Re: [Pipmak-Devel] Re: Photorealistic Panoramas With Pipmak

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

All,

I wrote the following to the rec.arts.int-fiction newsgroup:

Overview
--------

This post is to explore the possibility of integrating the Inform
Interactive Fiction Language with photo-realistic panoramic views.
Optionaly, GIS (Geographical Information System) data could be
incorporated to aid the player and designer in mapping the world.

Detail
------

I recall vividly waiting in feverish anticipation for my uncles to
arrive at our house on a weekend night. They're arrival ultimately meant
one thing: an intense game of "Adventure" on the Apple IIc. I recall
listening to the floppy drive, praying that it would whir more than
normal--this was our first que that we had hit upon the solution!

I like to travel, and in my spare time I've thought about ways to push
out my experiences to family members in as near real time as possible.
The answer is yes, it is possible to provide a basic journal of one's
travel with others. I tested this last fall on a backpacking trip; my
goal wasn't to create the next Times Magazine picture of the year, but
rather to explore mechanics of taking down images, recording their
positions, and posting them to the Internet. You may see the results
linked here (3.5M PDF file):

  http://cooper.stevenson.name/backpacking/obsidian_flows.pdf

Naturally, my thought evolved into thinking about how neat it would be
if one could actually visit the area virtually, wich of course gave way
to the idea of incorporating a full interactive adventure complete with
puzzles, etc.

It turns out that there is an open source engine that lets you turn your
360 deg. images into an interactive world. If you've never seen a
panoramic image and your browser supports Java, you can see an example
panorama here:

  http://www.path.unimelb.edu.au/~dersch/StBp_ptvj.html

Pipmak, the Open Source Interactive Engine that I am referring to is
linked here:

  http://pipmak.sourceforge.net/

Pipmak is a cross-platform 3D game engine including with support for
clickable "hotspots" and and a complete scripting language backend
called "Lua."

Imagine for example, viewing a panorama of the scene linked below and
hearing a recording of the actual place, along with a narrative:

  http://cooper.stevenson.name/beach/lighthouse.png

  [Cove]

    Jutted basalt rocks extend defiently 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 takes up most of the horizon to the
    South. 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.

The idea, then would be to pass messages between the Pipmak engine and
the Inform language. 

For example, suppose the user clicked on the far left side of the image
above. This would send the message "se" to the Z-machine interpreter.
Various other hotspot clicks would send messages such as "examine,"
"open door," etc. The user would still have the option, of course, of
entering in commands to the interpreter directly. It's also feasible to
forgo the hotspot clicks and interact with the game completely with the
keyboard while Pipmak handles the panoramic images exclusively.

Two primary questions arise: is it feasible to create a cross-platform
interface between the two game engines and if so, may we enlist the help
of a Z-machines developer to make this a reality?

If this proposal achieves progress to the next phase of planning, it
will be discussed on the this newsgroup and the Pipmak mailing list
linked here:

  http://news.gmane.org/gmane.games.devel.pipmak.devel

Best,


Cooper Stevenson


On Thu, 2005-12-15 at 16:22 +0100, Christian Walther wrote:
> D. Cooper Stevenson wrote:
> > It turns out that there is an entire interactive fiction library
> > (Inform) that does all of these things:
> >   http://www.inform-fiction.org/index.html
> > 
> > The trick may be writing an interface between Pipmak and the Inform
> > Library.
> > ...
> > Is it be possible to send short user messages between Pipmak and
> > Inform?
> > 
> > Perhaps Pipmak could specialize in displaying the panoramic scene in
> > lock-step with the adventure. That would boil the interaction to
> > basically a one-way affair, such that Inform would pass something like
> > the following to Pipmak when the user types "SouthEast" in the
> > adventure:
> >    pipmak.gotonode(18)
> >    
> > Two windows in the end: one for text/speech/music and one for the rich
> > panoramic views.
> 
> I did not know about Inform (I've never been a fan of text adventures) 
> and am just reading up on it. If I understand correctly, Inform is just 
> an authoring tool, and the thing that Pipmak would have to communicate 
> with is a Z-Machine interpreter. If we find some suitable cross-platform 
> way of inter-process communication, I could probably do the Pipmak half 
> of such a project, but since I know nothing about the Z-Machine, a 
> Z-Machine expert would have to do the other half. Or, first, judge 
> whether it is feasible at all.
> 
> So, you should probably ask that question on an Inform/Z-Machine related 
> newsgroup and see what they say.
> 
>   -Christian
> 
> 
> 
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