Hi Dark,
Yes, I do understand. Although, it seams to me that quite a few gamers
on this list do have serious difficulties with spacial orientation
especially in games like Shades of Doom. As I don't seam to have this
problem I can't help but wonder what is the cause. Why do they have
difficulty when I do not?
I'm sure there is a root cause, and as a game developer it may help to
discover what that issue is. Is it because I had sight for a long time
and maybe many of them did not? Were they perhaps born with some
inability to perceive spacial orientation such as yourself? Is there yet
some other cause I haven't figured out yet?
I don't know what the answer is, but all i do know is how I am able to
construct the world in my minds eye. Seeing as I did have sight for many
years i generally know what things look like, and if someone describes
something to me I can construct a rough aproximation of it in my mind
with color, shape, and size. EVen if it doesn't look exactly as it is in
real life I can put it in its context in the real world. Take my living
room for example.
As I stand at the end of the hallway leading into the living room my
mind is able to imagine mental a image of a room in 3d that is about 20
by 20 feet with a ceiling 8 feet high. Off to my left is the doorway
leading into the kitchen. Ahead of me is the front door, and to the
right of that is the couch. Above the couch are shelves containing
miscelanious items. Immediately to my right, directly in front of the
couch, is an entertainment set with a dvd player, our cable box, and on
top of that is our tv. Beside that is a telephone stand and a coat
closet. To Further to my right, along the far wall are windows, and
below them is a desk, shelves, and so on.
All of this I can see in my mind as one single image. I don't think of
each item in the room as a single landmark or part of a whole, but i see
the whole of it in my mind. I don't know if someone born blind would be
able to do that or not. They certainly wouldn't be able to add color as
I can if they have never seen colors before. Regardless of the answer
I'm able to use that same mental image and apply it to games and see the
levels the same way I can mentally see my living room.
dark wrote:
Hi tom.
do not judge perception of blind people in general by me at all, sinse
my spacial awareness is actually worse than most people's, ----
possibly due to some brain damage I suffered at birth.
I have absolutely no idea how to spacially relate one place I am in to
another, construct any sort of map, or even basically understand
rotational exercises.
Frequently when walking around I will perceive an object either by
vision, touch or something else, and stil walk into it because my
ability to judge distance is so extremely terrible.
I've learnt to get around this by use of memory, and synaesthesic
representations of land marks in various senses from visual to
auditory to tactile, ---- even smell.
In a game like Shades, I'll simply attempt to remember familiar land
marks around the maze, useful sfx etc, ---- I also make use of the
block graphics display.
My spacial difficulties are also why I cannot play games with a
spacial overview involved, such as solitare, the scrabble style word
puzles, and find battleships and mine sweeper tremendously difficult.
I certainly could not play chess without a physical board in front of
me on which to constantly check the pieces, ---- by touch and vision.
all this being said though, these problemts are uniquely mine. i've
met people with literally no working vision who have amazing sense of
space, ---- take for example the blind painter, who could paint
entirely by mental representation!
I am in no way an average model for spacial awareness, as when I was
born I did suffer brain damage from oxygen starvation, ---- and after
living for quite some time believe this is the area of my brain which
was damaged.
All this being said though, i totally agree with you about the Gma
engine, and find myself quite able to use land mark systems in games
like Shades or Gma tank commander, ---- and if your engine works on a
similar principle I'm confident I'll be able to make use of it as well.
Beware the grue!
---
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