RE: Coordinates and Multiuser

Kris Kontos ([email protected])
Thu, 4 May 1995 14:09:09 +0800

> On Wed, 4 May 1995, Andrew C. Esh wrote:
>
> >Maybe we should stick to Trekish transporter technology for links. You
> >decide where to go, or accept coordinates from a local object, and then
> ><whirr-thrumm-sizzle> you're there. No viewing (except maybe on your
> >tricorder screen) of the target space until you're there. Maybe a link
> >could look like a video display. You can see a small view of the remote
> >space, and if you want to go, you just jump through the screen. I kind of
> >like that. It kind of draw the user in, so to speak.
>
> Oh, I _like_ that idea. Reminds me of Mary Poppins and the sidewalk drawings :)
> I actually like _that_ paradigm better. It's less "techie", more touchable for
> the masses.
>
> --
> Theresa Spears Beizer
> Matsushita Television Development Laboratory
> [email protected]
>
>
Since you can define your own virtual space, I had in mind something
along the Mary Poppins and the sidewalk drawings as a top level
navigation tool. My idea was to layout a fly-over grid using the ip
addresses of various sites. Using the ###.###.###.### address, I am
planning to use the first two numbers of the ip address as the
initial x-y coordinate system. Pictures or 3D icons would let me know
what major sites resided at that grid coordinate. Moving into that
picture (like Mary Poppins) would open up a second grid which
represented the last two numbers of a machine's ip address. Once
again pictures or 3D icons would represent individual sites.
Moving into any picture/icon would give pertinent information
about that site.

Admittedly, I personally could never keep up with the large number of new
sites that crop up daily. Therefore my grid map would only consist of
sites that I travelled to frequently. I also would be doing all the work
of object/picture creation.

This to me seems the simplest organization of what is going to
explode into chaos as each new virtual space is defined and created.
After all, each square in my grid would be no more than a link/portal
to your system and its own particular brand of "virtual world".

This is all in the planning stages at the moment, but I could
envision many hosts running this same "top-level" arrangement,
thereby giving everyone at least one common top-level sense of
virtual space.

Thanks,
Thorne K. Kontos