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Roller Coaster in Excel? Seriously???

EngineeringFun · Youtube · 86 HN points · 1 HN comments
HN Theater has aggregated all Hacker News stories and comments that mention EngineeringFun's video "Roller Coaster in Excel? Seriously???".
Youtube Summary
A 3D animated roller coaster in Excel...
DOWNLOAD A RECENTLY UPDATED VERSION here: excelunusual.com/a-3d-animated-excel-roller-coaster-video-preview/

My approach is targeted to the practical person who enjoys tinkering and does not want to learn standard syntax, but use Google and common sense to create cool work in a "step by step, little by little" approach. If you got stuck, it generally means the step was too large, or you didn't play enough at the previous step. This is also targeted to the person who thinks life is short, wants to get a general programming sense, but would rather play than study hard to get a promotion or a grade.

Some basic geometry and very basic math/physics might be required here and there, but as minimal as possible. No need to go back to school, but refresh things when needed by using Google.

Download: https://excelunusual.com/a-3d-animated-excel-roller-coaster-video-preview/


The original tags : idiots at work, NRA, foot locker, Champs, Eastbay, End of the World, Suzy Favor Hamilton, December 21 2012, Animation, Sensational, incredible, Excel animation


There are several ways of doing 3D ray tracing in Excel. If you want to do simple wire-frame (like this model) no problem, you can use a chart and curves (drawn as broken lines. There are two simple formulas to go from (x,y,z) which is real life to (u,v) coordinates on a screen. As a second option, you can use free shapes (which have textured faces). A Hungarian guy did a model I believe in 2007, there is an article in Gamasutra (https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3563/microsoft_excel_revolutionary_3d_.php). Not difficult, but it can be very slow for complex shapes especially in excel 2007 and newer. Another way is to use Python, there is a way to connect it with Excel. There another very nice way to use 3D API functions in Excel "forms" popup (look up Isidoro Martinez Prieto, [email protected], http://www.excelgame.net/3dviewer.asp). I am looking into this, I found it out today from a friend on Linkedin. Also check "Solly" a fellow who is doing game level ray tracing. You can find him on YT. Also look at this Russian guy who built a whole game engine in Excel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jyOJsJlLhI). There is also a French Professor who built a 3D rendered maze using cell formulas. Good luck!


With the risk of boring you to death :) here is a more in-depth outline:

If there is a point in the 3D space with coordinates (x,y,z), there are 2 simple formulas that convert (x,y,z) in (u,v) which is a 2D representation of the 3D space. A camera or the eye do that conversion (the film or the retina are flat, almost).

Your eye can only see in 2D but interprets that image as 3D. That's what I did here, I am using a 2D scatter chart to draw a complex line that mimics a 3D landscape. Think of having a 3D object outside the window and you shoot with a gun at the critical points (perimeter for instance, or corners, etc). The bullet holes would form that 2D representation of the 3D object on the glass window screen (computer monitor). Essentially the 3D object outside, produces the same image on the retina as the bullet holes on the window glass. The two formulas to do this are extremely simple. https://excelunusual.com/3d-2d-perspective-mapping-in-excel-part-1/

Two numbers in adjacent Excel cells (2 excel cells) can define (if selected properly) the (x, y) coordinates of a point on an Excel 2D scatter chart. Two points (4 Excel cells) like this determine a line segment between the points. If you have a series of points in a large table, you define a complex line. If you delete the data somewhere in the middle, the complex line is still there but "broken" at the point where the data is missing.

This particular model is essentially a line plot on a 2D scatter chart. The vertices are from a table which is being re-calculated in a loop perhaps 30 times a second (as soon as a calculation is finished and refreshed/displayed a new calculation starts). I plot 3 lines (based on 3 tables) on the chart only and I select “broken line” rather than smooth in the chart settings. Why 3? Because there are 3 colors in the model, white, green and brown.

I made the chart with black background and deleted any axes or grid lines from the settings. At that time I knew very little VBA and most of the geometrical perspective is calculated in cell formulas within tables. Today I would do it differently, all VBA. Plus I wouldn’t use a chart, just have VBA build this real time out of free segments, which are destroyed and rebuilt during each frame. It would be faster especially with the sluggish charting in new versions.

George from excelunusual.com
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Hacker News Stories and Comments

All the comments and stories posted to Hacker News that reference this video.
⬐
Aug 05, 2022 · DocJade on Unusual Uses of Excel
How dare they not show the Excel Roller Coaster Simulator! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrVA1BBHFHw
⬐
May 07, 2022 · 82 points, 15 comments · submitted by solarengineer
⬐ digitallyfree
I remember students sharing Excel games back in the day (when webgame sites were blocked at school). There were simple snake games and also fancier ones like a pop-up shooting gallery.

Eventually they discovered that they could download a Flash game as a SWF, bringing their collections in on flash drives and trading them in the lab.

⬐ AdmiralAsshat
I was definitely one of those students in high school.

To this day, there's a flash game I downloaded from some random site (Japanese/Chinese/Korean, I honestly don't remember) that was sort of like a javelin toss contest, only instead it involved seeing how far you could launch a male student after hitting him with a bike. There were various anime helper summons that could give him an additional push if his momentum was starting to run out. I put an insane amount of time into that game back in the day, but since it was in a foreign language I didn't know the title and could never track it down. Plus whatever flash-drive/laptop I had it saved onto from 2006 has long since bit the dust.

⬐ jml7c5
"NANACA†CRASH!!" I would assume: https://megami.starcreator.com/nanaca-crash/
⬐ Sohcahtoa82
Whoa this really takes me back like 15 years.
⬐ AdmiralAsshat
That's the one!

I had a sneaking suspicion that if I had the opportunity to work it into an on-topic HN comment, someone would remember. :D

⬐ djmips
Is that why they were called flash drives?
⬐ spcebar
It's called a flash drive because it uses flash memory. Check out for more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_memory
⬐ glouwbug
It was a joke?
⬐ 7952
My school used to block opening windows file explorer as a way of preventing installation of software. We used to install games by opening explorer through help.
⬐ manifoldgeo
Greetings from the Nix community! Have you considered using Nix for your rollercoaster visualizations? Other rollercoaster visualization schemes, hereafter RCVS, leave the developer in situations where their code gives them nondeterministic builds!!1!

I once knew someone who built a rollercoaster with Docker, and the result was disastrous. Imagine a loop-dee-loop appearing where a corkscrew should've been! Another used node.js and had to import hundreds of other rollercoaster dependencies, thereby reducing the security posture of their simulated thrill ride.

⬐ _boffin_
And... here's Doom in Excel: http://public.cbel.free.fr/downloads/
⬐ Headwig
What can't run doom at this point?
⬐ muti
Roller coaster in a winamp visualization

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bhm7uFv4ZOQ

⬐ tylermw
The modern "data science" solution, however, is to make your 3D animated rollercoaster in R! Much more efficient :)

Link: https://www.tylermw.com/datacoaster-tycoon/

⬐ wiz21c
eagerly waiting for the brainfuck AND rust ports...
⬐ mcdonje
There's definitely a support column that goes through the track, lol.
Jan 22, 2019 · 2 points, 0 comments · submitted by pdq
Jun 30, 2018 · 2 points, 0 comments · submitted by wh4this
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