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Sp01 Final Exam Review: Design Networked Games
See Final Exam Review - Sp2001
Comments? Answers? Criticisms?
a. We will definately want to use a virtual machine because:
- it will allow our program to run on any OS the virtual machine has been ported to. So there is no additional code to write in order to port the program to additional platforms.
- VM's provide garbage collection which means we'll spend less time worrying about deallocating data structures and spend more time focusing on the content and goals of the software
- A VM will provide a sand-box keeping any badly written code from damaging the OS stability or affecting other programs
- Virtual Machines are usually used for Object-Oriented Languages. This program is bound to be complex and large, so it would be in the interest of maintainability to use an OO Language (which is often a by-product of using a VM).
- I listed a few other pluses of VM's on Sp01 Final Exam Review: Networked Barbie Game
b. Of the two options given, sending Flash representations of the characters would probably be best. Flash is nothing more than vector based graphics art. It's fast because it send its data in terms of vectors and textures rather than sending a stream of RGB values. Sending entire 3D models would be too slow, so a Flash representation would probably be the best choice (Squeak even supports pulling images and objects out of Flash movies)! As Mark mentioned in Sp01 Final Exam Review: Networked Barbie Game, you might consider only sending the sides of the 3D models that you need (don't send the whole thing).
c. For background music, MIDI would probably be the best choice. MIDI is a representation of sound based on notes and which instruments should be playing those notes. Because the MIDI synthesizer (usually implemented in hardware) varies from machine to machine, the sounds of the instruments may differ; however, MIDI files are comparitavely small to other sound formats such as MP3 and wave. Voice recordings of the characters, however, could not be done with MIDI for obvious reasons. Thus, for voice recordings we could use aiff or wave format. Although mp3 usually have a better compression rate, they would be more difficult to support without having to use extensive libraries (even Squeak doesn't let you play streaming mp3 data).
Doug Powers
Virtual machines also provide nice abstractions over low-level network operations such as socket sends where you can quite easily transfer streams of data with just one line of code, Doug.
I can just as easily make a call to a socket tools lib to send data across a socket to another program.
Portion of Clarion code in the Sangradorian Scripter ( gama spec )
retVal = InetWrite(GameSocket,OutBuff,len(clip(left(OutBuff))))
one line of code to send data. compiled program. ( live, love, code clarion.)
John Thomas McDole
a. i agree with the above
b. am i the only person that hates flash? i don't think it looks good in any way, shape or form. sure there are a few great "movies" made with it (like the recent fight3.swf) but then it also spawns things like "all your base." i can understand its usefulness over the internet... speedy downloads and a quality picture without full-blown video files. but let's be honest, flash is overrated. most flash movies all have that same feel to them. it's that feeling of a bunch of 2d pictures layered on top of each other that move weirdly amongst each other. it's that feeling of flat colors with no real human-feeling behind them. everything looks like south park. now back to the topic. while sending 3D models would be quite slow, the end result would be SO much better than flash. i know i personally would enjoy a fully-rendered 3D Rugrats game much more than any little flash thing. (no, i have not checked out Disney's Sub Blast yet, no time to play games during finals week :P) if download time is really an issue, put the models on a CD and give it to the consumer. they can still play over the network once they've obtained the cd. don't make the game available on shockwave.com, but rather box it up and ship it to stores (real or internet) so that people can actually buy it. if the game is good enough, the consumers will buy it.
c. along the same lines as b, MIDI is severly lacking. i know that whenever i hear a MIDI played on a typical sound card i think "hey video game music." i wouldn't want my video game music to sound like video game music. wasn't the original goal in this case for the music from the show to be apparant in the game? why tone it down and make some halfway decent MIDI version when you can put the real audio on the same cd that you're shipping the 3D models on? sure MIDI has its applications... i make music using it all the time. however, without high-end equipment, MIDI will always sound like "video game music."
- ricky brigante
a) of course you do, I'm right :) lol
b) flash is good for interfaces also. I've seen some really nice flash sites with localized animation and events. The game spec didn't say whether or not you would walk around inside a world, it said you would work together to get through puzzles, you just have to ask yourself "What are the puzzles?" Are they mazes? Are they memory games? If they are puzzles were you move around in, then 3d would be "neat", butif they are just board game style puzzles, flash would really do the job.
c) squeak's midi synth is crap, but I've heard some good midi renditions of songs that are pretty good. Hell, you could even get Beatnick (if its still around) and it will map the midi to actual sounds.
John Thomas McDole
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