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<H1>Re: [MUD-Dev] Speaking of Avatars</H1>
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<LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#null,net">mud-dev#null,net</A></LI>
<LI><em>Subject</em>: Re: [MUD-Dev] Speaking of Avatars </LI>
<LI><em>From</em>: "Jon A. Lambert" <<A HREF="mailto:jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com">jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com</A>></LI>
<LI><em>Date</em>: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 02:59:05 -5</LI>
<LI><em>Reply-to</em>: <A HREF="mailto:jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com">jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com</A></LI>
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<PRE>
On 17 Mar 98 at 18:51, J C Lawrence wrote:
> On Fri, 13 Mar 1998 22:22:57 PST8PDT
> Jon A Lambert<jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com> wrote:
>
> > I spent a couple of mindless minutes the other day looking at
> > Microsoft's Chat client for IRC.
>
> I hear that bathing is lye and nitric acid is a generally
> recommended recovery treatment for that.
How appropriate for St. Patrick's day. If my chemistry hasn't failed
me and if mixed carefully you be bathing in Sodium Nitrate in which
case you'd be 'corned' or 'pickled'. Then again it would be an
awfully warm bath and highly dangerous if you lit up a cigar.
<ack-sorry>
> > It might be of interest to some
> > graphic client developers, so I've included an attached .jpg
> > screenshot of what a session looks like.
>
> Interesting. Very. Some questions (as I don't have any version of
> Windows here):
>
> The cartoon figures are pre-canned assemblies of body components
> (this head on that body etc)?
No. the avatars are a single component. That is you can't mix body
parts. Though it's a swell idea. :)
> What controls the zoom-in/zoom-out focus I see in the various
> images? The lower right image for instance has zoomed in on the two
> figures seen in the lower left image.
Characters are shrunk proportionately to the number of people you
have selected from the room's guest list. If you do not select or
direct conversation to anyone, a 'toon with just your avatar appears.
Of course everyone sees it, because its still global chat.
> Similarly, what controls the body postures as seen in the upper
> left
> and upper right images? Can you drag the limbs of the art deco chap
> (I presume that's you) into various postures to have that appear
> remotesly with the spin wheel below being a selection box for facial
> contortions?
The spin wheel controls both body poses and facial expressions
simultaneously. You can't control them separately. Again there's
a lot of room for implementing this better in a mud client.
> > There where several hundred users on this particular server and
> > there was no appreciable lag over and above the normal IRC text mode
> > as all the graphics are generated from within the client. While I
> > found the comic book aspect quite irritating after awhile, it struck
> > me as a format that may be quite suitable for a Superheroes, X-Men
> > or Anime type mud.
>
> Ahh, can this client be used with normal IRC servers, or is it MS
> specific ala NetMeeting?
I really have no idea. Hrrm. It didn't seem important to check at
the time since I have no interest in IRC otherwise.
OTOH, Netmeeting is a real dog, very, very high-bandwidth usage.
Simultaneous realtime video and audio are for those of the 56K+
connections or dedicated lines. And even then, the video-strobe
effect makes me queasy.
> Did dragging the central selector also control physical posture?
Yep, at the same time as the expression.
It did strike me that the avatar image is basically like a flip page
book (or animated .gif) where the spin control simply provided an
index into the images. Very simple really.
For this to work with really "personalized" avatars, there would need
to be mechanisms where someone's personal avatar was shipped up to
the server and out to all the clients. Perhaps as they encounter
you.
The protocol must be extremely light. For instance when someone
talks one would need only provide some tags to an avatar filename/
unique number, an index into the pose, the list of guest references
if any, and a background number. This is probably more compact
than a rainbow ansi color sequence.
--
--/*\ Jon A. Lambert - TychoMUD Internet:jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com /*\--
--/*\ Mud Server Developer's Page <<A HREF="http://www.netcom.com/~jlsysinc">http://www.netcom.com/~jlsysinc</A>> /*\--
--/*\ "Everything that deceives may be said to enchant" - Plato /*\--
</PRE>
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<UL><LI><STRONG>References</STRONG>:
<UL>
<LI><STRONG><A NAME="00715" HREF="msg00715.html">Speaking of Avatars</A></STRONG>
<UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> "Jon A. Lambert" <jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com></LI></UL></LI>
<LI><STRONG><A NAME="00738" HREF="msg00738.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Speaking of Avatars</A></STRONG>
<UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> J C Lawrence <claw#under,engr.sgi.com></LI></UL></LI>
</UL></LI></UL>
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<ul><li>Thread context:
<BLOCKQUOTE><UL>
<LI><STRONG>Re: [MUD-Dev] META: Broken mail headers</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM>
<ul compact>
<ul compact>
<ul compact>
<ul compact>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00874" HREF="msg00874.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] META: Broken mail headers</A></strong>,
Alex Oren <a href="mailto:alexo#bigfoot,com">alexo#bigfoot,com</a>, Tue 24 Mar 1998, 15:21 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00878" HREF="msg00878.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] META: Broken mail headers</A></strong>,
J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Tue 24 Mar 1998, 23:06 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</ul>
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</ul>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00715" HREF="msg00715.html">Speaking of Avatars</A></strong>,
Jon A. Lambert <a href="mailto:jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com">jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com</a>, Sat 14 Mar 1998, 06:18 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00738" HREF="msg00738.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Speaking of Avatars</A></strong>,
J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Tue 17 Mar 1998, 19:03 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00748" HREF="msg00748.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Speaking of Avatars</A></strong>,
Jon A. Lambert <a href="mailto:jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com">jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com</a>, Wed 18 Mar 1998, 07:56 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</UL>
<UL>
<li><Possible follow-up(s)><br>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00716" HREF="msg00716.html">Speaking of Avatars</A></strong>,
Jon A. Lambert <a href="mailto:jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com">jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com</a>, Sat 14 Mar 1998, 06:18 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00713" HREF="msg00713.html">(no title) Time limits?</A></strong>,
s001gmu <a href="mailto:s001gmu#nova,wright.edu">s001gmu#nova,wright.edu</a>, Sat 14 Mar 1998, 04:39 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00718" HREF="msg00718.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] (no title) Time limits?</A></strong>,
Justin McKinnerney <a href="mailto:xymox#toon,org">xymox#toon,org</a>, Sat 14 Mar 1998, 18:00 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00712" HREF="msg00712.html">Hello, and a brief intro</A></strong>,
cimri <a href="mailto:cimri1#gte,net">cimri1#gte,net</a>, Sat 14 Mar 1998, 01:44 GMT
</LI>
</UL></BLOCKQUOTE>
</ul>
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