[Divunal-list] Graphics

[James Knight]

At 9:33 AM -0400 6/15/99, Michael Dartt wrote:
>[Disclaimer: If you want a purely technical answer, this isn't it.  Should
>still be useful, though.  :-)]
>
>	We've talked about this a few times, but it's nothing that we're
>100% certain of doing any time, as far as I know.  I'm personally a big
>fan of computer graphics, but I question whether going graphical would be
>in the best interest of Divunal.
...
A while ago in a much much earlier version (so much earlier that it was
labelled 1.0FC1! Haha FC1, that was a year and a half ago...anyways...),
there was a feature that let you set an image in place of the text in the
main description panel. That got taken out for some reason (probably
because it wasn't working or something) I personally would like to advocate
putting it back in a future version, along with Quicktime integration on
platforms that support it (mac & windows). This would allow you to play QT
movies to the player upon entering a room, or perhaps set a Quicktime VR
panorama movie as the picture for the scene and let the player look around.
All this is not a very tough extension to add to the server (a little
harder on the client though. :)). One thing pictures would be really useful
for is maps (ie from a map dealer). A textual map is just annoying...

The question about dynamicism are important however. Even though I know it
will happen, whenever a description changes all by itself when i'm just
sitting there I'm impressed. The completely dynamic (EVERYTHING can change
at runtime, including code) nature of this game is the best part, and
should be preserved at all costs. It is not particularly feasable to have
completely dynamic pictures. This game isn't a 3D walkaround, and I don't
think it ever will be. So, I think the best way to compromise is to have
objects have both a description, and an optional picture/movie. That
satisfies both the image-hungry consumers and the gamers. :) I believe
background music and sound is also planned, which can be accomplished with
either QT sound routines or another sound plugin. Anyways, none of this
will appear until after the first release, if we keep adding features,
it'll never get released. :)


-James

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