Category Archives: What’s new?

This is the place to look for items that have been added or changed recently and some that are currently still in work. “How recently?” you may ask. Well, how long is a piece of string? It depends.

What's new?

New features added to Greening the Spark

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Several new features have been added to the Greening the Spark models, completing the design for this phase of the project. These are:

Audio

A new audio module has been written with an audio file queueing capability. This ensures that voice messages associated with different events don’t play at the same time. It also supports playing ambient sounds concurrently with voice messages and other sounds effects when required.

Weather Effects

Two new weather effects have been added to augment the current timeline based weather models: gusts (of wind) and clouds. These allow for short term weather events of the order of tens of seconds to provide greater realism and help keep visitors’ attention.

Climate Change, What's new?

Greening The Spark now with Audio & Online Game Results

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Two major new features, audio and online results, have been developed recently (and are still work in progress). For more details on the project, visit the GTS tab on the menu bar above, or click here. For greater detail on how audio and game results work, go to the GTS Tech Talk page.

Audio

Development of an audio capability has allowed the creation of a soundscape and a narrative. Sound effects enhance operation and bring it alive, while three characters inform staff and visitors about what is going on. Examples are:

Robotic GTS system voice
Aussie guide Logan
Indian guide Sajani

Game Results

At game over visitors can see the sparks* they’ve earned and their unique game number on the Visitor Control Panel. Meanwhile GTS has posted their detailed results online These contain a summary and three plots showing timelines of everything that has happened.

*Sparks are awarded for performance in the categories : economy. eco-friendliness and efficiency. Green is best, red is worst and blue is in between.

Visitors will be able to access their “Simulation Report” by using a QR code or following a link – currently unavailable and awaiting migration to a new website.

What's new?

New Videos

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(See also main video page.)

The new video “Oh Yeah” has been reworked to replace the dream sequence which was the subject of a copyright infringement claim (see below) causing it to be taken down.

This video was taken down by You Tube because of a copyright infringement claim by a Japanese supplier of surveillance equipment to the military. The claim relates to a couple of minutes of night time aerial photography taken by a drone flying over a Japanese city – perfect clips for the dream sequence part of the video. I wrote them three emails – the last one transIated into Japanese by Google Translate – with no response. I was given a “strike” or written warning by You Tube; three and you’re out – ooh er!

The last video to survive publication on You Tube was a short sketch about life during during the COVID-19 pandemic.