[MUD-Dev] Neverwinter Nights

[John Buehler]

rayzam writes:

> From: "John Buehler" <johnbue at msn.com>
> To: <mud-dev at kanga.nu>
> Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2001 2:35 PM
> Subject: RE: [MUD-Dev] Neverwinter Nights

>> And as for seeing things that you shouldn't be able to see,
>> that's just a matter of applying some rendering code.  Figure out
>> what the character perceptions should be delivering to the
>> character - and thus, to the player - and render as appropriate.
>> Draw the area beyond the character's peripheral vision in grey
>> and put in grey lumps to indicate sound-generating objects.  In
>> the peripheral vision, use lower level of detail objects and/or
>> leave out color information.

> Unfair and unreal. Yes, your vision degrades in the periphery,
> with lower acuity, loss of color information, etc. However, this
> implies one thing, that you keep your eyes *still*. The human
> visual system is amazing because it continuously makes eye
> movements darting all around [around every few hundred
> milliseconds]. This allows for the region of highest acuity and
> best color vision to process the visual field. And then the visual
> system builds up an internal representation of your
> environment. You know that cup in the corner of your eye is blue
> because you've fixated on or near it. Once you determine it's
> blue, it retains that blueness even when it moves back into the
> periphery: object persistence.

> If you grey out/lower details/leave out color except for the
> central area, you're working against the player. Not only that,
> you're doing the opposite of modelling vision, because you're not
> modelling the character's eyes darting around, presenting a richer
> view of the environment. Thus, in this model, you expect the
> player to mouse-look or whatnot, all around. This won't be as fast
> as the normal saccadic eye movements. And it won't include the
> inherent internal processing that makes the stable world view.

> Try what you propose. It'll feel like looking through wraparound
> glasses that are horribly smudges/coated except for the center
> region. You'll have to move your head around to see whats going
> on. It's not easy, it's not fun, it's far from automatic, it's not
> natural.

> It's not a viable design.

I'm not talking about modeling a foveal region that has a 10 degree
field of view and then peripheral vision out to 180 degrees.  That
would be like having a flashlight at night and having to wave it
around in order to see anything.  I'm talking about having an area
of high quality vision and an area that the character must rely on
auditory clues - along with a transition between the two.  I have
every intention of assembling a prototype and tuning it to be
entertaining to play.  Unfortunately, I'm working on just getting
the character animation operating.  Anybody know the math for
handling muscle tension?  Is it just a spring?

JB

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