April 1999
- In-Game Languages Eli Stevens {KiZurich}
- In-Game Languages Per Vognsen
- In-Game Languages Chris Gray
- In-Game Languages Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- In-Game Languages Eli Stevens {KiZurich}
- In-Game Languages Matthew D. Fuller
- In-Game Languages Mik Clarke
- In-Game Languages Michael Hohensee
- In-Game Languages Ben Greear
- In-Game Languages Michael Hohensee
- In-Game Languages Mik Clarke
- In-Game Languages Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- In-Game Languages David Bennett
- In-Game Languages Richard Woolcock
- In-Game Languages Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- In-Game Languages Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- In-Game Languages Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- In-Game Languages Andrew Ritchie
- In-Game Languages Matthew D. Fuller
- In-Game Languages adam@treyarch.com
- forward: consistency Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Confined Gameworld Ling
- Confined Gameworld Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Confined Gameworld Richard Woolcock
- Confined Gameworld Eli Stevens {KiZurich}
- Confined Gameworld The Wildman
- Confined Gameworld Koster, Raph
- User centered? Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- User centered? Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- User centered? Marc Bowden
- User centered? Adam Wiggins
- User centered? Richard Woolcock
- User centered? Benjamin D. Wiechel
- User centered? Koster, Raph
- target audience Matthew Mihaly
- target audience Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- target audience Marc Bowden
- Fw: Self-organizing worlds (was: Elder Games) Kylotan
- Fw: Self-organizing worlds (was: Elder Games) Matthew Mihaly
- ScryMUD 1.8.11 released. Ben Greear
- Mud driver architecture info B. Scott Boding
- Blending graphics with text u1391470
- Blending graphics with text Laurel Fan
- Blending graphics with text Kylotan
- Blending graphics with text Chris Gray
- Blending graphics with text J C Lawrence
On Wed, 14 Apr 1999 19:37:46 -0600
Chris Gray <cg@ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA> wrote:
> [u1391470@csi.uottawa.ca:] (Got a signature that you can put in?)
>> So, what is a good balance? Would making the mud "graphical"
>> rather than text based destroy the basis of our being a MUD? Are
>> limited graphics best?
> When this sort of topic has come up in the past, several folks
> have said that they don't like any graphics at all in MUDs. Others
> are willing to allow it as long as the nature of the game doesn't
> change. Likely you'll see answers with some of their reasons.
I always love these debates for the single reason that most of the
noise is raised by those who have no interest in the outcome. THose
who don't like it won't play it, those who do, may. You're only
real choice then is how much you want specific sets of people to
play your game, and what if any compromises are necessary to achieve
that.
There are very specific (and fairly well documented) advantages to
text. There are also fairly clear advantages to more
visual/subjective interfaces. Each colours the presentation of the
game in different indelible ways. It is however that change in
interface definition, and its impact on the user perception and
resulting "game character" that I find most worth examining.
> Personally, I prefer a nice mix of text and graphics. I find that
> navigating in a top-down world view, by just pressing numeric
> keypad keys, is considerably easier than typing normal movement
> commands. I now find it overtaxing to play in a straight text
> mode. Players that use your system may see the same effect over
> time.
In my old Shades days I rebound the numeric pad to
N/NE/E/SE/S/SW/W/NW/N with INS and DEL acting as U/D. It worked
fairly well. More recently I've found that I'm not happy with the
implicit compass directions (you have a compass embedded in your
skull?), and the resulting lack of directional confusion, and have
been tempted to go for a forward/right/back/left-type semantic. Way
back when I toyed with PacMan-style joystick interfaces set in a 3D
1st person ASCII graphic maze and came away disenchanted.
Top-down overviews define a certain field-of-view and user context
that I'm not very happy with (barriers don't restrain vision and
collapsed depth perception) -- not that I like isometric overviews
much better either. My current toy is a 360 degree view with center
field representing straight ahead and each end of the pane
representing directly behind you.
Imaging a camera which sites on a tripod and spins in a compleat
circle, taking a single photograph on a very long strip of film.
(For those interested, one of my great grandfathers was a
photographic pioneer and made and used cameras which did precisely
this with the film wrapped about a cylinder and the lense rotating
about it during a single shutter cycle).
The view on screen is akin to that photo, rolled out flat -- except
that it is a real time image and is updated as the environment
changes and the player moves.
Expensive: yes. All the normal tricks to minimise the active field
and working set no longer apply. I'm beginning not to care (the
fact that VA threw dual 500MHz Xeon's under my desk at home and work
helped). I've been playing with very simple filled wire frames:
BSX-ish really, just 360 degree. It can be extremely confusing and
disorienting. It gets better when you make the pane 330 degree,
leving the backward 30 degrees as a blindspot (lessens things
"jumping" from end to end as they cross the midpoint). It also
evokes more than its share of "Oooo! Cool!" reactions on just
walking a PoV about the landscape.
> I've thought about trying to do the South Park Canadian type of
> graphics (as in Terrence, Philip and Ike), but I'm not sure my
> talents are even up to that!
<nod> Tempting.
--
J C Lawrence Home: claw@kanga.nu
---------(*) Linux/IA64 - Work: claw@varesearch.com
... Beware of cromagnons wearing chewing gum and palm pilots ... - Blending graphics with text Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Blending graphics with text Chris Gray
- Blending graphics with text Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Blending graphics with text J C Lawrence
- Blending graphics with text Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- Blending graphics with text Mik Clarke
- Blending graphics with text u1391470
- Blending graphics with text claw@kanga.nu
- Blending graphics with text Alex Stewart
- Blending graphics with text J C Lawrence
- Virtual machine design Shane King
- Virtual machine design Alex Stewart
- Virtual machine design Jo Dillon
- Virtual machine design Ben Greear
- Virtual machine design Niklas Elmqvist
- Virtual machine design Shane King
- Virtual machine design Ben Greear
- Virtual machine design claw@kanga.nu
- Virtual machine design Alex Stewart
- Virtual machine design Felix A. Croes
- Virtual machine design Eli Stevens {KiZurich}
- Virtual machine design Mik Clarke
- Virtual machine design Schubert, Damion
- Virtual machine design Ben Greear
- Virtual machine design Ben Greear
- Virtual machine design Felix A. Croes
- Virtual machine design Matthew Mihaly
- Virtual machine design Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- Virtual machine design claw@kanga.nu
- Virtual machine design Mik Clarke
- Virtual machine design Oliver Jowett
- Virtual machine design Chris Gray
- Virtual machine design claw@kanga.nu
- Virtual machine design Chris Gray
- Virtual machine design Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Virtual machine design claw@kanga.nu
- Virtual machine design Petri Virkkula
- Virtual machine design Ben Greear
- Virtual machine design Chris Gray
- Virtual machine design Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Virtual machine design Nathan F Yospe
- Virtual machine design Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Virtual machine design Petri Virkkula
- Virtual machine design Jon A. Lambert
- Virtual machine design Koster, Raph
- Virtual machine design Jon A. Lambert
- Virtual machine design Chris Gray
- Rebooting (was: Virtual machine design) Eli Stevens {KiZurich}
- Game design highpoints (was Virtual machine design) claw@kanga.nu
- Sockets Quzah [softhome]
- ScryMUD 1.8.13 snapshot released. Ben Greear
- Interview I did that may interest you Koster, Raph
- Censorship Greg Munt
- Censorship Ben Greear
- Censorship Matthew Mihaly
- Censorship Shawn Halpenny
- Censorship Darren Henderson
- Censorship Quzah [softhome]
- Censorship Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- Python B. Scott Boding
- Python Gaffney, Jeremy
- AW: Censorship Hofbauer Heinz
- AW: Censorship Matthew Mihaly
- AW: Censorship Damion Schubert
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Greg Munt
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Matthew Mihaly
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Ben Greear
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Matthew Mihaly
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Matthew Mihaly
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Ben Greear
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Dan
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Matthew Mihaly
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Marian Griffith
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Benjamin D. Wiechel
- Censorship & Its Impact On World Immersion Greg Munt
- Censorship & Its Impact On World Immersion Matthew Mihaly