D'niWeb

[Tweek]

Good point, they'd probably be better off in the hoods or something, less of a crowd. Unless the Guild ones are in the guild pubs or something. But having a central source where all news could be gathered would be better.

Perhaps having something like this;



dotted around the city and hoods, each screen would be a different guild, then you could have another booth for other explorer news sources.

[Gehn, lord of ages]

... IC internet ...

If this is an IC construct, there should be no chance of landing on a real world website. A "D'ni Web" should have its own "DNS," it's own search engine, it's own everything. I'm not even sure I'm serious about this, but if you're going to have a web in the fictional realm, it should be a fictional web which can obtain its pages from real websites, to leverage real world facilities, but only websites which are registered on the D'ni DNS. This would make crystal clear why it's not just easier to open up your own browser outside the Uru client, which I agree is a very strong point against the need for an in-game browser launch.

P.S. Although this is not really what Eleri's "D'ni Network" (D'Net for short) was about, perhaps the name and organization would lend itself to be part of such a thing.

I see two ways of doing it - it depends on what people think is the better one.

1. It is the real internet. Since Uru is "real", it can connect into the real internet (run a cable through the Great Shaft?). Serious IC people would have to work a little to avoid OOC sites, though. However, it could be easier for forums to work, and for people with lazier IC/OOC standards to search around. The main difference is that you can check the internet IC (instead of just IC mindreading the internet).

2. A fake "internet" that perhaps pulls information or pages from certain sites, but only in specified ways (forgive me for not knowing the technical specifics). Might make forums harder, or make it harder for people to search OOC if whoever controls it is strictly IC. However, these would be rather minor.


Or perhaps...

Perhaps what we need are Imagers which display content from specific IC sites, perhaps reading from the RSS or an xml file.

Players go to the city or something to see what the latest news is from the GoMe/GoW etc or journal entries from fellow explorers on Urublogs etc.

Imagers could have a series of buttons next to them with logos on that when pressed would display info from that site (GoW logo for GoW news etc), the issue I find with that is having to many sites to keep track of, though I guess you could always have a second imager next to it.

That's an interesting idea. As for the button problem, what if it is like some ATMs? You know, the buttons are blank and just correspond with words or stuff on the screen (and then the stuff on the screens can change).
so it would be like

[button] - up
[button] - GoW
[button] - GoMa
[button] - GoC
[button] - GoMe
[button] - down

and if you click the button corresponding with "up", it shows

[button] -GoG
[button] - GoW
etc.

Then you could put all your stuff on one screen (or maybe a couple in case multiple explorers wanted to look at the same time). And definitely in the 'hoods.
How about the explorer quests/journeys? Is there another way we could do those? A sort of structured way to give other people instructions, adventures, puzzles, or information while you're not yourself on?

[realXCV]

2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2! 2!

[Mac_Fife]

I like Tweek's idea of "Info Consoles" dotted about the cavern. They could have three or four faces to allow more than one person to use them at the same time (or five faces to be D'ni-ish).

That's an interesting idea. As for the button problem, what if it is like some ATMs? You know, the buttons are blank and just correspond with words or stuff on the screen (and then the stuff on the screens can change).

Yeah, as a UI that's that's probably OK, but it doesn't really fix the problem of someone wandering up and pushing button 2 while you're trying to read the content from button 1. Maybe you can throw up a couple of collision planes once you get within a certain proximity to stop another avvie getting close enough to push buttons (there are other usability problems with that, though).

I'd also be inclined to agree with realXCV (and JW_Platt) that an IC browser should be connecting to a "fake" internet. As suggested earlier in this thread, the content could be pulled as RSS/XML either directly from sites that are prepared to present items in the correct format (e.g. GoMe could make one or more general news feeds available if they felt inclined to take on that responsibility, and many forums/wikis can supply RSS/ATOM feeds) or by a server task that parses content from a number of predetermined sites. Sure, it makes replying to forums IC hard/impossible, but I think that's actually not such a big deal.

You have to think about how many people might really want to use each of the features, and go for the big wins first.

[Gehn, lord of ages]

Yeah, as a UI that's that's probably OK, but it doesn't really fix the problem of someone wandering up and pushing button 2 while you're trying to read the content from button 1. Maybe you can throw up a couple of collision planes once you get within a certain proximity to stop another avvie getting close enough to push buttons (there are other usability problems with that, though).

Maybe it is only viewable and interactable for the person right in front of it (like the Nexus [I know, we haven't seen if other people can interact with it, but I'm just saying something like that] in how it switches your view and pops up when you click on it - only one person would be allowed to "look" at or touch a screen at any time).

I think Tweek's design basically fills most of the reasons for my ideas. Maybe it can also send automated KI messages (meant for Maintainers or something, to give them step-by-step directions on certain tasks)? There could be some interface (maybe an Earth computer specially hooked up to the machine and placed on a nearby table) to make simple step-by-step directions. These would then all be put on pages in the Info Consoles for you to select (in categories) and then insert your KI. You'd then get messages from the info booths

- Step 1: Go to the Great Zero. Send back "finished" for the next step.

You'd send back "finished" and then it would proceed through the steps. A simple way to augment the journeys already in Uru with fan journeys (or treasure hunts, races, etc.)

[realXCV]

Instead of having a buttons conflict, why not just displaying the beginning of the infos on the booths and allow to download the full text on the KI ?

[Mac_Fife]

That works for me

[Nalates]

... IC internet ...

If this is an IC construct, there should be no chance of landing on a real world website. A "D'ni Web" should have its own "DNS," it's own search engine, it's own everything. I'm not even sure I'm serious about this, but if you're going to have a web in the fictional realm, it should be a fictional web which can obtain its pages from real websites, to leverage real world facilities, but only websites which are registered on the D'ni DNS. This would make crystal clear why it's not just easier to open up your own browser outside the Uru client, which I agree is a very strong point against the need for an in-game browser launch.

P.S. Although this is not really what Eleri's "D'ni Network" (D'Net for short) was about, perhaps the name and organization would lend itself to be part of such a thing.

Wait… I’m confused now. In Prologue/MOUL were we not everyday current people that came into the cavern?

When did IC put us in the frame and time of the D’ni?

Why would not a laptop supplied by the DRC not be a current day laptop connected to the current day Internet?

A big part of my confusion when I started was figuring out what was play and what was real. That was not a bad thing. Just another puzzle.

Players go to the city or something to see what the latest news is from the GoMe/GoW etc or journal entries from fellow explorers on Urublogs etc.

What Tweek is writing seems to be what I would think of as IC for MOOS.

Yeah, as a UI that's that's probably OK, but it doesn't really fix the problem of someone wandering up and pushing button 2 while you're trying to read the content from button 1.

If one uses the click to trigger something client side… not everyone would have to see the same thing.

However one looks at this there is a lot that is possible if one uses a browser. One can experience the different ways this is handled in SL. There is the option to open a new browser window, not exactly immersive. There is also the option to display a QuickTime image, movie, etc. on/in a frame within the game, very immersive. Thus they have what looks like TV’s, which can sit in the environment and look like one would expect. I think we are using QuickTime in MOUL/MOOS.

In SL the interactive part is selecting the movie. Once playing however all AV’s see the same movie. That should not be a problem as most players realize what is going on and are generally polite enough, even in SL, to not interrupt.

Whatever, I think there are ways to have things affect individual clients and ways to have it be a shared experience among AV’s. Either way I doubt it is so important one needs to start trying to inhibit clicks, which might prove to be more of a disruption to immersive play than getting yelled at for changing the channel, which I think is more true to life. Now gimme that d… remote!

[JWPlatt]

When did IC put us in the frame and time of the D’ni?

Why would not a laptop supplied by the DRC not be a current day laptop connected to the current day Internet?

Uru is a computer game produced by Cyan Worlds concerning the fictional realm of D'ni, and not real life.

Now that I've written the above, any network capable of linking to this post is now out of bounds for IC. Unless you really want to claim anyone writing these posts are mad, as would be most of the internet except the IC sites.

[realXCV]

Wait… I’m confused now. In Prologue/MOUL were we not everyday current people that came into the cavern?

When did IC put us in the frame and time of the D’ni?

Never. We're still everyday current people.

Why would not a laptop supplied by the DRC not be a current day laptop connected to the current day Internet?

Do you know a lot of existing caverns with wireless internet access ?

Yeah, as a UI that's that's probably OK, but it doesn't really fix the problem of someone wandering up and pushing button 2 while you're trying to read the content from button 1.

If one uses the click to trigger something client side… not everyone would have to see the same thing.

If it's happening inside the game: yes; everyone at the same place should see the same thing. (excluding KI or others GUI elements)

However one looks at this there is a lot that is possible if one uses a browser. One can experience the different ways this is handled in SL. There is the option to open a new browser window, not exactly immersive. There is also the option to display a QuickTime image, movie, etc. on/in a frame within the game, very immersive. Thus they have what looks like TV’s, which can sit in the environment and look like one would expect. I think we are using QuickTime in MOUL/MOOS.

As you said: "not exactly immersive".
MOUL uses Bink.

Now gimme that d… remote!

That's out of question!