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Introduction to DreamScape.
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Building DreamScape.
DreamScape is a general purpose platform for modular plug-together multimedia content and authoring tools, an alternative to the traditional monolithic title or tool that is the environment. Authoring tools can be developed that plug into DreamScape, and allow you to create new content, as rooms and products.
A set of plug-together content can be delivered on the Kaleida Media Player without the authoring tools used to create it, and different tools can be tailored to the needs of different classes of users and content creators, and loaded only if needed.
For example, a Dungeons and Dragons scenario authoring tool can be developed, where the dungeon master has the ability to make new rooms and connect them together in a map, using a fully editable map tool, but the players use a simpler version of the map tool that is not editable, and reveals rooms only as they are visited.
DreamScape includes a collection of demonstration tools that let you navigate, examine, and change the properties of DreamScape objects.
The Dashboard is a navigation tool that lets you move from room to room, as well as a management tool that lets you access other tools, and dispose of products when you're done with them. You can move between rooms by clicking on left, right, up, and down arrows on the Dashboard. Each arrow is highlighted if there is a room in that direction. The Dashboard displays an icon for every other tool plugged into DreamScape, that you can click on to show and hide the tool. You can get rid of objects by dragging them into the trash can on the Dashboard.
The Map is a navigation tool that shows thumbnails of the rooms and their connections, and allows you to go to a room by clicking on its thumbnail. It draws a blue line around the thumbnail of the current room. The thumbnail images are dynamically updated when you leave the room. The map is also an editing tool, that lets you connect and disconnect rooms by simply bumping them together. You can pan the map around the window by dragging the background. You can also resize the map window by dragging the corners.
The Ball is a navigation tool that lets you move between connected rooms, by throwing it off the left, right, top, or bottom edge of the screen. If that edge is not connected, the ball bounces off the wall, but if it is, the ball moves into the other room, and your point of view follows it. You can connect the ball to other objects, to construct an "avitar" that can move between rooms as a whole. Try sticking the ball onto the neck of a robot torso, a couple of arms and legs onto the torso, and a flower in the robot's hand. Then throw the whole avitar into another room, by dragging the torso and releasing while moving the mouse towards the edge, and your body and your point of view will move into the adjacent room!
The Catalog is a tool that lets you browse the products available in the Warehouse, and order new instances of them into the room dynamically. The products are classified into named categories, like "Beings", "Robots", "Toys", etc. There is a popup to select between categories, so the products of the currently selected category are displayed in the window. To change categories, press down on the category name to pop up the menu. To order a new product, drag the product icon out of the window, to the place in the room where you want it.
The Timeline is a tool that lets you schedule the objects in the room to perform actions over time. The timeline window has a pane that displays time along the x-axis, with several tracks along the y axis. There is a time cursor that moves from left to right, and triggers actions as it passes over them. To schedule an action, drag an object over the timeline window, and an icon of the object will appear on the timeline, with a menu of actions the object knows how to do. The action will default to whatever the object was doing at the time you dropped it. You can change the action by pressing on the action label beneath the icon, to pop up the menu of available actions. You can change the time of the action by dragging it left or right on the timeline. You can change the scale of the timeline by dragging the scale slider on the left, and scroll the timeline by dragging the bar along the bottom. There is an arrow at the top of the timeline that defines the loop duration: when the time cursor reaches the arrow, it loops back to the beginning of the timeline.
Pavlov's Lab is a tool that lets you condition objects to react to each other. You can drag an object into Pavlov's Lab, and its reactions will be displayed. You can drag another object into the "other object" column, and you will get a new row for that object, with a menu of actions for each object. You can select an action from the menu of the other object, to define the stimulus, and select an action from the menu of the original object, to define the response. You can drag a whole row into the trash can to get rid of it.
The Magnifying Glass is a tool for zooming and panning around live images. It has a reset button that sets the zoom to 100%, and the pan to display the screen beneath the magnifying glass, as if it were a transparent window. It has buttons to zoom in and out of the image, and you can drag the image itself to pan.
DreamScape Documentation Index.
Previous:
Introduction to DreamScape.
Next:
Building DreamScape.