Joined: Mon Jul 23, 2007 2:28 pm Posts: 556 Location: USA
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VoiZod wrote: There are indeed 2 points of view when talking about OS One side is for all the age creators etc. the OTHER side is RESTORING THE CAVERN finishing the buildings and oh so much more!, we DO have our own instances of the city you know, WHY can't instances be turned into testing cities and work like SL??? Why can't we experiment like we could in UU??? Why can't we help with restoring the city and islands in the lake etc.? Then the whole Hood could get involved!! It would be a way for the layman to maybe actualy do something to help RESTORE our Cavern home! I for one do not want to make my own age because I have no patience BUT I do want what I said above, Help Cyan to restore the cavern, why is this too much to ask for If Cyan makes a rule The only textures that can be used are texxtures and assettes already in the game. (like other OS games)
Okay, I understand what it is you'd like to do with Uru. And I'm sure there are a multitude of the fans that would also like to be able to do this: Simply have something that is like a LEGO set to snap in what you'd like and it's there.
There are many, many games out there where this is very possible. Some of the games require a special editor or tools to allow you to do this (Call Of Duty, DOOM, Oblivion, Fallout 3, etc etc). It's still a bit of hard work and a learning curve with these.
Other games allow you to actually build in the game itself (The Sims, The Sims2, etc). And there are even Flash Games where you do things like this (On Facebook: Farmville, Frontiersville, Petville, etc).
However, Uru is not any of those games. It has it's very own unique (well, unique to Cyan products that is) game engine called Plasma.
Plasma takes data that is located in the prp files of Uru, and performs a real time rendering, creating a virtual 3D world that your avatar walks around in. The data that is in the prp files is more than just coordinates for a 3D object that is created. It also has data as to how it should be rendered with textures, how those textures are suppose to be mapped, and how the lighting is suppose to be mapped.
It also has other things that are NOT object: Game Interaction.
What to pull that lever? Push that button? Make that door swing open? That's animation data. Want that water to look like the water we see in Ahnonay? Eder Gira? Eder Kemo? Direbo? Those are Wavesets, and a LOT of info has to be programed in for the water to look like that, even with Cyan's plugin.
Want steam? Rain? Snow? Leaves drifting down from the trees? Those are particles my friends, and again, you have to put numbers in there to make that happen. They are not some 3D object, they are actual particles who speed, trajectory, rate of speed, birth, etc are all calculated in.
Sounds? Is it spatial or non-spatial? (IE is the sound one that doesn't seem to have a source like background music, or is it a 3D sound that has a source like a squeaky hinge?). You have data in the prp file that says how loud it's suppose to be, whether or not it's stereo or mono, how far does the sound go before it becomes inaudible? What about the fact you entered a building and now the sound changes to where it's muffled (like rain hitting a roof). That again, has to be punched in.
Colliders. ALL of the objects in Uru are rendered. But not ALL of them have colliders (IE meaning your avatar does not go through them). On the ones that you avatar will react with.
Like those journals? Linking books? Python my friend. Lots and lots of python code is needed to make those work. And that is NOT point and click, even with Cyan's plugin.
Heck, most of the puzzles in Uru need python to make them work. How do you think the Vault Control Panel in Kadish works? It knows what button you pushed in what order. How does it know that? Because of a python file that's there to keep track of it. And it's not generic. You can't just use it anywhere. You have to edit it if you want to use it for something else.
What I'm saying is this: Fans want to help restore what is in Uru now (let's forget for now the fact that RAWA put out in his guidelines that's for Cyan to do). Okay, well considering how Plasma works, how would fans do that? Right now it would can be done with Age creation tools only. I don't mean just the 3D modeling program and plugins, but there are other tools that programmers use (that I can't talk about here).
In other words: there is no way for a fan to help with that, except through the things I just said above. There is NO editing program made by Cyan, no "Construction Set" and no "in game" building of any kind. Nor is there likely to be in the near future.
Maybe, just maybe, one day long from now, someone will take Uru that has been open sourced and change the Plasma game engine in such a way that real time editing will be possible.
The ONLY real time editing we have now is with the sdl files. They are used to turn things off and on. The seasonal decorations you see in the hoods, the Baron's Office. They get turned on or off. Meaning they are already there. They were built in, or added, but are merely being turned on or off is all.
Restoring a guild hall will take a LOT more than that. There's nothing there. It will have to be built, textured and added to the prp files (or added as a new prp file, and then that means editing the .age file too).
Am I saying everyone should give up hope? No. Not at all.
But I am saying that it's going to be a long, long wait. OS is going to take a long time we see. Having a "Lego" version of Uru will take even longer I bet, depending on many things.
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