pic: Three Trackballs?

[Jeff Waegelin]

Originally Posted by ReaperGoat

Couldn't they have made the top two out of the chain link fencing they used on the Robo-Coach stations? Or chicken wire, even? There are better ways to keep robots from going through without killing the visibility and putting teams at a disadvantage.

Could they have? Yes, of course. But then we would probably be complaining about robots getting caught in the fencing/chicken wire instead of visibility. I am sure the GDC considered their options, and decided that (even with its flaws) the Lexan was the best choice for drivers, spectators, and robots.

[ZInventor]

i can't remember what the stuff's called, but i know that somewhere, i've seen a type of plastic that lets you see through at any angle, and just plain refuses to reflect or refract light.

i've used the stuff at a tech museum (OMSI) where i volunteer, and it's a pain, since the only part of it that you can see are fingerprints on the serface whenever we use it, we have to wash it in windex so that it doesn't look like there are fingerpeints floating in mid air...

i think it's the same stuff they use in stop-motion movies when they have to make something appear to fly

if FIRST had been able to use that stuff (which is just as strong as lexan) instead, itwould be SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much easier to controll the bot on the lane you currently can't see... lols...

Z

[GaryVoshol]

Remember that if you are in your home stretch and you should poke an appendage through the proposed perforated lane divider, you would have generated a 10-point penalty for breaking the plane. The lane divider is directly above the lane marker.

I noticed something in the animation today - there doesn't appear to be any panels in the lane divider. Whether this was an oversight, the initial field design, or just too hard to animate, I wouldn't know.