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