# Freefall screensaver from WWDC...



## Captain Code (Jul 14, 2004)

Has anyone found the screensaver version of the Orbit program that was shown during the WWDC keynote?

They said that it'd be on Apple's website shortly after WWDC but I haven't seen it anywhere yet.


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## MacMuppet (Jul 14, 2004)

Hehe...I only watched the keynote a week after and was straight on the web looking for that....no joy yet though.
The guys company was Orbit Software I think - anyway haven't found it yet.


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## Randman (Jul 14, 2004)

Nothing via Google. A few forums asking the same thing.


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## StarBuck (Jul 14, 2004)

The software should be available from this site soon.

I can't wait


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## Captain Code (Jul 14, 2004)

I emailed them and Aran responded 



> > Any info on when your Freefall screensaver is coming out for OS X?
> > I watched the WWDC keynote, and like others am looking for this very
> > cool screensaver.
> 
> ...



Can't wait to see it in action


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## kendall (Jul 14, 2004)

it was a cool demo.  i saw the webcast but it was really jerky (no audio, movement etc) so i didnt really understand what the software was supposed to be used for.  so, since no info can be found on this project, does it have any practical use other than being technically cool?


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## Anim8r (Jul 14, 2004)

kendall said:
			
		

> it was a cool demo.  i saw the webcast but it was really jerky (no audio, movement etc) so i didnt really understand what the software was supposed to be used for.  so, since no info can be found on this project, does it have any practical use other than being technically cool?



This is basically a satellite tracking application. More for space buffs than the average every-day person, but it should make a sweet screen-saver.

It can display real-time or hyper-time tracking info.

I am not that big a space nut, but I just might buy this to wow the pc using friends. There are less of them all the time though... MWUAHAHAHAHA!


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## Captain Code (Jul 14, 2004)

kendall said:
			
		

> it was a cool demo.  i saw the webcast but it was really jerky (no audio, movement etc) so i didnt really understand what the software was supposed to be used for.  so, since no info can be found on this project, does it have any practical use other than being technically cool?




Well, there's Orbit, which is what they showed at WWDC and is a sattelite course prediction program which downloads the positions of all publicly known sattelites and projects their orbit around the Earth. 

There's also going to be a screensaver that does this same thing but it's probably not as configurable or something.


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## Satcomer (Jul 14, 2004)

If this program does what it claims (the program AND screen saver) than I personally know some people who would be VERY interested in the Apple platform (esp. XServes).


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## MacMuppet (Jul 15, 2004)

I was telling someone (a pc fanboy) about this and how the guy was saying a few years ago you'd have needed a defense-budget grade machine to do all those calculations in real time and display on screen, which if you go backthrough the generations of processors sounds about right, and the guy was all "oh that's nonsense, that kind of thing is incredibly simple to do, theres various PC apps that have been around for years that could do it better" or words to that effect. Trouble is I couldnt argue - he's a total geek who knows pretty much every coding language to a certain extent, and I get lost when I get down into the nitty-gritty, never been able to remember loads of technical detail, so even though I could shake the feeling that he could be wronger if he tried I couldnt tell him why, even with talk of processing speeds, OpenGL etc. Not sure why I care, long ago gave up trying to convert PC masochists, I think it was just the way he was so blase about it that got to me. I just cannot believe any PC less that Ghz could do run anything half as good while also running anything that needs the processor (even the calculator) at the same time without freezing right up.
Well, maybe Unix, but not windows.


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## Captain Code (Jul 15, 2004)

The thing with this app is that it uses the exact same formulas that NASA would use to predict the orbits of satellites.  These formulas are so complex that it takes a lot of horsepower to compute them all. 

The results given by the formulas are extreamly presise that you can get the exact position of a satellite in orbit down within a few feet or less.

Orbit was showing a few hundred of these at the same time, and calculating the exact position in orbit for every frame.

Ask him to show you something like this on the PC that was this presise that could run on a 3 or 4 year old x86 CPU.

This is not just dots being orbited around a sphere in OpenGL, which, yes is pretty easy to do, but the thing that takes all the horsepower is plotting the orbit points.

I have found these few programs for the Mac, which have been around for a while
http://celestrak.com/software/satellite/macintosh.shtml

But there is nothing that says how accurate they are, and most of them are only plotting up to 20 or 30 satellite orbits, while Orbit was doing hundreds.


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## MacMuppet (Jul 15, 2004)

You see? I kind of knew all that (although a bit more vaguely) but couldnt form it into any kind of coherent explanation, as you have just done....
I suppose I should have just said "you're talking out of your hat" or something...


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## Satcomer (Jul 15, 2004)

Captain code is right on the money. It's the promise of doing hundred or so tracks with a common household computer. That's somewhat a hope. A portable laptop being able to instantly track their given bird at any time (esp. when first setting up). The equipment used right now is VERY expensive! Your typical PC can only track a limited number at the time. There are literally hundreds of birds in your target vector. You wouldn't believe the total number of dead or dying birds STILL in orbit!


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## TommyWillB (Jul 15, 2004)

Hey... Watch who your calling "a common household computer" buddy!

Mac's are anything but...

lol


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## Go3iverson (Jul 16, 2004)

Having been at the WWDC keynote to see this presentation first hand, I have to say, that software just flat out rocks.  The webcast didn't come close to capturing the real audience reaction to the presentation and all othe oohs and ahhhs that were before the rousing round of applause.

I think that was actually the biggest reaction out of the crowd!


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## Randman (Aug 4, 2004)

Hmmm, other than the confirmation that it'll be called Freefall and not Orbit, no news yet.


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## fryke (Aug 4, 2004)

Satcomer said:
			
		

> A portable laptop being able to instantly track their given bird at any time. ... There are literally hundreds of birds in your target vector. You wouldn't believe the total number of dead or dying birds STILL in orbit!



Please stop calling those satellites birds, as I can't help seeing in my mind a frozen duck looking rather silly ("quaaawwk...") orbiting the Earth at too far a distance to ever come back...


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## Randman (Aug 4, 2004)

Although bird is the nickname (easier to say duck than satellite).


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## Satcomer (Aug 4, 2004)

fryke said:
			
		

> Please stop calling those satellites birds, as I can't help seeing in my mind a frozen duck looking rather silly ("quaaawwk...") orbiting the Earth at too far a distance to ever come back...



Sorry. That's just the way we talk in the field. : ::alien::


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