Laser colours
#1
Posted 05 October 2012 - 05:39 PM
So basically i was wondering why it is that the lasers are the particular colours they are in Online as opposed to older mechwarrior titles, and why it is they would completely reverse the colours for small and large lasers and yet keep the medium laser as its familiar green. Yesterday i worked it out, thanks to my very observant friend Weston. Lasers supposedly being concentrated beams of light, he pointed out that red light being at one end of the spectrum, blue light at the other and green roughly somewhere in the middle, the wavelengths and frequencies of the particular colours of light would directly correspond to the strength of the laser. For the red lasers, having the lower frequency and longer wavelength would mean that they would be less damaging than the higher frequency and shorter wavelength of the blue large laser. To me that makes perfect sense.
Not particularly useful in any respect i just thought it was interesting hope someone else does too
#2
Posted 05 October 2012 - 05:59 PM
#3
Posted 05 October 2012 - 06:00 PM
The laser color assignments also harken back to MW2, where the same system of red=small, green=medium, and blue=large was used. MW4 had a whole different system, where red indicated IS tech no matter the size or type, green lasers were always Clan tech, and blue ones were exclusively X-Pulse lasers - the only way to tell the class of laser was by sound and size of the laser beams., though it does seem to keep with the RGB hierarchy (if X-Pulse lasers could be considered the pinnacle of 3060s laser tech).
#4
Posted 05 October 2012 - 07:44 PM
Damion Sparhawk, on 05 October 2012 - 05:59 PM, said:
Thanks for the input Sparhawk, i did put mine rather simply yours was a much better explanation and makes a lot more sense. I'm quite happy about it, i feel it adds a little bit of realism to the fiction, as opposed to MW4's lasers. I found having faction specific colours almost a bit ridiculous. Part of the reason i much preferred 3 to 4. But yeah i think its a nice touch
#5
Posted 05 October 2012 - 09:26 PM
#6
Posted 05 October 2012 - 11:42 PM
#7
Posted 06 October 2012 - 01:12 AM
This is fitting because MWO takes at the same time frame of MW2: Mercs.
And from a tech standpoint, red is low energy intensity, green is higher and blue is very high.
#8
Posted 06 October 2012 - 01:27 AM
#9
Posted 06 October 2012 - 01:41 AM
Wrecket, on 06 October 2012 - 01:27 AM, said:
Except for the fact that those industrial lasers are not cutting steel at 90+ meters from the focusing lens. And said steel are only thin sheets of steel, not thick plates that would be used as protection. So there's that. But now we have a basis for the clan's Micro Lasers!
#10
Posted 06 October 2012 - 01:24 PM
Wrecket, on 06 October 2012 - 01:27 AM, said:
red light can carry more energy more efficiently but for a shorter distance, so a cutting torch will often be red, or infra red, because you're only travelling a few inches from beam to target, if that. Blue light on the other hand takes more energy to generate the same amount of heat, but will travel farther with less loss. Keep in mind however that a lot of this is still theoretical because apart from a few cutting lasers and whatnot there are few lasers actually designed to generate heat on a target to any great distance because of the amount of energy required to do so, one of the reasons why most mechs are supposed to operate on fusion reactors ^.^
Edited by Damion Sparhawk, 06 October 2012 - 01:25 PM.
#11
Posted 06 October 2012 - 01:51 PM
#12
Posted 06 October 2012 - 02:22 PM
#13
Posted 06 October 2012 - 08:27 PM
The real truth about lasers is disturbing though. A true weaponised laser would be so high on the electromagnetic spectrum that it would not be visable. An X-ray, or a medical laser for instance, both are non-visable beams of heat. The mars rover currently is using invisable lasers to dig. The anti-missile lasers the military is experimenting with are invisable. The problem being that invisable lasers would totally suck in a game.
Last point, remember the supernova from MW3? I loved that thing. I would load it up with so many large lasers that Alpha-Striking meant instant self destruct! That was always quite amusing.
#14
Posted 06 October 2012 - 08:39 PM
#15
Posted 06 October 2012 - 09:13 PM
Bigchunk1, on 06 October 2012 - 08:27 PM, said:
The real truth about lasers is disturbing though. A true weaponised laser would be so high on the electromagnetic spectrum that it would not be visable. An X-ray, or a medical laser for instance, both are non-visable beams of heat. The mars rover currently is using invisable lasers to dig. The anti-missile lasers the military is experimenting with are invisable. The problem being that invisable lasers would totally suck in a game.
Last point, remember the supernova from MW3? I loved that thing. I would load it up with so many large lasers that Alpha-Striking meant instant self destruct! That was always quite amusing.
#16
Posted 07 October 2012 - 05:54 AM
Damion Sparhawk, on 05 October 2012 - 05:59 PM, said:
Eh...
We've know that much about lasers for quite a while. We're just better at making them now.
Also I'm doubtful that's the reasoning the devs used but who knows, you could be right.
I really like the idea of paying a little extra to get a different color laser in the same size to throw people off. That would be awesome.
#17
Posted 07 October 2012 - 07:00 AM
Bigchunk1, on 06 October 2012 - 08:27 PM, said:
That wouldn't work too well - many things (like air) absorb at lower wavelengths. The UV region below 200 nm is called vacuum UV because of that (you need to work in vacuum to use it effectively). Even lower wavelengths aren't absorbed all that much but we don't know how to properly focus them (yet) - carrying a synchrotron doesn't seem to be the best solution...
Edited by William Rahn, 07 October 2012 - 07:06 AM.
#18
Posted 07 October 2012 - 09:21 AM
Banshee Bullet, on 07 October 2012 - 05:54 AM, said:
Eh...
We've know that much about lasers for quite a while. We're just better at making them now.
Also I'm doubtful that's the reasoning the devs used but who knows, you could be right.
I really like the idea of paying a little extra to get a different color laser in the same size to throw people off. That would be awesome.
there's a difference between 'knowing' and -knowing-, and yeah, this game is thirty years old, it's possible they might've known when they made it, but it's also just as likely they were just throwing it out there because 'it's cool' either way it's always nice to have a real world rational for sci fi even if it's all fluff in the end XD (and yeah, I think it'd be cool to be able to add color options for lasers, maybe a red lens on your LL's to make them appear purple, without actually having to go through the additional steps to make a purple laser )
#20
Posted 07 October 2012 - 06:49 PM
Damion Sparhawk, on 07 October 2012 - 09:21 AM, said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't adding a red filter to your lasers just block the shot until the laser burned the filter out? The reason we can color a white visible light with different filters is that those colors are already contained in the beam, and the filter simply blocks out the colors you don't want to get through. With a blue laser, however, you're only broadcasting a specific wavelength that does not contain any red to begin with. You'd have to modulate the wavelength to get violet. Or maybe fire a small laser at the same time through the same emitter.
okay now I have to try something in the mechlab.
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