I got my hands on MPEG-V standard documents which lets me inject “SEM” (sensory effect metadata) inside .mp4 files which would let me program real world stuff on cues like lights, chair movements, water sprays, etc. So literally if I had a NAS with a hoard of movies and bought the right equipment, i could make 4DX at home.
There’s an effect description named “scent”, which would, obviously, spray some aromatizer or something in the room. I checked out the standard list of scents that can be applied. There are scents like rose, lavender, mint, apples, mixed herbs, but i came across an interesting one which is the one i’m asking for.
Scent of dragons breath
Describes the scent of dragons breath
Maybe this is a weird reason to ask this… I really want to know out of curiosity if this “dragon breath” would be some specific mix of herbs or incense or any kind of room spray. I sense it would kind of be an artificial scent… but idk… really… Would it really work if i coded a “Home 4DX” version of the Hobbit movies?
Sulphur is what comes to mind.
My guess is dragons breath is produced by a combination of two glands that produce chemicals that are hypergolic. This is seen in nature in bombardier beetles (which use hydroquinone + hydrogen peroxide).
The smell would certainly depend on the combination of chemicals, but a hot burnt and charred smells are probably common to all possibilities. The unburnt chemicals are likely to be irritants, being either strong oxidizers or reducers.
Overall, even after the main blaze has cooled, I would expect the area (and downwind) to be unsafe for humans and respiratory issues for those exposed to the remnants.
Hey, this is a unironically a very good answer regarding “real” dragons. Although, the cinema scent would hopefully not be an airway irritant.
I just went looking for this document and found it for sale here; meanwhile over here there is a helpful PDF with a watermarked line drawing of the CD-ROM they’ll sell it to you on.
Fuck ISO so much.
You found it, yay! Except i have an edition from 2019 instead of 2011. Wow this standard is so old yet no one had the idea to implement such thing for home cinema?
Honestly yea, fuck the paywalls. Though some german user uploaded a full list of standards updated to 2021, including ISO, DIN, IEC, IEEE, ASTM, so many others. They’re available for free now. They sometimes include the CD-ROM files, but i don’t think the document i got is my case
Impending death.
Without any real technical answer, dragons breath should be sharp, warm, and smokey, but not so much that you think there’s a fire in the building. Maybe the smell of slightly burnt, very seasoned meat?
