How does Bullet Time work? - MXO Forum Archive

#36300001231 07/20/2006 05:31:53 How does Bullet Time work?

There is one thing about the matrix that i'm always wondering about: Bullet time. You've really gotta wonder, how the hell can anyone, even if it's just a simulation, avoid bullets if that simulation is supposed to be in real time. The thing i'm wondering about is this: are machines so in control of this simulation, that time is a more of a controllable variable? Now i'm not talking about time travel, and this is probably a load of boll***s anyway, but is it possible for the machines - or the one, for that matter - to speed up time for everyone else with just a simple thought, so they can move faster and react better, at least for short periods? Evidence of this theory could be seen in the Animatrix short film "World Record", when, in an olymplic race, EVERYTHING stopped, except the Agents, still talking, and able to take control of some of the racers in this zero time.

This is just a theory, and i'm interested if anyone has got any opinions or other theorys in how the hell some geezers in suits can dodge bullets.

#36300001466 07/20/2006 07:31:27 Re:How does Bullet Time work?

A common misconception is that bullet time is somehow slowing or speeding up time.
Time is not affected.

Agents (and Neo) dodge bullets by moving super-fast. They don't speed up time, they just have inhumanly fast reflexes, and that movement is portrayed as blurring because the eye theoretically doesn't track movement that fast.

It's styled in the movie and the game as slow-downs for pure style, and so we can see what's going on.
A 'bullet timer' might have the perception that time around him has slowed down, but he/she is simply moving faster than everything else around them. It's not that strange - a Formula 1 driver for example can plunge down a straight at 200MPH, slow down, kiss the apex of the first turn of a chicane at 90MPH, readjust course, hit the next apex and be out again onto the rest of the circuit.
To us, it looks crazily fast and almost out of control, but ask any F1 driver and he'll tell you that time has the perception of slowing inside the cockpit, and although they're doing insanely high speeds, they have enough time to rationalise the situation and make decisions as if they were standing still.

#36300001478 07/20/2006 07:36:24 Re:How does Bullet Time work?

Oops, didn't read the bit about the Animatrix.

I think that Agents DO have the ability to slow or speed up or stop time - but that doesn't constitute bullet time.
The entire Matrix is a program, so there's no reason why they shouldn't have control. But I think that the more it is done, the more potential damage it causes to humans inside it.

There's a comment in one of the comics about an alien attack destroying one of the towers in the real world, and they had to pause time to fix it, then play everybody's life in fast-forward to get them back into sync with the rest of the towers.

#36300009469 07/28/2006 07:03:21 Re:How does Bullet Time work?

It SHOULD work against MA's & GUNS but hey...

#36300018119 08/06/2006 17:41:56 Re:How does Bullet Time work?

Yea I was thinking about this aswell, and started thinking ((out of matrix content )). If a human could raise his eyes frames-per-second, lets say to 48 (( normal human eye catches 24)), he would see things slower, he would also move slower, but still see vertying slower, and it would give him time to think since his eyes are catching everything at doble rate, 2 seconds for him would be 1 for a normal human.
Just some insomnia theory xD.

#36300031712 08/23/2006 07:10:28 Re:How does Bullet Time work?

Guys.

Are you sure that bullettime is actually something that exists in the matrix and is a thing that happens to people in the matrix?

It's just a way of showing us what happens in a cooler way...

#36300032125 08/23/2006 16:56:37 Re:How does Bullet Time work?

Joakim wrote:

Guys.
Are you sure that bullettime is actually something that exists in the matrix and is a thing that happens to people in the matrix?
It's just a way of showing us what happens in a cooler way...

I know its just a way of showing us things cooler. I was just saying that if a human raised his fps he would be in bullet time...all the time

#36300032514 08/24/2006 06:25:33 Re:How does Bullet Time work?

r3v0lv3r wrote:

Yea I was thinking about this aswell, and started thinking ((out of matrix content )). If a human could raise his eyes frames-per-second, lets say to 48 (( normal human eye catches 24)), he would see things slower, he would also move slower, but still see vertying slower, and it would give him time to think since his eyes are catching everything at doble rate, 2 seconds for him would be 1 for a normal human.
Just some insomnia theory xD.

You know the real world isn't a TV screen and there are no frames SMILEY

If a human would raise his perception to 48 per second, he would simply divide his eye inertia (?) by two. Meaning, he would be able to perceive moves double as fast sharply, and concordingly need a 48 FPS format for watching TV, because with 24 FPS, he would be able to see single frames (as we can see them in, let's say, 12 FPS).

We know there are other animals with faster reactions / higher "FPS", and slower reactions / lower "FPS" than us. Do they really perceive everything in different speeds? That would be at least the most understandable way to understand. Or do they experience the world in real time, just as us, but just with more/less inertia, and simply differently good reactions? Are these three aspects really bound to each other at all?
I'm not at home in this subject.

#36300032789 08/24/2006 14:29:28 Re:How does Bullet Time work?

zeroone506 wrote:

r3v0lv3r wrote:
Yea I was thinking about this aswell, and started thinking ((out of matrix content )). If a human could raise his eyes frames-per-second, lets say to 48 (( normal human eye catches 24)), he would see things slower, he would also move slower, but still see vertying slower, and it would give him time to think since his eyes are catching everything at doble rate, 2 seconds for him would be 1 for a normal human.
Just some insomnia theory xD.

You know the real world isn't a TV screen and there are no frames

If a human would raise his perception to 48 per second, he would simply divide his eye inertia (?) by two. Meaning, he would be able to perceive moves double as fast sharply, and concordingly need a 48 FPS format for watching TV, because with 24 FPS, he would be able to see single frames (as we can see them in, let's say, 12 FPS).

We know there are other animals with faster reactions / higher "FPS", and slower reactions / lower "FPS" than us. Do they really perceive everything in different speeds? That would be at least the most understandable way to understand. Or do they experience the world in real time, just as us, but just with more/less inertia, and simply differently good reactions? Are these three aspects really bound to each other at all?
I'm not at home in this subject.

I know real life doesnt have fps SMILEY

, I was taking it as a reference

#36300032863 08/24/2006 15:43:55 Re:How does Bullet Time work?

That's why I attached a smiley to that sentence? =p

#36300032881 08/24/2006 16:12:25 Re:How does Bullet Time work?

Well Hyper Dodge was in Cr.1 & in the movies & that covered bullets, knives, and punches like in the films...
What we have now, is just that, what we have NOW. That's my story & Im sticking to it.

#36300036260 08/30/2006 00:26:35 Re:How does Bullet Time work?

Theoretically, the machines should be able to do anything whatsoever they please. The Matrix is after all just a program, so it can of course be edited. The question is would it matter if they sped up time? If everybody and everything moved twice as fast as it usually did, no difference would be apparent.

In the animatrix, they don't even nessecarily stop 'time', since time doesn't actually exist. They simply pause the program. The key in that was that the runner was so determined to break the record he smashed through that barrier to the point where his real body reacted, because of how hard he was pushing himself.

So it would actually depend on how 'time' is programmed into the matrix. If they just have one variable set as Time, which affects all motion, then changing it would cause no side effects, unless there were other errors in the code. But if each object in the matrix depends on it's own variable to determine movement, they would each run on individual time and each individual could be frozen. But it is not likely that is how it would be done, as it is simply not effecient.

But in theory, machines could make a quick switch so all dogs had cat heads on instead. So it makes sense for them to be able to manipulate time, but it may stress the system a lot to do so, or all problems could be easily solved by pausing the simulation, isolating the issue, and simply deleting it. Which in many examples we see, they do not and take on a much more hands-on approach.

So in conclusion, yes, bullet-time is simply extreme amounts of speed, and the slow-motion effect lets us see what is happening.
Theoretically the machines can manipulate time, because they can do whatever they want, unless the Matrix was specifically programmed to prevent the ability to do so.

Basicly it all comes down to the programming of the matrix, as it would with any other program. But somehow I don't think we will ever get our hands on how to build your own matrix.

#36300037610 08/31/2006 12:53:44 Re:How does Bullet Time work?

r3v0lv3r wrote:

Yea I was thinking about this aswell, and started thinking ((out of matrix content )). If a human could raise his eyes frames-per-second, lets say to 48 (( normal human eye catches 24)), he would see things slower, he would also move slower, but still see vertying slower, and it would give him time to think since his eyes are catching everything at doble rate, 2 seconds for him would be 1 for a normal human.
Just some insomnia theory xD.

The whole "human eye can catch 24 frames per second" idea is a misunderstanding. In a cinema the movie runs with a low frames per second in theory, but every frame is shown three times, so the dark pause between frames is shorter giving a refresh rate of 72 frames per second. Motion blur of analog systems also add to the illusion of smoothness.

Tests have been made on pilots and the tests showed that pilots could recognize planes shown only 1/220th of a second. That is recognizing an image. Consider someone being in a dark room and just having to register brightness. I am sure we would have to get in the area of a bright flash showing only 1/500th of a second for the eye not being able to register it.

The illusion of a smooth frame rate is not the same as the eye only being able to see that many frames.

Most normal persons will be able to register close to 100 frames per seconds if the images are completely sharp and there is no motion blur. But it is not the same for all persons! That is the second thing that is a common misunderstanding.

about 70-100 frames per second will be enough for the average person to see the movie as flicker free... but for complete virtual reality with sharp images you would need perhaps 500 fps.

The 24 fps is a matter of technology and "cheating" not the limit of the human eye!

#36300041063 09/04/2006 15:34:25 Re:How does Bullet Time work?

r3v0lv3r wrote:

Yea I was thinking about this aswell, and started thinking ((out of matrix content )). If a human could raise his eyes frames-per-second, lets say to 48 (( normal human eye catches 24)), he would see things slower, he would also move slower, but still see vertying slower, and it would give him time to think since his eyes are catching everything at doble rate, 2 seconds for him would be 1 for a normal human.
Just some insomnia theory xD.

on that note....what if we had lag in real life? wouldnt that suck? oh yeah, we do. it's called a hangover.

/hijack

#36300046333 09/11/2006 05:47:41 Re:How does Bullet Time work?

r3v0lv3r wrote:

Joakim wrote:
Guys.
Are you sure that bullettime is actually something that exists in the matrix and is a thing that happens to people in the matrix?
It's just a way of showing us what happens in a cooler way...

I know its just a way of showing us things cooler. I was just saying that if a human raised his fps he would be in bullet time...all the time

Nah it would probably just run smoother SMILEY

#36300056380 09/23/2006 11:47:03 How does Bullet Time work?

Time isn't speeding up or slowing down. Einstien is the scientist who came up with a theory of the speed of light. He theorised that moving that fast would make them feel like a second was a year because there moving so fast. So it's the same thing in the matrix. Nobody is able to make there bodys move so fast that it looks like time is slowing down. Agents muscles are made as perfect as posible and thus can move as fast as the matrix allows them. Only Neo can break those rules. Does that anwser your question?

#36300061709 09/30/2006 17:43:07 Re:How does Bullet Time work?

So what ur saying is i need to upgrade the FPS on my eyes to Dodge Bullets ? Wow i tought it would be harder. **Runs off to do it** SMILEY

#36300061711 09/30/2006 17:46:24 Re:How does Bullet Time work?

supersdcurge wrote:

So what ur saying is i need to upgrade the FPS on my eyes to Dodge Bullets ? Wow i tought it would be harder. **Runs off to do it**

Don't try this at home without a kevlar Vest and a Teflon helmet!

#36300507828 10/09/2008 03:55:16 Re:Re:How does Bullet Time work?

Coer wrote:

A common misconception is that bullet time is somehow slowing or speeding up time.
Time is not affected.

Agents (and Neo) dodge bullets by moving super-fast. They don't speed up time, they just have inhumanly fast reflexes, and that movement is portrayed as blurring because the eye theoretically doesn't track movement that fast.

It's styled in the movie and the game as slow-downs for pure style, and so we can see what's going on.
A 'bullet timer' might have the perception that time around him has slowed down, but he/she is simply moving faster than everything else around them. It's not that strange - a Formula 1 driver for example can plunge down a straight at 200MPH, slow down, kiss the apex of the first turn of a chicane at 90MPH, readjust course, hit the next apex and be out again onto the rest of the circuit.
To us, it looks crazily fast and almost out of control, but ask any F1 driver and he'll tell you that time has the perception of slowing inside the cockpit, and although they're doing insanely high speeds, they have enough time to rationalise the situation and make decisions as if they were standing still.

I agree with Coer, Bullet Time is not the effect of the character's speed on the simulation, instead it is a representation of simply, how Fast the Characters are moving, if normally bullet-time sequences were shown in real time, Characters would leave Movement Shadows of themselves and intense Blurring(As was seen in the original Matrix Film, when Smith Doges Neo's bullets), and cut a moderate portion of Showing Time out of the Movies, that, and the sheer speed of the action would confuse most viewers. Also, if Bullet-Time wasn't shown in the matrix, It would not have become so popular amongst the people of ~~America~~ The World.(Well, it MAY have become famous for it's philosophical views on life)

#36300523112 11/24/2008 09:27:52 Re:How does Bullet Time work?

Its more of the person slowing their perception. You can have real bullet time moments (during intense happenings, and Halo) even in MxO, when I see something new and incredible, it seems like time slowing down.

#36300529266 12/14/2008 21:54:58 Re:How does Bullet Time work?

wow.. talk about time stretching, this thread has been puttering along for two years and is suddenly back up near the top? hehe.

Anyway, some thoughts...

As Coer and Gallows have already noted, humans are capable of experiencing "slow motion" reality. It can be induced by drugs, by adrenaline, by practice, etc. There is probably a LOT of variety in the individual experience of the rate of time's passage.

To Exzoon, I think you have slightly misunderstood. Yes, Einstein established that the faster you move through space, the slower you move through time. However, no human being can move fast enough to actually experience that. Even experiments with atomic clocks in jets moving at Mach 3 only show microseconds of time difference over the course of a flight. And further, when Morpheus states that Agents are limited to rules, he doesn't mean that they are programmed with perfect muscles, thats just ... well, kinda silly. He means they experience the limits of programming language itself. Remember, its not that Neo can DODGE bullets, its that he doesn't HAVE to...

My take on bullet time is entirely different than any i see here. I see bullet time like the anti-skip protection on your CD player. When a CD player is reading the CD, its not like the needle of a record, moving over just one spot. It scans both ahead and behind, to see any scratches, etc. and find a way to keep playing past them.

Judging from the animations for it, I always figured that Agent's were using a similar technique. They have the programming capability to read the trajectory of a bullet, know where its going to be, and simply SKIP being there. Notice too, that Neo initially CANNOT do this. He sees the bullets coming and their trajectories, but he can't actually SKIP, so he just tries to get out of the way, and in the process actually gets grazed a few times. (Though I admit, Trin says "you move like they do." So maybe with out the slowmo, it looked just like the previous sequence wit the agent dodging.) However, this skipping ability would have its limits. A large number of projectiles arriving at close to the same time would leave no safe space to skip to. Hence, when Neo breaks out the electric Gatling gun on the helicopter (those have VERY high rates of fire, like a thousand rounds per minute!), they are not able to move skip fast enough to dodge (too many bullets to track trajectories on for the program).

Anyway, just my slightly different twist on the concept.

#36300544819 02/18/2009 03:46:28 Re:How does Bullet Time work?

I have understood that bullet time is only a state of perception. The mind starts to get information from the environment at higher frequency and starts to see things slowing down.

#36300546380 02/23/2009 03:57:11 Re:How does Bullet Time work?

Interestingly enough I saw an experiment to see if the human body really can speed up it's rate of perception under adrenalin fueled stress.

They made a 2 digit LED display that displayed a number alternated with random noise. the speed of the display could be slowwed or sped up. so they would set a random number, speed the display up and confirm that the test subject couldn't read it. then they put him in a harness high up over a safety net, and without warning dropped him.

Every time he got to the bottom they stopped the display to show the number after he said what it was and he got it right every time... even the times that were blind tests with no number (those times he couldn't read it).

Humans are amazing.