November Entry: Dont Panic !

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Ahh yes... that might need some explanation I read quite a few Iain M Banks books which deal with far future sci-fi and a highly advanced humanoid species called the Culture. These individuals have advanced genetics to the point where they have some body modifications and included in these are drug glands where they can imbibe or self generate a variety of drugs to aid in performance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culture#Physiology

So its not a typo, it means that you are not allowed to be intoxicated (stoned) out of the recreational areas where it might have safety implications.

This info-panel is a dynamic flat screen type touch panel where it gives latest information. I reckon that you could touch the screen and select different info and drag that cube about for the 3D view. The time and date should be continuously updating and it probably runs information and advertising all the time.

The glanding is not a sexual thing specifically but Iain Banks has some interesting ideas on that too. In the culture you can choose to have a sex change and it takes a while (cant remember exactly how long but a few months at least) to grow a new set of organs. So in his books a male character might be female by the end of the book. Also the recommendation is to change sex at least a few times and have some children whilst being female. Some of the characters dont like the idea and choose not to change. Also, there are some times when surgical robots amputate limbs or swap limbs with other people for recreation too. Its a bit bizarre but thats the thing I like most about his books is that he really goes right out there and extrapolates wildly about what might happen with a significantly advanced technology and how these might manifest themselves.

[Redrobes]

Added the nebula, the star base in classic Halo fashion and the original galaxy icon showing where this sector is - although it would be a box much smaller than shown I think.

I whooped up the Halo ring in no time getting a nice background from Nasa again. Those spoddy astronomers might recognize the Orion Nebula and I have put my star where Trapezium is. I used my Instant islands to get some terrain for the inside of the ring and rendered it with light wave cos I chickened out of Blender again ! It was fun doing this pic tho.

All the bits are composited in ViewingDale and then rendered out at 8Kx12K image which looks nice though these on the web are 1/4 res in each direction for size reasons.

I am pretty much done now. I am really pleased with this one. Often I don't put much effort into my challenges but there was some sweating going on in this one to get the effect I wanted and I think I got all that I imagined.

Any critiques at all ? I still have plenty of time to fix up anything that anyone thinks is not quite right about it.

### Latest WIP ###

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Whoops I have spotted a typo I'll fix that for next time.