[MUD-Dev] Graphical mud perspectives

[Nathan Yospe]

On Thu, 22 Jan 1998, Richard Woolcock wrote:

:Okay I know we have discussed graphical muds a fair bit, but something
:I've been thinking about while debating if I should code a graphical
:mud is what sort of perspective view to have.  The different types I
:can think of are:

:* First person perspective: You see what your character sees, like
:  Doom/Quake/Daggerfall/etc.

Problems: Suffers from general sillyness in a non-VR environ, thanks 
to the square shape of your monitor. Works very well when applied to 
VR. Creates problems with periphery views. Really sucks when there's
a status bar across the bottom of the screen. (With VR test cases, I
found glowing stats just to the right of forward focus that were not
visable unless triggered - I eventually hope to allow quick eyeblink
control triggers for the GURU arcade engine - were both the greatest
convenience and the least annoyance/distraction of any approach.) If
used correctly, the most immersive view.

:* As above, except your character is standing forward slightly (as
:  if you are standing behind them).  While a little more awkward,
:  this does allow you to see your character performing manoevers -
:  so if you do a backflip, you see your character do it rather than
:  see the screen spin 360 degrees.

Also known as over the shoulder or floating cam view. I've programmed
engines for this before. It can be rather attractive, and tends to be
my favorite view for non-VR. (VR, naturally, demands 1st person.) And
if you are controlling multiple characters in proximity, this is just
about the best you can do. GURU non-VR uses TOtS - translucent frames
of your characters with the camera panning around them.

:* Overhead view: Like the old Ultima games, or perhaps Gauntlet (hey,
:  anyone for a game of mud-gauntlet? ;).  It could also be done in a
:  similar way to WarcraftII/Command and Conquer/Total Annihilation, 
:  except with each player controlling a single 'unit'.  The trouble
:  with this is that you rapidly start moving away from all social
:  aspects.

I'd guess Raph has something to say about this. I think UOL uses this
view, no? BTW, I still like the first and third (and portable) Zeldas
for their approach to this. (The new one is, it would seem, OTS, very
high polygon count, and extremely detailed.)

:* Isametric view: Syndicate, Diablo, Dungeon Keeper, etc.  Suffers
:  from similar problems to overhead views - although I keep thinking
:  of the way you can 'switch' into creatures in Dungeon Keeper (gaining
:  a first-person perspective view), which could make things a bit more 
:  interesting perhaps

Hmmm. What about side-scroller view? *duck* Okay, forget I said that.

:I am beginning to favour the idea of an overhead PK-style game, with
:a form of character customisation similar to Syndicate (except fantasy
:themed).  As long as I don't bother with fancy graphics or computer
:controlled mobs, it shouldn't be too difficult to get a very simple
:sort of game running - then its just a matter of adding the mud-server
:part, and linking the two together.  Of course it'll probably take
:months to get this far, but once I have something simple, its quite
:easy to build on.

What OS is the clien going to be hosted on? There are a lot of sprite
animation libraries out there, some of them free (for Dos and MacOS.)
Give it a look-around. BTW, if anyone wants to port something from NT
or 95 to MacOS, and is using the (thankfully unixlike) sockets, I did
write and make freely available a win32->OT(MacOS) porting library. I
also wrote one for posix/unix->OT(MacOS)
--

"You? We can't take you," said the Dean, glaring at the Librarian.
"You don't know a thing about guerilla warfare." - Reaper Man,
Nathan F. Yospe  Registered Looney                   by Terry Pratchett
yospe at hawaii.edu   http://www2.hawaii.edu/~yospe           Meow