Open-source & India #16

Life is a simulation? Shondesh, Gauri Sawant and the history of Pride Parades in India

Jun 22, 2021

What are we discovering this week?

Hey there,

In my free time, I always prefer to spend time playing video games when I am not tinkering with a new side project. Simulator games in the industry like the Microsoft Flight simulator and the Goat Simulator are really popular.

So this week I want to present you with some great simulators that you can play and build around. Offering ways to show and simulate real-life objects like robots, cars, pokemon battles (I sometimes wish these were real too…) and more.

Last week we talked about the Kinnar community and their customs, It doesn’t need to be pride month for us to be thinking about acceptance and love. In the country where we say the “Atithi Devo Bhava” (A guest is a form of god).

This week for India we are talking about a sweet message from me to you. Gauri Sawant the mother from the Vicks advert and The history of Pride Parades in India.

AirSim by @OpenAtMicrosoft

Open-source simulator for autonomous vehicles built on Unreal Engine / Unity, from Microsoft AI & Research

AirSim is a simulator for drones, cars and more, built on Unreal Engine (it now also has an experimental Unity release). It is open-source, cross-platform, and supports software-in-the-loop simulation with popular flight controllers such as PX4 & ArduPilot and hardware-in-loop with PX4 for physically and visually realistic simulations. It is developed as an Unreal plugin that can simply be dropped into any Unreal environment.

💻: C++
⭐ 11817 👀 589 🍴 3271 🚧 527

Learn More >>>

pokemon-showdown by smogon

Pokémon Showdown is many things:

A web site you can use for Pokémon battling
A JavaScript library for simulating Pokémon battles and getting Pokédex data
Some command-line tools for simulating Pokémon battles (which can be used in non-JavaScript programs)
A game server for hosting your own Pokémon Showdown community and game modes

Pokémon Showdown simulates singles, doubles and triples battles in all the games out so far (Generations 1 through 8).

💻: TypeScript
⭐ 3121 👀 164 🍴 1962 🚧 119

Learn More >>>

carla by carla-simulator

CARLA is an open-source simulator for autonomous driving research. CARLA has been developed from the ground up to support development, training, and validation of autonomous driving systems. In addition to open-source code and protocols, CARLA provides open digital assets (urban layouts, buildings, vehicles) that were created for this purpose and can be used freely. The simulation platform supports flexible specification of sensor suites and environmental conditions.

💻: C++
⭐ 6092 👀 226 🍴 1837 🚧 383

Learn More >>>

gazebo by osrf

This is the Gazebo simulator. Gazebo simulates multiple robots in a 3D environment, with extensive dynamic interaction between objects.

Robot simulation is an essential tool in every roboticist's toolbox. A well-designed simulator makes it possible to rapidly test algorithms, design robots, perform regression testing, and train AI system using realistic scenarios. Gazebo offers the ability to accurately and efficiently simulate populations of robots in complex indoor and outdoor environments. At your fingertips is a robust physics engine, high-quality graphics, and convenient programmatic and graphical interfaces. Best of all, Gazebo is free with a vibrant community.

💻: C++
⭐ 531 👀 35 🍴 259 🚧 1400

Learn More >>>

openrails by openrails

Open Rails: free train simulator that supports the world's largest range of digital content.

The project provides a train simulator for the largest collection of digital content in the world - routes, rolling stock, and activities - initially developed for Microsoft's Train Simulator product.

Another possibility is for digital tools to support the Open Rails product, such as Markus Gelbmann's free Diesel Power Updater which modifies an MSTS Eng file to suit Open Rails.

Perhaps the most exciting possibility is for add-ons that enhance Open Rails by providing effective solutions in niche areas, such as modeling people or road traffic, or moving water. A specialist could deliver and profit from a feature that is popular but considered non-core by the Open Rails team.

💻: C#
⭐ 92 👀 14 🍴 58 🚧 11

Learn More >>>

Love it ?! Is life a simulation? What do you think?

The Food

Sandesh

(Bengali: সন্দেশ Shôndesh)

It is a dessert, originating from the Bengal region in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent, created with milk and sugar.Some recipes of Sandesh call for the use of chhena or paneer instead of milk itself.

Some people in the region of Dhaka call it pranahara (literally, heart 'stealer') which is a softer kind of sandesh, made with mawa and the essence of curd.

The simplest kind of sandesh in Bengal is the makha sandesh (makha = kneaded). It is prepared by tossing the chhena lightly with sugar over low heat. The sandesh is essentially hot, sweetened chhana. When shaped into balls, it is called Kanchagolla (kancha = raw; golla = ball).

The People

Gauri Sawant

Gauri Sawant is a transgender activist from Mumbai, India. She is the director of Sakhi Char Chowghi that helps transgender people and people with HIV/AIDS. She was featured in an ad by Vicks. She was made the goodwill ambassador of the Election Commission in Maharashtra.

Gauri founded the Sakhi Char Chowghi Trust in 2000. The NGO promotes safe sex and provides counseling to transgender people. In 2014, she became the first transgender person to file a petition in the Supreme Court of India for the adoption rights of transgender people. She was a petitioner in the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) case in which the Supreme Court recognized transgender as the third gender. Gauri adopted a girl named Gayatri in 2008 after Gayatri's mother died of AIDS.