Re: [Pipmak-Devel] Photorealistic Panoramas With Pipmak

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

>From my original message, Christian replied:

Hi Coop

> To get an idea of what I am talking about, please see the attached 
> image (I am an amateur photographer) complimenting the following 
> description:
>
>    [Cove]
>
>    ...
>
> And so on. You get the idea.

Beautiful photo! Can't wait to see it in Pipmak...
One idea I don't completely get (not that it's relevant for your 
questions, but anyway...): Is that description part of the game too? 
And if so, how is it presented? As text overlaying the panorama? 
Independent of the panorama, with the user being able to switch between 
text and panorama? Spoken?

> 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 
> forsee any trouble with this? How would I consistently ensure that I 
> have the correct pixel length plus the half-pixel necessary for 
> seemless transition between frames.
>      It seems like this process could be relatively straightforward
or 
> incredibly variable.

That depends on the form of your source material. If I understand you 
correctly, you took these photos and then stitched them together in 
some panorama application? What types of panoramas can that application 
produce? Cubic would be easiest, but equirectangular (spherical) or 
cylindrical could be reprojected to cubic too, at the expense of some 
quality (the tool of my choice would be POV-Ray, but there might be 
specialized apps for that task). That half-pixel thing also applies to 
cubic QuickTime panoramas, so if your app can create those, that's 
already taken care of (hopefully).

>  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?

Depends. If "examine" is the only verb that applies to the seashell, 
it's easy - just place a hotspot over the seashell and have it do 
whatever you like when clicked (say, go to a slide node that displays a 
close-up picture and a description of the shell). If there are multiple 
verbs, the question is, how should the user interface for that look. A 
problem could be that Pipmak currently doesn't support graphic elements 
that are fixed to the screen (as opposed to attached to the panorama). 
That's a planned feature, though.

Also, there is currently no text output capability except for the 
Pipmak terminal (pipmak.print() function), which is mainly intended as 
a debugging tool and not for user interaction in a finished game. So 
everything that exceeds the terminal's capabilities has to be done with 
pictures. There's no text input either, unless you program it yourself 
by reacting to individual key presses.

> I hope, Christian, that at the very least I have helped stir your 
> imagination.

Sure - your project sounds exciting, and hearing about users' needs 
also provides ideas and helps me in setting priorities for Pipmak's 
further development.

By the way, if you think this discussion could be useful for others to 
read as well, I encourage you to continue it on the pipmak-users 
mailing list (http://pipmak.sourceforge.net/maillists.php). But if 
you'd like to keep your project private, that's OK too.

Greetings

  Christian


On Tue, 2005-12-13 at 11:15 -0800, D. Cooper Stevenson wrote:
> 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
> 
> 
> 
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