You write it based on observable behavior 
and events.  You can create internal states 
easily using node transitions.  It is not 
hard to write it; it is a matter of working 
out how to present it.  Don't write stories; 
create environments and shaping forces on 
characters.

The difficulty is in getting the author 
out of the story as an active agent.  You should 
probably abandon the terminology of "story" 
with all of its inherent linear baggage of 
monaural time and look at sequencing and 
event-based selection.  The essence of 
non-linearity in all domains is feedback.  

Explore what non-linearity is:  a gap 
or chasm in a plot which means unpredictable 
outcomes.  How do you incorporate uncertainty 
that even the author cannot dismiss?

As for VR, the bigger problems are the technical 
issues of resource management, latency, and hiding 
devices from the user, and by that, I don't mean 
simply making them invisible to the eye, but 
invisible to the experience.  Illusion maintenance 
is hard work.

Len 
http://www.mp3.com/LenBullard

Ekam sat.h, Vipraah bahudhaa vadanti.
Daamyata. Datta. Dayadhvam.h


-----Original Message-----
From: Miriam English [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2000 6:48 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: writing scripts


I have been thinking about how best to script a 3d story. I have for some 
time enjoyed reading scripts and have often thought how writing 3d story 
would differ from writing a standard film script.

I started writing a story a couple of years ago with the intention of 
making it as a work of VR Fiction (gotta find a less clumsy name than 
that). I began writing it as if it was a short story. That kinda worked, 
but it is hard to keep in the mode of writing it for VR; I found it too 
easy to drift back into normal writing habits, like mentioning what is 
going on in someone's head, and you can't show people's thoughts in VR 
easily. So I figured I need to adopt some format that keeps me restricted 
to what can be shown in VR. I am rewriting it as if I was writing a film 
script. The problem is that VR is different to film, even though this is a 
pretty standard film-like story with a ghostly, non-interactive viewer. (We 
need a name for that too.)

Actually, writing it as a script seems to be working fairly well so far...

I doubt anyone else has come up with any ways to write for VR Fiction... it 
is too early yet... but does anybody have any ideas that can help? Even 
with a fairly standard linear non-interactive format. (We really do need 
names for this stuff.)

I guess ways to do this will just happen as people actually create it.

Of course the really hard stuff is the interactive, non-linear formats. Do 
you have any way of approaching this stuff Paul? Or do you just do it as it 
occurs to you in a meandering fashion? (That is how I do many of my 
drawings... and many of my stories too.) [sigh]

Cheers,

        - Miriam

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