[Pipmak-Devel] Photorealistic Panoramas With Pipmak

[D. C. S. <co...@co...>]

Hi All,

Christian asked if I would post the following to the Pipmak mailing
list, of which I am happy to do [with edited the the attachment image to
a link to share with you]:

Hi Christian,
        
        For the past couple of months, I have steadily worked on an
        interactive fiction game in my spare time. The goal is to create
        a work that give the player a chance to immerse themselves in a
        story that takes place in the Astoria, Oregon area. For this I
        built a powerful server capaple of producing 360 panoramas in a
        reasonable amount of time. To get an idea of what I am talking
        about, please see [the following link] (I am an amateur
        photographer):
        
          http://cooper.stevenson.name/beach/lighthouse.png
        
         complimenting the following description:
        
            [Cove]
        
                    Jutted basalt rocks extend defiantly into the ocean
                to the West and sweep past to you, extending Eastward.
                The rocks give way to the sandy beach found in the
                deepest part of the cove to your Southeast. To the
                South, a massive continental outcropping in the
                coastline jets into the ocean such that it comprises
                most of the coastal horizon. Atop the outcropping is an
                old lighthouse who's light beacon sweeps the horizon
                seen as an occasional flicker of light in your
                direction.
                
                A trail appears to meander up the stone outcropping and
                lead to the lighthouse to your Southeast.
        
        And so on. You get the idea. If you have a second, I would like
        to ask you a couple of questions:
        
          1) I think it will be possible to "flatten" my panoramas, cut
        them to size, and place them in Pipmak's engine as sides of a
        cube. Do you foresee any trouble with this? How would I
        consistently ensure that I have the correct pixel length plus
        the half-pixel necessary for seamless transition between frames.
        
        It seems like this process could be relatively straightforward
        or 
        incredibly variable.
        
        2) Does Lua support user input at the "amateur programmer"
        level? In other words, would it be a large effort to implement
        commands such as "examine seashell" with Lua and Pikmap?
        
        I hope, Christian, that at the very least I have helped stir
        your 
        imagination. An thank you again for a great project.
        
        
        -Coop