Re: Accessibility for free space 2. Is it possible?
It took me far to long to pin down where the source code respository was, they certainly have it nestled away for some reason. For the curious its over here through the "Online SVN" link. It seems to be written in C/C++ with OpenAL and Vorbis audio. There's a description of the game here on wikipedia, and a full let's play series here for those who want to get at least some idea of what its like.
I'm familiar with the series all the way back to the original Descent, but as far as accessibility, maybe? I know about Audio Quake, Swamp, and a few other first person shooters, but I don't think anything like this has ever been attempted. It would be tricky as Free Space 2 is a full 3D first person dog fight simulator in open space, requiring a lot of situational awareness of adjacent objects and quick reflexes, not to mention a lot of complex controls for orientation with thrust, horrizontal and vertical turning, rolling, shields, hull integrity, power distribution settings between engines, shields, weapons, targetting, etc.
A modified compass system like in my Minecraft prototype with added roll angle might help with 3D orientation, with lock on targetting and volume or pitch to represent proximity to the center of the screen for finding and orienting on targets. Things like the radar could be a Sonified map of objects in range with filters for types, etc. The amount of time and work involved to make something like this happen wouldn't be trivial, although because its open source its odds are slightly better than with other proprietary copyrighted works that are prone to lawsuits and clear funding restrictions.
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