[MUD-Dev] The MLI Project

[coder at ibm.net]

On 16/02/98 at 02:31 AM, Ling <K.L.Lo-94 at student.lboro.ac.uk> said: >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.  

You're not unusual -- its a side effect of moire fringes and a well known
technique.  Ever notice how a person walking behind narrowly spaced
vertical railings (say a fence) is much more visible than a person walking
in the open (due to the make/break of the inter-railing gaps they
traverse).  Moire fringes again.  Its assumed that this is the reason that
the edges of the irises of most raptors are fringed...

>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.  

Bingo.  Its a common technique, and havily used by most heavy arcade
gamers.  

>I suppose one way to possibly emulate this is to
>bleed the colour from anything off centre.

Many engines already reduce the polygon count in line with perspective
(LOD).  Why not extend the same modelling LOD technique to also reduce
polygon count as radial angle from the center of focus increases?  It
should be a fairly simple calculation, and well rewarded in reduced
display computation.

>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."

Quite.  Typically you can rely on the opponents having noticiably slowed
targetting routines.  Blurring your peripheral vision puts some balance
back in their favour (not necessarily a Good Thing), as well as tending to
reward careful and circumspect play ("I don't know if anybody is there,
cause I can't see it too well, so I'd better be a lot more sneaky...")
which could be either a Good or Bad Thing.

>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.

<kof>

Latent RP?

>> #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? :)

The current tendency is to map the non-focus window's colour pallet to a
shadow set (typically grayed versions of the originals).  It works
reasonably.  The advantage of keeping the resolution high is that it still
allows the eyeball to  carefully watch state changes in non-focal windows. 
We don't have a GUI which moves focus according to eyeball focal point yet
-- tho I'm sure Playboy's research dept would love to see one.

--
J C Lawrence                               Internet: claw at null.net
----------(*)                              Internet: coder at ibm.net
...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...