> 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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Aaron Gillies wrote:
> 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?

While there are the occasional 3D elements in Myst IV for the most part 
it's difficult to tell that it's making any use of 3D hardware 
acceleration. It does make use of pixel shadders for effects like depth 
of field.

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Aaron Gillies wrote:
> 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 ...

It's hard to tell the scale of the intended feature here. If it's meant 
to be a 1000 foot spire type of thing on which you could build a hanging 
city, or tunnel into then the basic shape is right but in this case I 
would reduce the sandy beach part at the bottom to a thin strip around 
the edges. If it's meant to be a much smaller feature then it looks too 
steep to my eye. Just my 2 cents. Otherwise nice image. I've thought 
several times of making my own Myst game too.

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On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 20:04:28 +0100, Jaime Vives Piqueres wrote:

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

So you've never had a look to the last two games (exile and revelations)
They are...

Pfiou !

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Mike Thorn wrote:

> I prefer even Terragen (of which I'm no great fan) to 
> Bryce. 

I don't know, some of the sneak peek stuff from the next version looks 
quite promising:

http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/tgd/gallery/gallerymain.php

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news:41c764b3$1@news.povray.org...
> On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 20:04:28 +0100, Jaime Vives Piqueres wrote:
>
>
> Pfiou !

don't you mean "Pfew!"? ;-)

Marc

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Thanks, folks for the feedback ...

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