What are the 'Floating Islands'? - Page 8

perryloo · 18-03-23, 09:57

In 2015 a floating city was spotted in China, thousands of people saw it and there was a video on it. They think it was just one of those mirages (Fata Morgana) that people see. But a whole city landscape in the clouds is very unusual.

Flame_Knights · 18-03-23, 10:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by perryloo

In 2015 a floating city was spotted in China, thousands of people saw it and there was a video on it. They think it was just one of those mirages (Fata Morgana) that people see. But a whole city landscape in the clouds is very unusual.

I hope you can read what I wrote.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flame_Knights

Sorry, I may have joined this forum too late.
Floating island should inspired by the concept of "海旁蜃氣象樓台" in Chinese myths and legends.
This concept can be directly translated as "Shen's exhale builds buildings on the sea"(蜃/Shen is a sea monster in chinese mythology, shaped like a giant oyster.)
This concept later evolved into the modern Chinese word"海市蜃樓/海市蜃楼", Japanese word"蜃気楼(しんきろう)", Korean word"신기루(蜃氣樓)" These words now have the same meaning as the "imrage" in English.
Of course, the meaning it expresses is more complicated than the literal meaning. It is associated with immortals(Xian), immortality, fairyland, illusions, and buildings of gold and silver. Around this concept, there are many interesting historical events and written records.
If you guys want to know more, I'll take the time to write something about it.
I'm not a native English speaker, this is a bit difficult for me.

Flame_Knights · 18-03-23, 10:10

Fata Morgana and "海旁蜃氣象樓台" both evolved from legends into words referring to climatic phenomena.

CheshireBitch · 19-03-23, 04:32

That is very interresting Flame_knights !
I would like to read more about this if you have links, or maybe even books about it ?

Flame_Knights · 19-03-23, 05:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by CheshireBitch

That is very interresting Flame_knights !
I would like to read more about this if you have links, or maybe even books about it ?

This may be a bit difficult, most of these contents are in ancient Chinese books.
Even modern chinese people, if they have not studied ancient chinese, it is difficult to understand these words.
I tried to find an English book called "The China Mirage", unfortunately it's a political book.
I provide Chinese and Japanese wikipedia pages, maybe you can use web page translation to read, but wikipedia records are very brief.
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%9C...B0%97%E6%A5%BC
https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hans/%E6...9C%83%E6%A5%BC

Flame_Knights · 19-03-23, 06:10

I didn't find relevant information on the English website, of course, I may have missed it.
If you really want to know more, I will try to translate the chinese materials I have into english, but it will take time.

perryloo · 19-03-23, 14:26

Interestingly we talk of the Floating Islands in the sky as being bottomless.
But in the game there is a bottom and it is over 20 squares down.

If Lara drops down there she is killed, but you can get there alive using the TR tool called 'Position editor'. Once down there the baddies do follow Lara down. But once you kill off the baddies, you can then admire the Floating Islands from the bottom, looking up

.

xavecroft · 19-03-23, 19:20

I love to watch Chinese dramas like the xianxia ones that are about immortal kingdoms
And yeah the floating islands are part of the immortal kingdoms that are in another dimension
Like the high astral plane
In Chinese mythology there's two planes apart the mortal plane but in the past ,dimensions were called kingdoms the fairy kingdom the immortal kingdom the celestial kingdom

Or asura kingdom

I remember a Jackie Chan movie were the rocks floated

fallenangle · 20-03-23, 13:17

I've always liked the Floating Islands because it is a unique, interestingly designed, varied level concept.

One thing I particularly like is that you can backtrack right to the beginning even from the end of the level so that if you missed any of the secrets you can still collect them at any point.

Sat42 · 21-03-23, 11:33

The Floating Islands is a very good level, part of a long list of very good levels in Tomb Raider 2.

Thinking of something original to say:
- I never played DOOM (nor DOOM 2, but I did eventually play DOOM 3 which is irrelevant here), just once saw an older friend playing it when I was a kid
- yet surprisingly I thought of DOOM when arriving in front of the 'mystic plaque gate' and especially right after opening the gate when facing the flaming temple
- it may be that I felt the flames looked a little too obviously like an animated 2D sheet (which is common in DOOM), yet artistically it still worked (flickering light helped) and it felt kind of hellish
- I am interested in video game history and have become acquainted with DOOM's aesthetic, and again to me that view of a temple with a burning rooftop is so DOOM-like
- also having that opening-the-gate mechanic with 'keys' you have to find first felt very much like a throwback to earlier pseudo-3D times especially in light of the fact that this level just demonstrated how good Lara is at jumping and climbing (basically, platforming) all over a full 3D environment (floating islands? no problem!) and yet, even here out in the open, the developers felt they needed to block our path with a gate...

18-03-23, 10:10	#73
Flame_Knights Student Join Date: Jan 2023 Location: Asia Posts: 113	Fata Morgana and "海旁蜃氣象樓台" both evolved from legends into words referring to climatic phenomena. Last edited by Flame_Knights; 18-03-23 at 10:20.

19-03-23, 14:26	#77
perryloo Explorer Join Date: Jan 2021 Location: Sunny UK Posts: 691	Interestingly we talk of the Floating Islands in the sky as being bottomless. But in the game there is a bottom and it is over 20 squares down. If Lara drops down there she is killed, but you can get there alive using the TR tool called 'Position editor'. Once down there the baddies do follow Lara down. But once you kill off the baddies, you can then admire the Floating Islands from the bottom, looking up . Last edited by perryloo; 19-03-23 at 14:44.

19-03-23, 19:20	#78
xavecroft Student Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: chile Posts: 171	I love to watch Chinese dramas like the xianxia ones that are about immortal kingdoms And yeah the floating islands are part of the immortal kingdoms that are in another dimension Like the high astral plane In Chinese mythology there's two planes apart the mortal plane but in the past ,dimensions were called kingdoms the fairy kingdom the immortal kingdom the celestial kingdom Or asura kingdom I remember a Jackie Chan movie were the rocks floated __________________ time is a concept invented to help us accept what we can't control by Amy Lee

18-03-23, 09:57	#71
perryloo Explorer Join Date: Jan 2021 Location: Sunny UK Posts: 691	In 2015 a floating city was spotted in China, thousands of people saw it and there was a video on it. They think it was just one of those mirages (Fata Morgana) that people see. But a whole city landscape in the clouds is very unusual.

19-03-23, 04:32	#74
CheshireBitch Archaeologist Join Date: Jan 2012 Posts: 1,916	That is very interresting Flame_knights ! I would like to read more about this if you have links, or maybe even books about it ?

19-03-23, 06:10	#76
Flame_Knights Student Join Date: Jan 2023 Location: Asia Posts: 113	I didn't find relevant information on the English website, of course, I may have missed it. If you really want to know more, I will try to translate the chinese materials I have into english, but it will take time.

20-03-23, 13:17	#79
fallenangle Archaeologist Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: NW London Posts: 2,080	I've always liked the Floating Islands because it is a unique, interestingly designed, varied level concept. One thing I particularly like is that you can backtrack right to the beginning even from the end of the level so that if you missed any of the secrets you can still collect them at any point.

21-03-23, 11:33	#80
Sat42 Hobbyist Join Date: Aug 2017 Posts: 56	The Floating Islands is a very good level, part of a long list of very good levels in Tomb Raider 2. Thinking of something original to say: - I never played DOOM (nor DOOM 2, but I did eventually play DOOM 3 which is irrelevant here), just once saw an older friend playing it when I was a kid - yet surprisingly I thought of DOOM when arriving in front of the 'mystic plaque gate' and especially right after opening the gate when facing the flaming temple - it may be that I felt the flames looked a little too obviously like an animated 2D sheet (which is common in DOOM), yet artistically it still worked (flickering light helped) and it felt kind of hellish - I am interested in video game history and have become acquainted with DOOM's aesthetic, and again to me that view of a temple with a burning rooftop is so DOOM-like - also having that opening-the-gate mechanic with 'keys' you have to find first felt very much like a throwback to earlier pseudo-3D times especially in light of the fact that this level just demonstrated how good Lara is at jumping and climbing (basically, platforming) all over a full 3D environment (floating islands? no problem!) and yet, even here out in the open, the developers felt they needed to block our path with a gate...