Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (
More info?)
On 25 Oct 2004 02:37:55 -0700, drj@pobox.com (David Jones) wrote:
>
>Basically all DVD interactivity is done by displaying a series of
>(possibly different) static pictures.
>
>That one is even able to play noughts and crosses on a DVD player is
>mind boggling given this fact. The DVD has a separate picture (of the
>entire screen) for each different state the board can be in (times 9
>assuming that there is a cursor that you can move around) and a huge
>table that tells the DVD player which picture to draw next.
Being able to play noughts and crosses doesn't seem that mind-boggling.
From what I remember (possibly from a Martin Gardner book, possible from
Hofstadter's Godel, Esher and Bach), it's fairly feasible to build a
LEARNING 0-X playing machine from a couple of hundred matchboxes (243 comes
to mind), where each one represents a possible game-state (ignoring
rotations and reflections etc.).
If you prune the game-states to eliminate inevitable losses, and force
selection of guaranteed wins, then (from a quick google), the number of
states needed appears to be about 60-odd. Adding back in the extra
pictures for rotations and reflections still shouldn't need more than a
couple of hundred still images (although that's only a guess).
>DVD Scripting languages basically cover up this fact (by producing
>enormous numbers of pictures).
>
>A normal text adventure would be right out. The number of different
>possible screens that can be produced by even 3 lines of text is too
>large.
If by this you mean 3 lines x 80 chars x 26 letters then yes the numbers
get mind-bogglingly large, but one wouldn't even attempt do it this way (I
hope).
What I know of a DVD's internals, it would be well suited to CYOA type
games: this is the current situation, these are the tasks you can choose
between, these are the outcomes.
However, given the large capacity of a DVD, you should be able to create
something that appears much less like a CYOA game than a typical
paper-based or web-based version. For instance, you can model carrying (or
not) an item by having two parallel streams of choices. Of course you CAN
do this with web- or paper-based CYOA, but you should have more room to
play with on a DVD (although you would still have to watch out for
combinatorial explosion).
Ideally, you'd want some nifty computer-based tools that auto-generated the
parallel story strands -- you'd write the descriptions and logic in a (much
simplified) Inform-like language, and the compiler would auto-generate all
the streams (room1-empty, room1-with-obj1, room1-with-obj2,
room1-with-obj1-and-obj2 etc.) You probably need to ensure there were
several "pinch" points in the game, beyond which given objects can no
longer be taken (and tell the auto-generator about these) so that the
number of scenes doesn't explode).
>
>Not that I've played it but something Myst-like might be more
>feasible.
>
>
>David Jones
Regards,
Graham Holden (g-holden AT dircon DOT co DOT uk)
--
There are 10 types of people in the world;
those that understand binary and those that don't.
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