Vortex is a KMG Afterburner at Thorpe Park, an amusement park in Chertsey, Surrey, England. It was installed in the Lost City area of the park in 2001. It opened on 25 May, seven weeks after the opening of the 2001 season.
Riders sit in seats arranged in a circle facing inwards, there are eight gondolas with four seats on each. After the over-the-shoulder restraints have been lowered and checked, the platform lowers. The seats then begin to rotate, and after approximately one rotation the ride begins to swing. The ride swings back and forth, swinging up to a maximum height of 20 metres and angle of 120 degrees at 15rpm. After several full height swings, the ride then begins to slow before coming to a halt, the platform is then raised and riders fast track and single rider questions operate.
Vortex is a high-fidelity, realtime physics engine developed by CM Labs Simulations that simulates rigid body dynamics, collision detection, contact determination, and dynamic reactions. Vortex adds accurate physical motion and interactions to objects in visual-simulation applications for operator training, mission planning, product concept validation, vehicle and robotics testing, haptics devices, immersive and virtual reality (VR) environments.
The Vortex C++ SDK has several modules that simulate physics-based particles, sensors, floating bodies, cable systems, grasping, and wheeled and tracked vehicles. Developers integrate their projects into 3D visualization frameworks such as OpenSceneGraph (OSG) and Vega Prime, and deploy them in environments that contain software-in-the-loop (SIL), MATLAB, hardware-in-the-loop (HIL), and motion platform components.
Vortex is developed by CM Labs Simulations Inc., a private company established in Montreal in 2001. CM Labs was created when the management of MathEngine Canada Inc. purchased a portion of the business from MathEngine PLC, the parent company in the UK. MathEngine Canada Inc. was originally the research and development team responsible for creating the Karma physics simulation engine for computer games.
Vortex may refer to any of these roller coasters:
D12, an initialism for The Dirty Dozen, is an American hip hop group from Detroit, Michigan. D12 has had chart-topping albums in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. D12 was formed in 1996, and achieved mainstream success after Eminem rose to international fame. D12 released the album Devil's Night in 2001 and D12 World in 2004, spawning numerous hits such as "Fight Music", "Purple Pills", "My Band", "How Come" and "Shit on You" throughout that period. Since 2006, Eminem's hiatus and the death of the member Proof resulted in them being less active in subsequent years.
In order to make up the dozen, it was decided the six members at the time would each create an alter-ego. Proof's was Dirty Harry, Bizarre's was Peter S. Bizarre, Kuniva's was Hannz G. (which later became Rondell Beene), Kon Artis's was Mr. Porter, Bugz' was Robert Beck and Eminem created the famous character Slim Shady.
In 1997, they released their debut album, The Underground EP, which was recorded between 1996 and 1997. In 1997 and through 1998, its members began establishing reputations locally. Bizarre was named Inner City Entertainment's "Flava of the Week" and went on to release an album called Attack of the Weirdos. Along with Eminem, Rah Digga and Young Zee, he became an honorary member of The Outsidaz. Proof won a freestyling competition run by The Source. In 1999, Bugz released an EP called These Streets EP, and made several appearances on other rapper's songs.
Swift (Shen Li-Min) is a fictional comic book superhero in the Wildstorm universe, published by DC Comics. Swift first appeared in Stormwatch #28 and was created by Jeff Mariotte and Ron Lim. She is currently a member of The Authority.
When a comet passed by Earth, it activated a genetic quirk in some people that would manifest into superpowers either naturally or through special Seedlings called Activators. Swift was one such Seedling. Swift was brought into Stormwatch as a rookie, with her powers only partially activated. Weatherman Henry Bendix later reconfigured the Stormwatch teams, assigning her to Stormwatch Black, Stormwatch's black ops team, alongside Jenny Sparks (with whom she had a brief romance) and Jack Hawksmoor. It was then that Christine Trelane offered to fully activate Swift's powers, bringing out their full potential, and she accepted.
After Stormwatch disbanded, Swift joined former teammates in The Authority. Formerly a pacifist, she has put aside those beliefs to fight for a better world regardless of the cost. She has fought all over the world, from Moscow to Mexico to Gamora Island. During the Transfer of Power storyline, Swift was replaced by Rush from Canada after being taken out of a fight by radioactive feces. Swift was brainwashed into becoming the obedient trophy wife of a television mogul who had been part of the conspiracy to replace her and her team. She was insulted at every opportunity, from having her cooking ignored to the implications she could not remember large words. Eventually she overheard the "off-button" code of the monster Three-Willied Seth and proceeded to free herself. She literally took the heads of the television mogul and his software billionaire co-conspirator. She also saved her friend Angela Spica, the Engineer, and killed the man who had been abusing Angela.