Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
One of the best places to display signage is on the loor of your virtual store because most avatar cameras
default to a position that is high and pointing slightly down. Putting directional arrows into the pattern on
your loor will help your customers navigate and not clutter the visual display ield around your products.
Make the decision early on about the composition of your signage and set up a template in a program like
GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), Adobe Illustrator, or Photoshop. A square format is quite handy
for this type of element since it allows for vertical and horizontal organization of the visual composition and
maintains the consistency of an overall look. Try to include good, high-resolution images of your products
on these signs and displays since images help persuade the customer to buy your goods.
10.2.3 C
olor
/l
ighTing
Think of your favorite sports team uniforms or your national lag. There is no doubt you could pick the exact
colors from that object from any color selector without hesitation. That is the kind of instant memorable
impression your brand should make with its color palette. Once you have decided on the colors for your logo,
tone them down into neutral tints to use inside your store. If you have the modeling skills, you should take
advantage of mesh construction and utilize 3DS Max or Blender to build a model for your store with baked
textures that add lighting effects on the walls and loors.
One excellent way to keep this all organized, especially if you work with several other content builders,
is to create a “style sheet” for your logo usage and color palette. This is typically an 8.5 by 11 inch printout
that shows the logo in color, black and white, and any other color type you want to allow. This document
stipulates “oficial” usage of the logo and color palette, be it for in-store displays, websites, or signage. It will
also call out the RGB (red, green, blue) values of the colors used, as well as hexadecimal values and PMS
(Pantone
®
Matching System) numbers so that the logo is produced consistently across all forms of print and
electronic media. You should have this available as a PDF document so that anyone who needs to use your
logo for advertising or promotion can obtain the oficial guide from you instantly. Figure 10.3 displays a style
sheet for the
Flying Cloud
nautical shop discussed in section 10.2. As you can see, everything is linked, and
anchored visually to the oil painting image of the
“Flying Cloud.”
There is a complete consistency between
the logo, architectural style, and color palette of the shop architecture.
10.3 THE PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF AN EFFECTIVE INWORLD VIRTUAL STORE
You need to be cognizant of how people will interact with your virtual shopping spaces. There is no better
way to learn this than to observe the trafic patterns and functionality of real-world places like shops, restau-
rants, and transportation hubs. What works in the physical world is a good blueprint for your virtual building
after some adjustments for the larger avatar size, camera positions, and the ability to ly.
It is good practice to make use of a store map, especially if you have several loors of content. By provid-
ing a readily accessible, clearly visible map that is connected to a teleport system, you will create a pleasant
and expedient shopping experience for your customer. It is good practice to make sure that you also provide
a way for the customers to return to your teleport hub from each shopping area so they do not become lost
trying to ind the way back.
When your customers enter your shop for the irst time, their avatars' camera has to load all of the textures
within their line of sight and draw distance into their client viewer. You must consider what that rezzing time
is for your customers and endeavor to make their initial experience a pleasant unfolding display of your most
important products. One way to do that is to enfold your shopping space so that partitions and walls break
up the views inside the store. This allows their viewer to load small sections at a time as the avatar walks
