Game Design Music and Art

Musem of Fantasy – Ereon

Ereon

Member

Posts: 1018
From: Ohio, United States
Registered: 04-12-2005
I had a killer idea last night, brought on by this website called The Museum of the Improbable. What if I were to host a website on the internet which had a downloadable program on it, containing a virtual, walkthrough museum. Inside the museum would an art gallery (For 2D pictures and art), a library (for stories, poems, ect.) and a sculpture gallery for 3D models. Whoever had something this wished to have in the museum could e-mail it to the developer and then he would insert it and distribute it with a patch every two weeks, along with all the other stuff people submitted. If I were to make such a project, who would be interested in adding to it?

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All that is gold does not glitter
Not all those who wander are lost

The old that is stong does not wither
Deep roots are not touched by the frost

From the ashes a fire shall be woken
A light from the shadows shall spring

Renewed shall be blade that was broken
And the crownless again shall be King

Realm Master

Member

Posts: 1971
From: USA
Registered: 05-15-2005
oh ho HO! that IS a killer idea.
(thats gonna be a biiiigggg sculpture hall though )

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(yes, i know im stupid)
God rules!

Blessed are those who show mercy.
They will be shown mercy. - Matthew 5:7

Blessed are those who suffer for doing what is right.
The kingdom of hevan bleongs to them.-Matthew 5:10

crazyishone

Member

Posts: 1685
From:
Registered: 08-25-2004
that..is....one of the most interesing ideas ive heard in weeks. sweetness.

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globalrant.tk

Briant

Member

Posts: 742
From: Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada
Registered: 01-20-2001
Interesting idea.

However, doing it that way will result in HUGE HUGE downloads before very long, because you'll be sending the entire museum to every user. Instead, you should develop it so that the exhibits live on a server, and the client app simply downloads the appropriate exhibits for viewing at runtime (you could even cache the ones they view on the user's machine, so repeat views wouldn't need to re-download (unless the exhibit has been updated)). That way, the user is only downloading the exhibits they are interested in seeing, instead of everything. The only downside of this approach is that the user has to have an internet connection to see non-cached exhibits.

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Brian

[This message has been edited by Briant (edited September 12, 2005).]

Ereon

Member

Posts: 1018
From: Ohio, United States
Registered: 04-12-2005
I was thinking that the original download wouldn't be too large, and then I could distribute patches from time to time, adding only the new files, therefore greatly reducing the download size. On top of that the language I was going to use can mesh the files directly into the exe, preventing piracy and saving alot of space. Let me give it a try first, and then if it works well I'll open it up for public addition. I'm working on a game now to, so it might be a bit off and on.

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All that is gold does not glitter
Not all those who wander are lost

The old that is stong does not wither
Deep roots are not touched by the frost

From the ashes a fire shall be woken
A light from the shadows shall spring

Renewed shall be blade that was broken
And the crownless again shall be King

Ereon

Member

Posts: 1018
From: Ohio, United States
Registered: 04-12-2005
Oh, btw, anyone know any good websites on architecture, I want the museum to feel really cool. And my architecture is a bit weaker than I would like.

------------------
All that is gold does not glitter
Not all those who wander are lost

The old that is stong does not wither
Deep roots are not touched by the frost

From the ashes a fire shall be woken
A light from the shadows shall spring

Renewed shall be blade that was broken
And the crownless again shall be King

Briant

Member

Posts: 742
From: Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada
Registered: 01-20-2001
quote:
Originally posted by Ereon:
I was thinking that the original download wouldn't be too large, and then I could distribute patches from time to time, adding only the new files, therefore greatly reducing the download size.

But what about the person who doesn't get in on it from the beginning? If they hear about it a year later, they have to download everything from the beginning. At a patch every two weeks, nobody is going to want to download and install 26 patches to catch up.

quote:

On top of that the language I was going to use can mesh the files directly into the exe, preventing piracy and saving alot of space.

Eek, I think this is not a good idea. If you're worried about privacy, encrypt the data files in some way instead. Patching data files into the main .exe will increase the size of the .exe, your .exe containing the whole museum - imagine what will happen after a year, when you have 1,745 exhibits and your .exe is 47 Gigs in size - even if your machine had enough RAM to load the .exe, it would take half an hour to start the app.

Seriously, for something like this, making the submissions live on a server and the client downloading only the desired ones as needed is the way to go - no patches, no massive downloads, no wasted time/space on the user's machine.

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Brian

Ereon

Member

Posts: 1018
From: Ohio, United States
Registered: 04-12-2005
It all depends if I can get a server, but I think that it will be excellent if I do it.

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All that is gold does not glitter
Not all those who wander are lost

The old that is stong does not wither
Deep roots are not touched by the frost

From the ashes a fire shall be woken
A light from the shadows shall spring

Renewed shall be blade that was broken
And the crownless again shall be King

Briant

Member

Posts: 742
From: Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada
Registered: 01-20-2001
Just some webspace would do, there are plenty of good deals around.

I think in general you have an excellent idea, and good luck with it. Let us know how it progresses and if you want some help.

Brian

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Brian

Realm Master

Member

Posts: 1971
From: USA
Registered: 05-15-2005
hmm... (looking at servers on www.gateway.com...)
well, for 500 bucks....

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(yes, i know im stupid)
God rules!

Blessed are those who show mercy.
They will be shown mercy. - Matthew 5:7

Blessed are those who suffer for doing what is right.
The kingdom of hevan bleongs to them.-Matthew 5:10

Briant

Member

Posts: 742
From: Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada
Registered: 01-20-2001
What I mean by getting a server is simply getting some space. You could get a dedicated server if the project eventually justified it, but to start with you could simply put the exhibit files in the same place you'd have your downloadable .exe, on your website. That's all I meant. Once the space and/or bandwidth become an issue, then either upgrade your web host account or splurge and go for that dedicated server.

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Brian

Ereon

Member

Posts: 1018
From: Ohio, United States
Registered: 04-12-2005
I have a website I could store stuff on. I'll try that, I've never tried pulling file from an FTP/website before.

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All that is gold does not glitter
Not all those who wander are lost

The old that is stong does not wither
Deep roots are not touched by the frost

From the ashes a fire shall be woken
A light from the shadows shall spring

Renewed shall be blade that was broken
And the crownless again shall be King

Ereon

Member

Posts: 1018
From: Ohio, United States
Registered: 04-12-2005
Hrm, I can do this, but it will have to wait until I get some work done on Soul Catcher. I'm a bit off schedule due to school and such.

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GUMP

Member

Posts: 1335
From: Melbourne, FL USA
Registered: 11-09-2002
What you're talking about sounds perfect for Adobe Atmosphere (though it's no longer being developed) or a product like it. I've seen such products for famous sites like Paris.

http://www.hamonrye.com/atmosphere/

That was created by George Lippert, one of our artists at XrucifiX. You can see his other work here:

http://www.georgezilla.com/

Ereon

Member

Posts: 1018
From: Ohio, United States
Registered: 04-12-2005
Erm...its not bad, but the textures and all don't lend the feel I want. It just doesn't FEEL right, if you take my meaning. Plus I think it would be more fun to program my own engine :P I might try it though.

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QuestLeader

Member

Posts: 629
From: My house, Va, USA
Registered: 04-20-2005
I know this is an old thread, but this is a really cool idea! i would definantley submit some art. btw, in tha past two months, have you done anything with this project?

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Ereon

Member

Posts: 1018
From: Ohio, United States
Registered: 04-12-2005
No, I've been working on Soul Catcher, in my past posts though I left it open for anyone who wants to to take a shot at it, so have at it if you want, I'm alreay working on a project though, and don't wish to split myself between the two.

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QuestLeader

Member

Posts: 629
From: My house, Va, USA
Registered: 04-20-2005
Well right now I'm tryin to pull together a team, keep my site up to date, and get together a storyboard... so im booked.

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