[MUD-Dev] The MLI Project

[Ling]

On Sun, 15 Feb 1998 coder at ibm.net wrote:
> On 30/01/98 at 09:17 AM, Vadim Tkachenko <vadimt at 4cs.com> said:
> 
> >http://www.parc.xerox.com/istl/projects/MagicLenses/default.html
> 
> It demonstrates the root of an idea I've long thought fascinating for a
> graphical MUD:  
> 
>   1) implement depth of field ala photography.
> 
>   2) implement fuzzy peripheral vision as a performance optimisation and
> "reality" tweak".
> 
> #2 is the simplest to implement (sorta) -- everything away from the center
> of the screen (and thus the center of attention) becomes increasingly
> fuzzy (LOD, polygon count, etc).  

Call me a freak but I find I detect motion better off centre.  If I want
to act like a robot and 'trigger' on some movement/colour change, I stare
off centre to the target.  This staring into nothing in particular, apart
from less eyestrain, let's me switch off and flinch.  Okay, I admit it,
I'm Robbie the Robot.  I suppose one way to possibly emulate this is to
bleed the colour from anything off centre.

There's a certain je ne sais pas missing from 3D shooters.  As 3D
shooters do not blur any of the screen, changes of single pixels
stick out like a neon light; the twitch technique works so well coz of
this.  Fuzzing objects in the distance would add so much more.  It'll then
be a case of "You can't make out the details not because you don't have
the CPU cycles or you don't have a high enuff resolution, your character
is short sighted."

In any case, take a look at the game Dungeon Keeper and take control of a
beetle.  You end up viewing the world with a goldfish lense.  Different
creatures have different vision.  It's quite cool until you start to think
you really are a beetle.

> #1 could be an interface nightmare, especially in the control of focus
> depth.  look at something near by (click or command) and everything else
> becomes a blur, look at something very distant, and everything close
> becomes a blur.  Do default focus on infinity, and most everything is
> slightly blurred.

I wanted something like this for a gui.  The active window in focus is
precisely that, all the other windows look blurred.  Not practical but so
what? :)

Both the above devices would work quite well to focus player attention, if
that's what you want.  Blurring seems too CPU intensive anyway. 
Especially 3D blurring - render the same scene again and again from
viewpoints up to r radius away picked by gaussian distribution.  Just
another of those ideas which go in the "Ah, that'll be sweet but - "
folder.

[CPU intensive?  Hey, just aim to release your client in 5 years' time
when there's even more MIPS ;)]

  |    Ling Lo of Remora (Top Banana)
_O_O_  Elec Eng Dept, Loughborough University, UK.     kllo at iee.org