Yes mine too though my mobility instructor was worse than me laughing. -----Original Message----- From: gamers-boun...@audyssey.org [mailto:gamers-boun...@audyssey.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Ward Sent: Saturday, December 26, 2009 10:33 PM To: Gamers Discussion list Subject: Re: [Audyssey] 3D navigation was: The future of Blastbay Studios
Hi Dark, Ok? Sounds like your mobility instructor was an idiot. Never once in my life has a mobility instructor told me to count steps. Quite the opposite in fact. They usually cued me into land marks, sounds, and other things I could use to assess where I was without depending on something as unreliable as counting steps. Were it my instructors they would have told me about the grill so I would know if I went too far and passed my turn off point. Sheesh. Anyway, getting back on track with games when I play Sarah or Shades of Doom I use a lot of my own mobility training while playing. There are several things I use, and they are pretty basic. First, is the audio environment itself. Today with advanced audio APIs like XAudio 2 and X3DAudio, FMOD Ex, or OpenAL it is pretty easy to program a game to use 5.1 or 7.1 3d audio environments fairly easily. Combine that with a good high quality 5.1 or 7.1 stereo sound card and a set of 5.1 3d stereo headphones and you have a pretty realistic audio sound system at your disposal. Unfortunately, lots of VI gamers haven't got the high tech equipment to get the most out of Shades of Doom or Sarah so they never quite get a true 3d audio environment which is too bad. For me I have lots of high tech gear for my games so when I'm in Shades of Doom, Tank Commander, or Sarah it sounds like I am standing there in the game. I can hear everything around me in 3d space, and I can use the sound to navigate around the level. Plus it helps to count doors, and the various machines in a game like SOD to identify which room is wich. Second, is the look ahead commands which comes in handy. If you can do a control+n and have it tell you the corridor turns left in 5 feet and makes a hard left in 15 feet you obviously can get a good idea where to go. This feature isn't that much different than seeing it as you get exactly the same information and have to make the same judgment weather to try the first corridor or go down the second one. I make lots of use of the control+n command in Shades of Doom. Finaly, I am pretty good with using coordinates to remember my location. If I want to know where I am I usually go for the coordinates key. For me that usually is enough to figure out exactly where I am, and gives me a good idea where to go next. Of course, that's only useful if I've been playing a game for a long time and walk around with a map of the level in my head. Come to think of it that is another tool I use, and helps me out alot. Having had sighte before i tend to see myself, my character anyway, in the game world and visualize the entire level in my mind. By being able to draw upon a mental picture in my mind it gives me somewhat of an edge in putting things in their correct 3d sspacial orientation to the character. Without a doubt that has to be a slight advantage when playing these sorts of games and figuring them out. Cheers! dark wrote: > Short answer, ---- yes, those features are what I use exhaustively. On > the other hand audio maps I'm afraid I find just incomprehensible, > ---- cool though the marauders' map in Sarah was. > > Even coordinates I only tend to use as a general guideline to know if > I'm in the middle or at the edge of a level, ---- or as an extra land > mark feature (eg, i need to explore the turning at 8-23). > > this is of course just the way i do things, ---- and other people (who > do not have my spacial difficulties), may do things entirely differently. > > Interestingly enough, I'll be having my mobility assessment with guide > dogs on january the eighth, so I've been thinking about this (and > explaining iot to the guide dogs service people), sinse I've often > found myself at a loss with mobility officers who insist! upon using > things like step counting or route mental mapping which my brain just > won't cope with. > > i remember one awful incident when learning my way around secondary > school, there was a turning I needed to make. The bloody stupid > mobility officer did it with me inumerable times, counting steps and > being generally stupid! > > I eventually asked my mum (who is also visually impared), ---- and she > instantly pointed out that four feet beyond the turning was a cattle > grid, ---- so all I neded to do to find it was go too far, reach the > grid and turn back. > > needless to say, i called the mobility officer some very colourful > names after that. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
