The game can display these flashes of the future because it knows whats going to happen. As much as we like to fool gamers, they are not the ones in control. Thaughts welcome.
Pre-cognition
Author
Precognition? I was just thinking over a documentary I saw all about the Philadelphia Experiment, and the various ways we can access other realities. The doccumentary included a section on pre-cognition tests.
A subject was showen random pictures on a screen. Many pictures were harmless, but some were disturbing. In the case of these pictures, electrodes(?) picked up a clear reaction from the subject BEFORE the disturbing picture appeared on screen.
Spider man has it, as indeed do some spiders. Whouldn''t it be nice to re-create a pre-cognition skill in a game? It could easily be a fundemental property or large building block in the games design and execution. Brief flashes of a space-time point in the game world, inverse scenes of the future bluring and mixing with the game as you play it, either to reveal story lines, or as a gameplay catalyst.
The game can display these flashes of the future because it knows whats going to happen. As much as we like to fool gamers, they are not the ones in control. Thaughts welcome.
The game can display these flashes of the future because it knows whats going to happen. As much as we like to fool gamers, they are not the ones in control. Thaughts welcome.
If you are talking about spidy sense, just flash an indicator on the screen a couble of seconds before someone or something is about to cause dammage to you or someone/thing else nearby.
I think you would have a very hard time doing something like this in FPS unless you let the spidy sense take over and dodge for you, and what fun would that be.
For a stealth type games like the Thief sieres, have a ghost image of the wondering guards a couple of seconds ahead of the actual guard. Or you could have a slider bar (kind of like the ones in software editing software) that allows you to fast foward into the future and shows you ghost images of the routes that the guards take. Of course that would only be a possible future.
In an RPG game, this could just be a boost in the defence stat. Or some kind of aura around other people, i.e. red: will attack any second, yellow: will attack shortly, etc.
If you are just talking about cutscenes, like a dream, that shows the next big boss you need to kill..... it''s been done.
I think you would have a very hard time doing something like this in FPS unless you let the spidy sense take over and dodge for you, and what fun would that be.
For a stealth type games like the Thief sieres, have a ghost image of the wondering guards a couple of seconds ahead of the actual guard. Or you could have a slider bar (kind of like the ones in software editing software) that allows you to fast foward into the future and shows you ghost images of the routes that the guards take. Of course that would only be a possible future.
In an RPG game, this could just be a boost in the defence stat. Or some kind of aura around other people, i.e. red: will attack any second, yellow: will attack shortly, etc.
If you are just talking about cutscenes, like a dream, that shows the next big boss you need to kill..... it''s been done.
I think a very interesting idea would be to have the game take advantage of knowledge of psychology, and apply it to nudge the gamer towards what he''s supposed to do. For example, if a particularly nasty set of manuvers is required to get past the next part, you could experiment with a very slight ghost image crossing the user''s field of view before it actually happens, giving the gamer a very spooky sense of precogniscience (if they didn''t notice the "ghost"). I''m not sure it would be worth the extra processing power, or if it would even be worth it, but I think it''d be a very neat feature. Of course, it should be able to be turned off if it annoyed players.
I think it could be done in a way that wouldn''t annoy players. In particular, it wouldn''t necessarily happen all the time, and it certainly wouldn''t be something that stuck around. Perhaps it could even be a bit like bullet-time in Max Payne -- you actually turn it on and off, and it lasts for a little while before you run out of the ability.
Here''s how it would work... If you''ve got this Precogniscience ability, and you''ve activated it, you''ve got a faint ghost image on the screen, the effect of which is to give a blurring, trailed-visuals effect, only the blur of the ghosted image is the present, and the ghosted image is the future, if that makes sense.
For example, say you''re playing a war shooter... I''ve been playing the demos for Call of Duty, so that''s what''s on my mind right now. At one point a tank unexpectedly bursts through a wall. If you''ve got Precog activated, you see a blurred, ghosted image of the tank bursting through the wall about 3 seconds before it actually happens, giving you just enough time to get the heck out of the way before it mows you down. Of course, then your precog ability runs out so wait untilit recharges, and you don''t notice the dozens of soldiers pouring over the walls until it actually happens; thus the element of suspense remains in tact.
****************************************
Brian Lacy
ForeverDream Studios
Comments? Questions? Curious?
"I create. Therefore I am."
Here''s how it would work... If you''ve got this Precogniscience ability, and you''ve activated it, you''ve got a faint ghost image on the screen, the effect of which is to give a blurring, trailed-visuals effect, only the blur of the ghosted image is the present, and the ghosted image is the future, if that makes sense.
For example, say you''re playing a war shooter... I''ve been playing the demos for Call of Duty, so that''s what''s on my mind right now. At one point a tank unexpectedly bursts through a wall. If you''ve got Precog activated, you see a blurred, ghosted image of the tank bursting through the wall about 3 seconds before it actually happens, giving you just enough time to get the heck out of the way before it mows you down.
Of course, then your precog ability runs out so wait untilit recharges, and you don''t notice the dozens of soldiers pouring over the walls until it actually happens; thus the element of suspense remains in tact. ****************************************
Brian Lacy
ForeverDream Studios
Comments? Questions? Curious?
"I create. Therefore I am."
Author
irbrian I think your closest to what I envisaged, infact its a bit better. I love the idea of the changes actualy being visable in 3D space, a second ghosted world, and there are all kinds of cool effects that could be used with crazy shaders. You could realy screw around with the gamer.
Maybe the character is ''insane'', using some kind of drug fuled precog rampage to escape a sanitarium and save humanity?0 That would be a prety messed up game. maybe even your actions in the past coming back to haunt you with a possiblity of using it in puzzle sections.. getting a bit legacy of kain. Cool..
Maybe the character is ''insane'', using some kind of drug fuled precog rampage to escape a sanitarium and save humanity?0
That would be a prety messed up game. maybe even your actions in the past coming back to haunt you with a possiblity of using it in puzzle sections.. getting a bit legacy of kain. Cool..
You could set up a kind of system where NPC''s movements are extrapolated to a few seconds ahead so no scripting would be required. I suppose this''d be a little CPU intensive and maybe not so worthwhile. But it would be easier to implement if you want to be able to switch it on and off at will (unless you want to manually script all the movements of all the NPCs throughout the game ).
Your AI system may get in the way of this too if your using an A* like system you already know the paths of the NPCs so you could add a ghosted object a few nodes further along, easy .
Just a couple of ideas *shrug*
Toipot
Lead Programmer
Farsight Productions
).Your AI system may get in the way of this too
if your using an A* like system you already know the paths of the NPCs so you could add a ghosted object a few nodes further along, easy .Just a couple of ideas *shrug*
Toipot
Lead Programmer
Farsight Productions
The best way to give the player a sense that something significant is about to happen is to change the pace/mood of the music very slightly, or add in extra sounds. Make it subtle enough so that its not obvious but works subconsciously.
In this way, it''s more like real pre-cognition where the player thinks "did i really hear a change in music or is it just my imagination?". Eventually, the player could even "tune in" to the subtle changes in music, again like real pre-cognition.
Red Sodium
In this way, it''s more like real pre-cognition where the player thinks "did i really hear a change in music or is it just my imagination?". Eventually, the player could even "tune in" to the subtle changes in music, again like real pre-cognition.
Red Sodium
I guess what needs to be determined is if we want the player to have the ability to use precognition (as explained in the minor adjustments in the music) Or have the character have it (an added ability).
An idea that I was thinking of after reading the post, was having the pre-cog on a chance variable. Once in a while you''ll get it, often you won''t. As the game progresses, perhaps your character simply gets better at it, and it happens more and more often, but still on a chance basis.
This would be best done for a FPV game, for better character immersion. Maybe somthing like a very subtle flash of the game world five seconds ahead. Using the tank example, there would be a quick appearance of the tank through the wall, then it''d be gone. The player would be confused, much like their character, until they saw it actually busting through the wall.
You could take it quite a few ways, slightly distorting it in perhaps an insect view (Dungeon Keeper, fly view is kind of how this example would look) so they knew something was out of place.
All sorts of ideas are coming to mind, unfortunately right now most of them are blending together. Makes me wish we were developing something which could use this right now.
An idea that I was thinking of after reading the post, was having the pre-cog on a chance variable. Once in a while you''ll get it, often you won''t. As the game progresses, perhaps your character simply gets better at it, and it happens more and more often, but still on a chance basis.
This would be best done for a FPV game, for better character immersion. Maybe somthing like a very subtle flash of the game world five seconds ahead. Using the tank example, there would be a quick appearance of the tank through the wall, then it''d be gone. The player would be confused, much like their character, until they saw it actually busting through the wall.
You could take it quite a few ways, slightly distorting it in perhaps an insect view (Dungeon Keeper, fly view is kind of how this example would look) so they knew something was out of place.
All sorts of ideas are coming to mind, unfortunately right now most of them are blending together. Makes me wish we were developing something which could use this right now.
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