Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
In Figure 13.4, the tech lead avatar shown in the top image is Douglas Maxwell (Maccus McCullough
is his avatar name) as he sets up the testing area in Second Life. The bottom image shows two opera-
tors (as avatars) operating the BYG-1 Combat System. They were logged in to the Qwaq/Teleplace Clients
(viewer) located in a different building from the combat system hardware, effectively desktop sharing the
combat system software. This allowed the participants to remotely operate the combat system and perform
target motion analysis tasks while their avatars were present in the virtual command-and-control center.
13.4 ENTERTAINMENT ENVIRONMENTS: PROTOTYPING THE PERFORMANCE SPACE
Creating entertainment spaces, in both the real and virtual worlds, involves projects that come with their own
special set of design challenges. Although it is not typical for a Broadway show set designer also to create
the architectural design of the theater, it can be a common experience in virtual world entertainment design.
In fact, one of the most exciting things about creation of a theatrical production in a virtual world is that you
can discard the concept of the theater building as a separate part of the entertainment design if you so choose.
You have the opportunity to redeine space and the way it serves entertainment, so run with it.
For example, let's start with one of the most basic of entertainment spaces, the “black box” theater
(Figure 13.5). In real life, these are empty spaces that have been painted black and provided with a modicum
of theatrical lighting. This is an appropriate environment to explore your irst virtual entertainment designs
because it will be easy to build and modify. By utilizing the plan of an existing room or black box theater
FIGURE 13.5 Screen grab from Second Life showing a virtual prototype of the Steinhardt Black Box Theatre,
82 Washington Square East, New York University, New York.
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