On Wednesday 27 June 2007 11:29, Karsten Otto wrote: > > - User interface for the 3D client. This is a critical issue on > > which > > we have spent too little time in the past. > > > > Let me talk a little bit about the last part. This time around, I'm > > going to try and have a prototype 3D client in place even before we've > > finished writing the core. That way, we have (hopefully) something > > people can play with while development of the underlying network > > object > > model proceeds. > > > > I've spent a little while thinking about the interaction mode of the > > client, and came up with a few basic principals to follow: > > > > * It must be very open-ended. The goal is for the application to be > > able to configure itself to different task, be it a 3D game, social > > space or business purpose. > > > > * It should be usable by both novices who want a minimal browsing > > experience, and experts who are engaged in scene editing or > > development. > > > > * It should be designed to permit plugins or extensions to its > > functionality. > > I would go a bit further here - use plugins as the *basis* of the > software! > The main client only needs to provide capabilities for displaying > (layered) 3D content and manage plugins. Everything else should be in > the plugins themselves. See below...
Why not use something like Sauerbraten to do the 3D engine work? > > I've put together a mockup screenshot here: > > http://interreality.org/~tetron/terangreal%20mockup.png > > Looks like Safari! :-) > I thought you wanted something different than a web browser? In > particular, what use are Tabs here? After all, interacting with a 3D > world is about immersion, i.e. you interact with only one virtual > reality. It is not at all like sorting thrrough files and shuffling > multiple documents around on your desk, so it seems like the wrong > metaphor here. I guess that it wouldn't be that hard to create a XUL client, and - if so - to create a mozilla extension (firefox plugin) so it starts accepting vos:// URI's, and, for those, open the view simmilar to that of the mockup... > Apart from that, it looks like you intend the interface to be purely > 2D. Why restrict ourselves to that? Why not a separate 3D overlay, > driven by a VOS graph in the same manner as the main 3D world? If VOS is designed with that in mind, you'll be able to have as many kinds of clients as you want: a 3D client (using Sauerbraten as the engine, for instance), a 2D client (like a webbrowser-like client, or a firefox plugin, or something else...) or even a text client (MUD-like, as discussed a couple of months ago). -- Marcos Marado Sonaecom IT _______________________________________________ vos-d mailing list [email protected] http://www.interreality.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vos-d
