Wouldn't it be great to make your own Myst-like game?

I checked out the Myst IV demo yesterday.  It uses a 3D game engine for 
a much more dynamic interface than the original games, but remember when 
the Myst stuff was just a series of statically-rendered postcards?

Anyway, I was inspired ...

Terrain for a Myst-like game is attached.  Any good?

Also, testing out the Thunderbird newsreader for the first time ...

Aaron

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> Wouldn't it be great to make your own Myst-like game?
> 
> I checked out the Myst IV demo yesterday.  It uses a 3D game engine for 
> a much more dynamic interface than the original games, but remember when 
> the Myst stuff was just a series of statically-rendered postcards?
> 
> Anyway, I was inspired ...
> 
> Terrain for a Myst-like game is attached.  Any good?
> 
> Also, testing out the Thunderbird newsreader for the first time ...
> 
> Aaron

Yes, nice. And it looks like "plastics" Bryce's terrains too... ;-)

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LightBeam <s.f### [at] tiscalifr> wrote:

>
> Yes, nice. And it looks like "plastics" Bryce's terrains too... ;-)

Plastics?  Bryce?  Hrm?  Je ne comprends rien.

Aaron

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"LightBeam" <s.f### [at] tiscalifr> wrote in message
news:41c6daec@news.povray.org...

> > Wouldn't it be great to make your own Myst-like game?
> >
> > I checked out the Myst IV demo yesterday.  It uses a 3D game engine for
> > a much more dynamic interface than the original games, but remember when
> > the Myst stuff was just a series of statically-rendered postcards?
> >
> > Anyway, I was inspired ...
> >
> > Terrain for a Myst-like game is attached.  Any good?
> >
> > Also, testing out the Thunderbird newsreader for the first time ...
> >
> > Aaron
>
> Yes, nice. And it looks like "plastics" Bryce's terrains too... ;-)

Wow! When I first looked at this image, i thought "Bryce" right away. And I
havn't used Bryce it first came out! Although, my reason was the horizon and
the water. It's almost nostalgic, i spent way too much time my freshman year
of college playing with bryce :) I found bryce before povray.

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"Ross" <rli### [at] everestkcnet> wrote:

> Wow! When I first looked at this image, i thought "Bryce" right away. And I
> havn't used Bryce it first came out! Although, my reason was the horizon and
> the water. It's almost nostalgic, i spent way too much time my freshman year
> of college playing with bryce :) I found bryce before povray.

Oh ...

I guess that explains Light Beam's comment.

I have to admit that I am a bit disappointed to have gone through all the
work only to replicate the effects of that program.  I always thought that
the landscapes that people made with it were awful. :)

Aaron

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Aaron Gillies wrote:
> "Ross" <rli### [at] everestkcnet> wrote:
> 
> 
>>Wow! When I first looked at this image, i thought "Bryce" right away. And I
>>havn't used Bryce it first came out! Although, my reason was the horizon and
>>the water. It's almost nostalgic, i spent way too much time my freshman year
>>of college playing with bryce :) I found bryce before povray.
> 
> 
> Oh ...
> 
> I guess that explains Light Beam's comment.
> 
> I have to admit that I am a bit disappointed to have gone through all the
> work only to replicate the effects of that program.  I always thought that
> the landscapes that people made with it were awful. :)

Don't worry, your work wasn't wasted. :)

I have seen enough Bryce work (and used it myself to a small extent) to 
agree with you - I prefer even Terragen (of which I'm no great fan) to 
Bryce. And, of course, POV-Ray is leaps and bounds higher than that. :) 
If you wanted to reduce the Bryce effect I would probably think about 
your lighting some more. All the Bryce renders I've seen had very simple 
and point-light lighting in them. I might also do something with the 
sand, but I'm not sure what. It looks rather like it's all one piece 
(like a glued sandcastle) rather than blowable dry stuff.

I like the texture on the rock as well. An interesting mix of "Clay 
Sculpture" on the near side and "Petrified Driftwood" on the right.

I've thought about doing a Myst-style game with POV-Ray before. 
Something akin to the "static postcard" thing. The problem I see with 
this is that it would be incredibly labor-intensive to create the many 
different environments. But, the advantage would be that it would look 
awesome in the end. :)

I'm anxious to see more of this. I like the "fantasy" kind of feeling it 
evokes.

~Mike

I really like the way the sand sort of fades into the water.

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> Terrain for a Myst-like game is attached.  Any good?

It looks interesting, but most of it looks like you can't walk on it.

I think all of us Myst and POV-Ray lovers have thought of making our own
Myst game at least once. =) Of course, the easy thing is making an
environment, when you compare it to the challenge of actually making a game
that's fun to play...

 - Slime
 [ http://www.slimeland.com/ ]

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> I have seen enough Bryce work (and used it myself to a small extent) to
> agree with you - I prefer even Terragen (of which I'm no great fan) to
> Bryce. And, of course, POV-Ray is leaps and bounds higher than that. :)
> If you wanted to reduce the Bryce effect I would probably think about
> your lighting some more. All the Bryce renders I've seen had very simple
> and point-light lighting in them. I might also do something with the
> sand, but I'm not sure what. It looks rather like it's all one piece
> (like a glued sandcastle) rather than blowable dry stuff.
>
> I like the texture on the rock as well. An interesting mix of "Clay
> Sculpture" on the near side and "Petrified Driftwood" on the right.

Thanks for your feedback ...

The effect of the sand fading into the water is done with fade_distance and
fade_power in the interior statement of the object.  The water is just a
plane with a bozo normal.  The effect can be somewhat more painterly than
photographic, but I like it!  With the combination of the ground fog at the
horizon, it sort of gives the pictures a "Distant Worlds" fantasy-genre
book cover look ...  Or at least I was hoping for it.

I know what you mean about the sound.  But I am not even sure how to
approach the problem, except maybe to go back into my bitmap editor and try
to make a better heightfield.

Aaron

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Aaron Gillies wrote:
> I know what you mean about the sound.  But I am not even sure how to
> approach the problem, except maybe to go back into my bitmap editor and try
> to make a better heightfield.

Maybe a bump normal, scaled way down?

~Mike

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Aaron Gillies wrote:
> I have to admit that I am a bit disappointed to have gone through all the
> work only to replicate the effects of that program.  

   Well, Myst-like games always looked very "brycish" to me... ;)

--
Jaime

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