift and the searchlight effect." Here's a video of all that in action:
To see how it works in-game, you can download last year's A Slower Speed of Light , which was made with the toolset. And then download the toolset itself , to implement relativistic mind-fucks in your own games.
What games would you like to see incorporate light-bending, time-shifting, mind-warping elements of relativity?
