From: Bullard, Claude L (Len) (clbullar_at_ingr.com)
Date: 22 June 1998
Everyone wants one of those in their life. I had one. I turned the page to
find out I was married.
I'm not sure we can always smooth over "physical" transitions like
loading a new world. OTOH, we can make sure it happens when
the user is about ready for a break. When I say smooth the transitions,
I mean hide the fact that some set of event property values are being
used to determine how play is to continue. Using the node transitions
and precondition/postcondition, some properties are being set by
interaction, some by location, some by failing to do something, whatever,
but to the user, the loading/unloading, setting values, etc. occur
invisibly. Repeating the play is just an option the author/programmer
decides
to provide. One might build a world where repetition is very difficult
to do.
At the world level, a new node is a new world. At the scene level, a new node might be a new character.
How linear or non-linear the story is depends on how deep you nest. Because we can load geometry, we can change the transitions within a world. Because we can set conditions, we can direct the loading of the next scene. Outside of using Java or a cookie, I don't know how we use web apps for persistent value storage and passing between the worlds unless we do it in HTML. I don't think that is practical but I could be wrong. For very complex stories, I think we would find ourselves using a database.
Len Bullard
Intergraph Public Safety
clbullar_at_ingr.com
Ekam sat.h, Vipraah bahudhaa vadanti.
Daamyata. Datta. Dayadhvam.h
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jed Hartman [SMTP:jed_at_sgi.com]
> Sent: Monday, June 22, 1998 1:13 PM
> To: vrml-lit-list_at_kith.org
> Subject: RE: Clicking for Godot
>
> No time for real responses right now (I use that phrase so often I ought
> to abbreviate it -- Ntfrrrn, sort of a nasal growl), but I wanted to say
> one quick thing: Len, I love the phrase "the denouement button." I now
> want to put a big red button in whatever VRML fiction I end up doing,
> labeled "Press for denouement."
>
> >Here's a talking point to debate: the user
> >should not perceive the non-linearity. The program
> >should smooth over the decisions in the transitions.
> Okay, one *more* thing (I feel like Columbo): Anyone here ever play the
> old (mid-'80s) arcade game "Dragonslayer"? (Or maybe it was "Dragon's
> Lair" -- I always forget.) A large set of animated video clips; as the
> end of a clip approaches, a blinking arrow indicates the action you need
> to take. If you take it in time, you move on to another video clip. The
> two most serious flaws in the game were (1) the delay between clips, as
> the video disk did a slow seek to the next segment, and (2) the randomness
> of the ordering, which meant that you might have to repeat the same
> segment two or three times in a game. (I *think* -- I should note that I
> never actually played it, just watched, as it was also an ultra-pricey
> (for the time) game.)
>
> --jed, in a rush
>
> PS on an unrelated topic: I'm reluctant to post public welcomes to new
> listmembers who haven't yet posted anything, in case they want to maintain
> lurker privacy. So, if you've joined the list recently but haven't
> posted, I encourage you to post a quick note saying hi, giving your
> background if you want to, and letting folks know you're here.
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