Virtual Physical Gaming

Congrats!

2005-03-10T22:55:00.000-08:00

Congrats guys on pulling a unpredictably complicated project together. Despite all the last minute hiccups, it all seemed to go pretty good!!! Nice one :) Cheers C.

Plan

2005-03-08T22:36:00.000-08:00

Great that everything is working guys, nice one tonight. Rupert & I pondered over the logitics of it and came up with this game plan:

1. Server is located off-site, e.g. "Studio 14" or somewhere with a network connection where the guests and players aren't.

2. Player Computer is located in Alapark

3. Physical player running round chimmels.

Reasoning is that:
1- Guests, physical & virtual players must not see server
2- Guests are going to be in Chimmels then alapark; they do not want to be running up and down fields
3- Guests will be able to watch the virtual gamer and listen to what is hapenning through speakers; maybe projector for visuals (Hopefully!)

Problems:
1- Getting this past the curatorial team. Sure they'll have a moan about something.
2- Making sure we can set up in alapark or somewhere 'en-route' for the guests.

Have crafted this diagram to help explain!

See what you think.....

2005-03-08T15:49:00.000-08:00

Mission Code: Afterlife

A devastating massacre has recently occurred in the derelict location of Chimmels. This has caused a total wipeout of human activity; evidence is very low as a vigorous explosion destroyed all traces after the slaughter.

You have been selected to discover the last of the evidence within the ruins. The few pieces of evidence left will help extract activities that took place on this tragic event.

Through time the executioner has become aware of this situation and has taken alerted actions, calling on colleagues to eradicate any human movement.

With this you will find your communication device. This will allow you to communicate to your equal, who will be working alongside you to find the vital information.

Follow directives at your own discretion.

Time is against you, as the executioner wishes to destroy any
suspect investigations.

Good Luck

Organisation Map

2005-03-08T06:45:00.000-08:00

Organisation Map
Posted by: chimmels.

The map

Nearly there....

2005-03-08T00:43:00.000-08:00

The map is almost done... It's been a bit of a nightmare though.
The bottom floor is done (minus textures and windows) the top floor is basically there but I forgot to map it properly though all the rooms up there are out of bounds pretty much so I have no idea what they look like :( any suggestions guys???

It's looking pretty good. The only thing letting it down is the stairs but I'm sure I can fix it tmrw and make some better ones. I'll work on the textures as well tmrw.

Kez

Pre-Show Mock Run Thing

2005-03-07T15:59:00.000-08:00

OK. Cr@p title, but slightly drunk. Anyway:

- Tuesday 8 March 2005
- 6.00
- Dartington College of arts

Run through of the game: 2PCs, 1 space + lots of patience. Lifts provided by Me (chris) & Martin (I think) from the Plym.

Chris

hmmmm....

2005-03-07T04:45:00.000-08:00

Maybe a little toooo half lifey!!!! It is the afterlife etc there has to be mass destructiom some where hence all the dead people virtual ghost etc.

I think the addition of zombies or something will just make it more interesting and give all the players something to worry about otherwise the poor person hunting for clues is gonna be a sitting duck etc if a lot of "soldiers" were after them he wouldn't have a chance. In half life2 the combines fight the zombies as well as you sooo..... seems like a good idea.
Plus it adds to the narrative of power station blowing up etc

2005-03-06T23:07:00.000-08:00

Bugger me you people are crazy! What is it with zombie's and post-apocalyptic destruction? Needless to say, I'm slightly worried about working with you, but hey - needs must and all ;) (just kiddin')

Anyway, rather than zombies (I know I might come under fire for saying this!), but how about something along the lines of massive explosion, your presence has been split between virtual and physical; you must communicate with your other self to discover the clues to what happened, whilst virtual hunter-killer force has been sent in to finish off what they started (subtle hint as to the clue there...ooh!)

Or is that just too half life? :)

chris

Howzabout this?????

2005-03-06T22:15:00.000-08:00

Mission Code: Afterlife

There has been a massive massacre in the local power station; which has caused a total wipeout of mankind of this area, evidence is very low as an explosion took place after the slaughter.

You have been chosen to discover the evidence needed to reveal the dealings that took place.

Through time the executioner has become aware of this situation and has taken alerted actions and is on the look out for human movement, he will take no prisoners.

If you succeed, the executioner will be exposed, but beware this is why the executioner is out to kill you….

With this letter you will find your communication device. This will allow you to communicate to your equal, who will be working alongside you to find the vital evidence.

Follow directives at your own discretion.

Time is against you, as the executioner is rapidly moving.

Good Luck, our thoughts are with you…….

Narrative

2005-03-04T15:45:00.000-08:00

As everyone keeps calling it chinobel instead of Chimmels and it is AFTERLIFE....There has been a massive nuclear explosion in the local power station and has caused some kind of Dawn of the dead situation with zombies. The army have been drafted in to kill you... Goverment cover up etc so there can't be any surviours etc..... Thus there are people out to kill you. You have to gather the evidence you need in order to uncover the goverments evil plot etc and escape chimmels...
Maybe have a time limit???? before a massive dropship type thing turns up and shots the living s**t outta everything.... (maybe I went a bit too far lol!!!) Yeah maybe have a time limit though cos things are always more exciting against the clock.
Did have one more idea as well.... We could have a physical soldier as well and get hold of those kids virtual paintball kits... The sell them in town kind of a quasar for the home type thing. As that also adds to the excitement.
We could have a time infringement by which the player is peanalised 15 or 30 secs everytime they are shot. If they shoot a soldier 5 times the soldier dies or something. That could be quite fun.
You'll have to excuse the crazy ideas I've had a lot of sugar lol!!!
Kez xxxx

2005-03-03T12:11:00.000-08:00

Quality day guys, everything coming along nicely - reckon we might actually be able to pull this off! We need two machines on the day, one as a server (my pc) and one for a virtual player (on site) - this is to show how the actual game works to people at the show...

However! We still need to keep them in the dark about the server, so the server will be locked in "our" room in chimmels. Meanwhile, we need to find another place with network access (cabled) to set up the virtual player machine.

Also like this idea of Tim's regarding just one person sending messages...lot easier to maanage, + adds a bit of a challenge to the players. We need to come up with narrative to engage the players (real and virtual...whoa!)

- Nice map

- Narrative

- Find a place to install PC

- Finalise people's roles, we need 2 people in server room, one to play 'the server character' and one to manage the messages going back and forth. Perhaps invest in a whiteboard to keep messages noted down!!!

Comms??

2005-03-02T08:00:00.000-08:00

Not really sure what you guys are talking about, but I'm with quickest and easiest at this stage if that makes any difference?!?

comms

2005-03-02T01:15:00.000-08:00

Brian,

Thought about this; the only problem having 'single' half life 2 games running is the game runs in full screen, thus you can't use MSN or any other comms software whilst its running (without performing a 20second alt-tab switch).

Chimmels Lower

2005-03-02T00:06:00.000-08:00

Chimmels Lower
Posted by: chimmels.

Sorry this is still quite lame but may be of some help.
Took a look upstairs and found a corridor of offices and toilets so not sure about how useful that will be. See you tomorrow,

Joe

P.s. - Walkie Talkies?

HL

2005-03-01T23:18:00.000-08:00

possibly. to get round it and keep the original concept going in it's entirety could we have more than one game running simulataneusly on different servers which are in no way connected. the setback would be that we would have to have as many pc's as there are games to see each game being played.

adv:

virtual players will be independent and have no contact with each other.
comms is there for us.

dis:

depending on how many machines we can get hold of we are very limited to how many virtual players can participate.

there are comprimises we have to make. can anyone elaborate on this.

brian

In answer to HL2/Shockwave

2005-03-01T22:57:00.000-08:00

Martin et al

In response to your questions regarding half life's engine and visibility:

Yes, if players can see other players it lets them know that others have joined the game. Unfortunately, without getting to the grips of Source SDK and modding it in C++ it is not possible to avoid this.

However, consider the alternative Shockwave engine:

- Custom coded engine takes time and resources we don't have

- Once coded, the engine would be *exceptionally* limited to the degree of not having doors, animation, decent textures, etc.

- The shockwave solution would not allow 'remote' play, i.e. we would have to piggyback communication through MSN or whatever. This was originally planned, but a fully integrated comms system seems so much more slick.

The trade-off is thus:

1. we use the half life 2 engine and enable anyone anywhere to play, keeping development limited to building a decent map rather than coding an engine. We lose the element of solidarity between virtual players.

2. we spend a long time trying to develop our own engine in shockwave, running off the web and thus allowing people to play 'alone'... considering 2 weeks of trying to make an engine in shockwave resulted in nothing but a headache, this ain't gonna work.

Put simply, if we use HL2, we get a slick looking engine with everything we need. We lose the fact that people are playing alone, but we just design the levels around that. Put the clues only in the real world, not the virtual. Thus when feedback comes back to us, we can choose who to send it to in the virtual world; only that person gets the clue.

At the end of the day, we have 2 weeks to get this running. Personally I vote for the quickest, easiest way so we have something to present.

Chimmels - Outside

2005-02-28T22:54:00.000-08:00

Chimmels - Outside
Posted by: chimmels.

communications in game

2005-02-28T17:53:00.000-08:00

If the server is emersed in the virtual world along with all the other virtual players will this not then make it super easy for them to all find the clues, together, very quickly and then relay that information back to the server team who will then have to artifically slow the pace down?

Using our shockwave 3D idea each player would be in an identical virtual space but not with each other thus finding clues at a steadier pace and In a unique order (because they cant see where the other players are) allowing this info to be relayed back to the server who would then be able to distribute it more steadily. This is what we talked about with Mr speed and he said that going from this basis gave the project more artistic spin because it meant that everyone was in the same place at once-but not in the same place at once, thus producing parallel virtual space/time.

Is there a way to make all your opponant characters invisble using half life?

Martin

In-game communications

2005-02-28T16:40:00.000-08:00

had a thought - HL2 and MSN wont work together - it's one or the other, or two machines. this is bad. however, we are using Half Life 2 for the game, which by design is set up for multiplayer internet based play and internal communication.... here's the idea:

1. We set up the level as an internet multiplay game. this will allow anyone to join!
2. We sit in the middle playing as one of the characters. The other players talk to us (type) through Half Life 2!

There we have it as a fully functioning multiplayer game with inbuilt comms! What more could we ask for..!?!?!?

2005-02-28T14:40:00.000-08:00

Cool sounds good (Chris) does your PC have a wireless thing? I've emailed Tim about getting on the network, but no response yet. We can't download MSN messenger, but have found a web version (you guys have probably heard of it already) at http://webmessenger.msn.com/ we can use instead. Also I'm going over to Chimmels (great model thing by the way) tonight to try and have a closer look at our closed rooms so hopefuly have some more details up tomorrow.

See you all soon

Joe

Accounts and Passwords

2005-02-28T06:58:00.000-08:00

I have created several hotmail accounts for the game as follows:

For the server (disguised as the human player)

Name: chimmels_human@hotmail.co.uk
Password: chicken

Player 1:

Name: chimmels_player@hotmail.co.uk
Password: chim12

Player 2:

Name: chimmels_contestant@hotmail.co.uk
Password: tant34

Player 3:

Name: chimmels_gamer@hotmail.co.uk
Password: game12

Player 4:

Name: Chimmels_contender@hotmail.co.uk
Password: tend23

Joe

My latest 3D studio max creation.... needs work but I'll have to take some pics and do a more detailed plan on thursday.

2005-02-27T08:07:00.001-08:00

My latest 3D studio max creation.... needs work but I'll have to take some pics and do a more detailed plan on thursday.
Posted by: chimmels.

My latest 3D studio max creation.... needs work but I'll have to take some pics and do a more detailed plan on thursday.

2005-02-27T08:07:00.000-08:00

My latest 3D studio max creation.... needs work but I'll have to take some pics and do a more detailed plan on thursday.
Posted by: chimmels.

My latest 3D studio max creation.... needs work but I'll have to take some pics and do a more detailed plan on thursday.

2005-02-27T08:06:00.002-08:00

My latest 3D studio max creation.... needs work but I'll have to take some pics and do a more detailed plan on thursday.
Posted by: chimmels.

My latest 3D studio max creation.... needs work but I'll have to take some pics and do a more detailed plan on thursday.

2005-02-27T08:06:00.001-08:00

My latest 3D studio max creation.... needs work but I'll have to take some pics and do a more detailed plan on thursday.
Posted by: chimmels.

My latest 3D studio max creation.... needs work but I'll have to take some pics and do a more detailed plan on thursday.

2005-02-27T08:06:00.000-08:00

My latest 3D studio max creation.... needs work but I'll have to take some pics and do a more detailed plan on thursday.
Posted by: chimmels.

Success!!!!

2005-02-24T17:54:00.000-08:00

After a lot of pratting about I finally got Hammer 4 working (PC) which is the Half Life 2 game editor....! So, all being good we can use that instead of messing around with Director. It gives us real-world physics and the opportunity to do some pretty coool stuff.

Luckily the PC I have is a tiny little cube so for the final presentation we can trundle it along (with a screen) and get it working on site. hopefully. The only thing I've not looked into is importing 3DS files into the editor, but I'm sure it must be possible (Kerry?)

Anyway, now that's working I'll start making a mock up level from the pictures Joe posted earlier!

Chris

chimmels

2005-02-23T21:00:00.000-08:00

chimmels
Posted by: chimmels.

lovely chimmels

2005-02-23T20:58:00.000-08:00

lovely chimmels
Posted by: chimmels.

here is our brilliant floor plan of chimmels isn't it wondeful!!!!!

Sorry!

2005-02-17T14:22:00.000-08:00

Sorry I heard from Tim that I missed you guys today. Sorry, I had let Chris know and thought he would have told you, again very sorry, my fault. Maybe we could meet Tuesday or Wednesday if poss?

Just making maps look ok will be up soon!

Joe

3D Terrain Engine

2005-02-17T12:14:00.000-08:00

Have developed (and am developing) 3d terrain engine in Director using the Havok Xtra for real-world physics. This should allow us to quickly import a nicely built 3D model into the movie and use it for the game. Chris

More negatives :(

2005-02-16T09:00:00.000-08:00

More bad news... no editors, it seems, for 3d shooters on the Mac. Ones I tried are:
- Unreal Tournament 2004
- Call of Duty
- Battlefield 1942
- Halo
- Rainbow 6
- Some others...

I also tried getting Hammer the Half Life editor to work on PC. It loads...and that's about it. So maybe we are relegated to doing a Shockwave 3D game, like the graveyard game from last year? Personally I detest Director, but such is life. I'll start looking at making a mini-game engine Thursday....

dv streaming

2005-02-15T23:45:00.000-08:00

been looking into streaming live video of the runner going through Chimmels. haven't found a device that will let us stream dv footage wirelessly through the internet.

i then tried to find out if it was cost efficient enough to accquire a UHF transmitter and receiver. It isn't. we could be paying minimum of £200-£300 for devices so i can't really see that happening. it would totally solve the problem of streaming live dv footage to the audience though.

other options we have are to use ichat. we would easily be able to send footage back to the audience however the only problem is that we would have to have a laptop in the hands of either with the runner or a designated cameraman. there are obvious safety hazards that come with someone walking around with a laptop. though until we find a better way then this will have to be the way we stream our live footage.

sorry for the negativities

[brian]

Mapping

2005-02-11T17:49:00.000-08:00

Tried to map out the chimmels building today, but proved more difficult than I thought before (locked offices, detailed layouts etc.) will try and make a more recognisable version and post it soon. Possibly visit Dartington archives to try and get blue prints for more accurate version?!?!?

30 trial of max msp is available somehwere on the net, but is apparantly difficult to master in a short time. Apparantly an easier program -isadora - is available and pretty cheap. That's if we still want/need to follow those lines.

Hope you're all well,

Joe

Final game idea!

2005-02-10T15:10:00.000-08:00

Negative architecture treasure hunt(!)

One person floating around space, following instructions issues from wheat he thinks is teammate in virtual space. However, instructions are actually passed through 'server' people who transmit instructions and feedback to player. As more people play the virtual game, the instructions become crazier as the 'real' person doesn't have any idea how many people are playing the 'virtual' game.....hmm.

As a further twist to the story, all the virtual worlds are modelled on negative reality / architecture.... i.e. locked doors in reality become unlocked in virtuality, so the confusion factor becomes even greater. The upshot of all this is the person on the ground receives a plethora of misinstruction and confusion in his attempt to find the Treasure....???

Additionally, the person on the ground can give feedback information; it is up to the server person whether this feedback is returned to the sender or another random virtual player.

Some areas that are impacted::
- Negative mapping
- Online chat & mis-communication / mis-information
- Colloboration / Anti-colloboration
- Virtual gaming / virtual identity

More Stuff For Proposal

2005-02-10T13:29:00.000-08:00

By mapping the Chimmels building, we can recreate the enviroment virtually for the players to move around in. Possibly not letting them know this straight away and giving clues for them to gradually work it out for themselves.

Live sampling will allow us to manipulate instructions given from one team mate to another, and take the power from the player - playing with identity - who is really playing the game? The creator is able to decide when the game is 'won', who helps who and where the players move.

Crossover Game

2005-02-10T05:12:00.000-08:00

Game Idea:
2 - 8 people playing modified version of 3D FPS (e.g. Battlefield 1942, Call of Duty, Unreal Tournament...whatever we can get a mod kit for.

Team)

a1 b1 c1 d1 a2 b2 c2 d2

1's can see visuals and speak into mic; 2s can hear spoken commands and control movement. Do we give them crossed monitors as well?

space is modelled as level in 3D FPS; some weird messed up style or interpretation of architecture with clues to who is controlling who....maybe....

Hello

2005-02-10T03:25:00.000-08:00

Hello! Here's the first post to our blogger account, make sure it works and stuff like that. We're looking at virtual physical gaming.

Femidoms

2005-02-09T21:50:00.000-08:00

Femidoms
Posted by: chimmels.

Brian is more than happy to be wearing a knitted female contraceptive device on his head ahhhh doesn't he look sweet.

Rupert You Beast

2005-02-09T21:45:00.000-08:00

Rupert You Beast
Posted by: chimmels.

Clearly living in plymouth has driven Rupert into behaving like a properproperjanner in order to 'blend in' with his surroundings. like a chameleon, but more deadly.

rupert

2005-02-09T20:48:00.000-08:00

rupert
Posted by: chimmels.

here is a picture of rupert to see if this photo thiing works