Who wants to build a Myst-style game?

Riblets · 21 Oct 2010, 02:52

Hey guys, long time lurker, first time poster,

I'm looking for some people to collaborate with me on building a game environment! See, I've built a jQuery plugin that takes any 360° panoramic image and wraps it as a virtual environment (see here: http://artimore.com/ ). This makes it viewable anywhere including the iPhone/iPad.

Then, I'd like to collaborate with any/everyone and make an actual adventure game using the system. This is all way too much for me to do alone, and so this is my invitation to all you sketchers. Heres the details:

I'm calling this project Envi, short for Environment. Heres the base island to start from:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=efdc77c7a9aef92269bca1f7f550b04

I'd like to suggest that if you want to create or add a structure, please make it a component before you add it to the landscape and make it publicly editable. This makes it easy to update existing structures without having to load the entire island. After we get to a satisfying point, I'll go through adding cameras to the scene and start texturizing for Kerkythea.

So, I know this is kind of open ended, and pretty monumental, but i'm in it for the long haul. if you want to discuss a general storyline or plot, I'm open to ideas. I'd really like to hear your feedback about this.

Gaieus · 21 Oct 2010, 09:33

Hi Aaron,
This is cool (not as if I were interested in joining ATM due to lack of time, sorry) and I hope you will have some takers.

I have also been playing around with interactive panoramas based on SU models and have great plans with them myself. Have a look at a Roman basilica here or a Medieval church here .

numbthumb · 21 Oct 2010, 10:02

Those links don´t work

Gaieus · 21 Oct 2010, 10:06

Hm. They do for me. Here is a site with the basilica embedded at the top right. Below is a link "Panorama" for the full screen mode.

You need Flash installed on your computer.

numbthumb · 21 Oct 2010, 10:08

I keep getting that *You don't have permission to access /karmelita/karmelita.swf on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request* - message

It´s not that I haven´t seen those panoramas already, but they´re really cool.

Gaieus · 21 Oct 2010, 10:23

Try now, please.

(and Aaron, sorry for hijacking your topic so much - I may just remove or split these posts later)

solo · 21 Oct 2010, 10:59

Aaron,

I do not fully understand, you supply the Island and you need models for it?

Is the Island to scale? what kind of buildings do you want, what's the theme?

I looked at the link for the viewer and it looks cool, but you say you are using KT, so are you going to animate it or is this just a 360 pan of island?

Sorry for all questions, as this sounds interesting but I just do not understand what the participation/collaboration is to work or what the final product will look like.

Riblets · 21 Oct 2010, 11:00

No problem , I was looking at a lot of flash panorama systems myself (along with a few java implementations), but most of them were either too complicated or costly. Doing a plugin in Javascript makes it easily cross platform and simple to collaborate on hotspotting later.

I'm pretty good at hacking wordpress, so my thought was that I could create a custom theme that allows you to upload an image as a full screen panorama, set hotspots, and other interactive elements. After the game is done being constructed, allow users to create accounts on that site and save their progress/inventory items.

numbthumb · 21 Oct 2010, 11:07

Sorry for the OT - everything´s fine now. Thanks, Gaieus!

Riblets · 21 Oct 2010, 11:17

@solo said:

Aaron,

I do not fully understand, you supply the Island and you need models for it?

Is the Island to scale? what kind of buildings do you want, what's the theme?

I looked at the link for the viewer and it looks cool, but you say you are using KT, so are you going to animate it or is this just a 360 pan of island?

Sorry for all questions, as this sounds interesting but I just do not understand what the participation/collaboration is to work or what the final product will look like.

Hi,

The island is to scale at about 500' across, as for architecture style, i've been leaning towards victorian/steampunk since I got this book: http://www.amazon.com/Victorian-Domestic-Architectural-Plans-Details/dp/0486254429/ref=pd_sim_b_6 .

By the way, I've made that model freely editable, so you can make changes to it, click "Share Component..." and I'll approve them.

This is the rendering plan: Once the buildings are created on the model I linked to, I'll be placing cameras at appropriate points and rendering them out as cylindrical projections. Finally I'll connect the world together using image maps.

AdamB · 21 Oct 2010, 11:23

The Google code viewer seems to show panoramas without correction so its all distorted. Is that right?

Not sure what your plans are but Gocubic.exe on PC and PanoVR on Mac are both simple and output a quicktime VR file viewable in a browser. (eg swf file)

Or if you generate a 6 image set, you can use a ton of different browser viewers.

[flash=512,512:2kbppyla]http://www.light-up.co.uk/resources/cubicvr/panoviewer.swf?filePath=http://www.light-up.co.uk/resources/cubicvr/cube1/&prefix=cofla[/flash:2kbppyla]

And you wouldn't expect anything less from me, if I say LightUp has a 1-click export for Panoramas. plug plug

Adam

Gaieus · 21 Oct 2010, 11:26

Why not spherical projection? At some spots it could be interesting to look up for instance. KT can export cylindrical - can your engine be used with spherical images? (I mean to turn not only around but up/down, too)

@adamb said:

And you wouldn't expect anything less from me, if I say LightUp has a 1-click export for Panoramas. plug plug

Hehe. I do know that for instance, Adam!

Riblets · 21 Oct 2010, 11:35

@gaieus said:

Why not spherical projection? At some spots it could be interesting to look up for instance. KT can export cylindrical - can your engine be used with spherical images? (I mean to turn not only around but up/down, too)

@adamb said:

The Google code viewer seems to show panoramas without correction so its all distorted. Is that right?

If it's a cylindrical projection, it's OK, I'm currently working on up/down panning, but it won't correct for distortion. Remember, the original MYST/Riven didn't even have panning and it was still pretty immersive. It's not the end of the world if you can't look up and down fully.

Gaieus · 21 Oct 2010, 12:13

@riblets said:

It's not the end of the world if you can't look up and down fully.

Sure it isn't - I was just wondering. Here (sorry, Hungarian only) I have a cylindrical panorama, too (that's "just" a photo). When zooming in (with the scroll wheel) you have some up/down possibilities but otherwise there's no special reason for full spherical view of course.
http://hu.septichora.hu/360d-panorama-cella-septichora/

solo · 21 Oct 2010, 12:26

Okay so if I'm understand correctly you want to create some sort of walk around using a collection of renders right?

So which part of walking around is the game part? how is it played?

Riblets · 21 Oct 2010, 12:36

@solo said:

Okay so if I'm understand correctly you want to create some sort of walk around using a collection of renders right?

So which part of walking around is the game part? how is it played?

Well my thinking was that we could plan out some puzzles using flash, java or javascript, leaving clues around the island, and closing off areas unless you've unlocked a variable. Honestly, this is the least difficult part about the game, linking to a lightbox "Detailed" view of a control panel is no more complicated than linking to another panorama.

Dragoonprogramming · 22 Oct 2010, 00:41

when can I start?

Riblets · 22 Oct 2010, 20:40

Well, I've opened up the model for anyone to edit and upload, so if you want to stake a claim, I would just start by making a square on a spot here: http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=efdc77c7a9aef92269bca1f7f550b04 then reexporting the model (right click -> share) and export that square as a component to 3D Warehouse (so to make edits to your model, you don't have to reopen the entire island).

Happy building! I'll be making edits myself this weekend.

Riblets · 22 Oct 2010, 23:55

So i've decided to add a little structure for builders out there. Each building is an editable component, that can be accessed here: http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/cldetails?mid=5e50316b8fccc76a69bca1f7f550b04

Once there is an addition, I'll reload the component in the island model. Honestly, I'd love to see some creativity, don't feel like you're stuck within some type of style or constraint by the boxy nature of these initial models, these are general areas to get started with modeling, if we need to adjust later, we can.

Chris Fullmer · 23 Oct 2010, 02:14

Is it just modeling at this point?, or should there be some sort of logic puzzle built into the model from the start?