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Work in Progress / Virtual Office

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Gil Galvanti
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Posted: 26th Jul 2006 05:11 Edited at: 28th Jul 2006 05:53
Virtual Office


Well this is an idea I had while driving in the car for a long time on a vacation a few days ago, so I decided to make something of it. It's nothing major, I've only worked on it for about 3 days, and much of the code has just been reused from other programs I've done .

About
I developed Virtual Office mainly for use by indie teams of game developers. Because we don't actually work in an office together day by day, it's difficult for us to get things done as fast and efficiently as we could. Virtual Office helps to solve (or will) part of that problem. It can be described as a 3D representation of a forum, IM, email, chatroom, and organizer all in one. It is like a virtual office (hence the name ), that I hope to be able to make support about 6-8 people through the internet, where they can access their "office", which other members could leave notes, videos, and drawings in. If multiple members are logged on at once, it could be used as a "meeting room" where visual representations such as notes, videos, and drawings could be used as well as speaking. So enough explanation, here's what I've done and what I have yet to do:

Done (for the most part):
writing
moving objects
chat
movement
sit/stand
title/rename objects

Partially Done/In Progress:
collision 5%
drawing 50%
inventory 50%
video 50%

Todo:
container (filing cabinets)
save/load
online

Ok, now for some screenshots:
Here's the writing system, but there's a bug where when you backspace it doesn't delete the letter before, can't figure out why >


You can show video's, I have to make it where you can choose which one, and add more options right now you can start and pause.


You can sit in all the chairs


You can rename certain objects, such as paper to identify them.


You can see here the renamed item, where it used to be called paper.


You will be able to move all small objects such as paper, videos, etc. It's pretty cool, if I do say so myself . You can make it come closer to you or go farther by left clicking or right clicking.


You can draw on the whiteboard, needs some work, but is functional.


And here's the chat system.


So, like I said, I haven't spent much time on it, so I won't be greatly offended if you hate it . I'll probably just make it open-source after i get some opinions, and I have no idea where to go with online right now. What do you think?

Pirates of Port Royale
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The crazy
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Posted: 26th Jul 2006 05:13
I love it. Very, very nice.

Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 26th Jul 2006 05:54
Very interesting idea. Coming along nicely as well.

First thing I'd say is that you need some lightmapping done on that office. It will really bring it to the next level. If you can't do that, then I'd be willing to help you out.

Next, I don't know how far you've gotten in this area, but what system of information sharing do you think you're going to have? Such as, the ability to share real documents and source code. In order for the office to be practical, I think that it is very important that you be able to do so.

Keep up the good work.


Come see the WIP!
Oddmind
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Posted: 26th Jul 2006 05:55
hey I like that! thats really neat.

Not very efficient, but it is pretty cool.

formerly KrazyJimmy

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Gil Galvanti
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Posted: 26th Jul 2006 07:33
Thanks for the compliments .

Quote: "First thing I'd say is that you need some lightmapping done on that office. It will really bring it to the next level. If you can't do that, then I'd be willing to help you out."

well, I actually do have it in CS4, but the lightmaps don't transfer to DBP (well there's a way to get them to, but I haven't looked into it yet)

Quote: "Next, I don't know how far you've gotten in this area, but what system of information sharing do you think you're going to have? Such as, the ability to share real documents and source code. In order for the office to be practical, I think that it is very important that you be able to do so."

yeah, i forgot to mention that, I actually do plan for you to be able to import real documents and copy and paste information from other programs like MS Word and DBP .

Pirates of Port Royale
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Agent Dink
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Posted: 26th Jul 2006 08:13
I have a suggestion for lightmapping...
Kudos to Evolved once again!

http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=71514&b=6

I'm working on a high res photorealistic texture pack. High res as in 7 megapixels, e-mail me with suggestions.

The end is near
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Posted: 26th Jul 2006 10:20
cool when do you think you will release it?

My current saveings for the PS3 is: $472.50 out of $600 !!!
Agent Dink
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Posted: 26th Jul 2006 10:25
Quote: "My current saveings for the PS3 is: $472.50 out of $600 !!!"


That's kinda sad... Not the fact that you are working hard to get the cash, or that you want a PS3... Just the fact its so ridiculously expensive. You could buy a new computer for that price.

I'm working on a high res photorealistic texture pack. High res as in 7 megapixels, e-mail me with suggestions.

The end is near
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Posted: 26th Jul 2006 10:39
That thing is worth more than a computer with that Blueray player that usually costs $1000+!

My current saveings for the PS3 is: $472.50 out of $600 !!!
zzz
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Posted: 26th Jul 2006 13:10
It looks pretty cool... But is it fun with a virtual office?

Opposing force
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Posted: 26th Jul 2006 13:20
This is the most original idea I have ever seen! Great work Gil!

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UFO
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Posted: 26th Jul 2006 15:37
Looks nice. Not sure how you will make it into a game, but sounds really cool.

Gil Galvanti
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Posted: 26th Jul 2006 17:54
Thanks . Like I said, it's more of a program/application than an actual game you'd play for fun .

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Alquerian
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Posted: 26th Jul 2006 19:44
Gil, This is a really interesting concept. It goes along with an idea I have been working on which was a 'virtual office' of sorts as well. Keep up the good work.

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle
Glenn Carter
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Posted: 26th Jul 2006 20:08
This is a great idea! Really innovative and impressive so far.

Glenn Carter
WarGoat
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Posted: 27th Jul 2006 18:02
wow! That's a really cool idea! Keep up the work.


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Posted: 28th Jul 2006 00:54
Did you ever figure out 2d drawing?

common people are walking in line.
Gil Galvanti
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Posted: 28th Jul 2006 05:52
thanks again for the compliments.
Quote: "Did you ever figure out 2d drawing?"

hehe, no, I decided to come back to it later, cause I couldn't figure it out .

Pirates of Port Royale
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Posted: 28th Jul 2006 06:09 Edited at: 28th Jul 2006 06:11
Gil, I hope this helps.

for mouse position x,mouse position y,drawing a line,and mouse is pressed, fill in the appropriate db functions.

btw, i almost forgot. good work on this so far!

common people are walking in line.
Gil Galvanti
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Posted: 28th Jul 2006 06:44
Quote: "Gil, I hope this helps.
+ Code Snippet

do
oldx=mouse position x
oldy=mouse position y
if mouse is pressed then draw a line from mouse x,mouse y to oldx,oldy
loop


for mouse position x,mouse position y,drawing a line,and mouse is pressed, fill in the appropriate db functions."

hmm...thanks but I've tried that, and I tried it again, and unless I'm just doing something wrong it won't work . Run this:


Quote: "btw, i almost forgot. good work on this so far!"

thanks .

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RUCCUS
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Posted: 28th Jul 2006 07:16
It is working, just too fast. It stores the old positions and the new, and draws a line. Then it goes to the next loop cycle, where you still are clicking with the mouse, and now it stores the old positions and the new positions as the mouse's position, since you aren't moving it. So now it's drawing a line 0 pixels long. You need to add some delay or a requirement to click again in there to fix it.

Come to think of it, storing mouse postitions you should be using floats not integers.


Excellent idea for the game, it looks pretty good graphics-wise as well.

Goodluck,
- RUC'


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Jeku
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Posted: 28th Jul 2006 07:17
This is an interesting concept How are you doing multiuser functionality? Are you useing a network DLL?


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Jack
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Posted: 28th Jul 2006 07:27
original Idea

Gil Galvanti
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Posted: 28th Jul 2006 07:37
Quote: "It is working, just too fast. It stores the old positions and the new, and draws a line. Then it goes to the next loop cycle, where you still are clicking with the mouse, and now it stores the old positions and the new positions as the mouse's position, since you aren't moving it. So now it's drawing a line 0 pixels long. You need to add some delay or a requirement to click again in there to fix it."

Yeah, I should've thought of that, I'll have to try that.

Quote: "Excellent idea for the game, it looks pretty good graphics-wise as well. "

thanks, yeah, the graphics should look better once I can get a CS4 lightmap into DBP .

Quote: "This is an interesting concept "

thanks

Quote: "How are you doing multiuser functionality?"

that's my biggest problem right now: I have no idea. Never done multiplayer and never worked with it, i don't even know where to start with it, even getting my two networked computers connected together. I plan on looking into that when I'm almost done with everything else, unless of course someone want's to just explain how to do it .

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Darth Vader
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Posted: 28th Jul 2006 08:18
This looks cool!
I wanna a copy when its realesed!
I wish TGC would implement Anti-Alising! *Sigh*
Keep up the great work!


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RUCCUS
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Posted: 28th Jul 2006 17:21 Edited at: 28th Jul 2006 17:26
Gil if you'd like I could help out with the Multiplayer side of things if you're ok with using Benjamin's Tempest plugin. If you're interested add ask-RUCCUS@hotmail.com to msn and tell me when a good time is. (I've only really got until the end of today to help out, but that should be long enough to get a standard routine in place).

<EDIT>

If you're ok with using Sparky's dll I could help you get a collision routine working as well, up to you.


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Gil Galvanti
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Posted: 28th Jul 2006 22:00
awesome, thanks, I've sent you an email.

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RUCCUS
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Posted: 28th Jul 2006 23:27
K' replied, going out for about a half hour for now but when I get back I'll be happy to start on it (more dete's in the email/some code for you to pick apart with Tempest).


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Gil Galvanti
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Posted: 28th Jul 2006 23:34
alright, great, thanks for your help again, I've replied.

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Steam Assassin
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Posted: 31st Jul 2006 05:46
This is very interesting! I don't know about efficency, but it would certainly make things a lot more interactive!


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RUCCUS
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Posted: 16th Aug 2006 05:19
How goes the project Gil?


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Gil Galvanti
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Posted: 16th Aug 2006 06:28
well I've been busy with starting school the last few days and the few weeks before that I was working on my main project, Pirates of Port Royale with most of my time, so, although I haven't abandoned this, it's not my priority right now. I may try to get an online functionality working this week, if schoolwork isn't too much, since I've got my other computer up and running. The way you said things in the email, it sounded easy, but I doubt it is .

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Uncle Sam
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Posted: 16th Aug 2006 10:01 Edited at: 16th Aug 2006 10:01
Hey gil, for the backspace stuff for typing, if you haven't already figured it out, try this:



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Gil Galvanti
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Posted: 16th Aug 2006 15:58
thanks, yeah, I have something like that, but the strange thing is it won't work in Virtual Office, but the program I was using it in before it worked fine .

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Silvester
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Posted: 16th Aug 2006 16:21
Nice idea

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Posted: 17th Aug 2006 11:52
Can you make it so that you can draw graffiti on everything?

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Ginga
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Posted: 17th Aug 2006 13:09
I think, that this will rock once its done, and will help alot of ppl out. I know it would help me, as sometimes i program with my cousin, who lives in Australia, so meeting up to discuss things is kinda unpractical.
Sonic 91 Software
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Posted: 17th Aug 2006 23:58
I love this idea. I am an office worker myself and it looks very good, interesting and original. Can't wait until you release a beta.

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Gil Galvanti
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Posted: 18th Aug 2006 00:46
Thanks for the comments .
Quote: "Can you make it so that you can draw graffiti on everything?"

no...but it wouldn't be very hard to do, I just don't see the point on doing it on anything other than paper or the board .

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Xenocythe
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Posted: 18th Aug 2006 00:49 Edited at: 18th Aug 2006 05:28
What about meetings? Thats a cool idea. For example you could set a reminder like "walk the dog" and at the right time it would maximize itself and have people sitting in the office giving you a message to walk the dog!


Cool huh?

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RUCCUS
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Posted: 18th Aug 2006 05:13
Gil, after doing some exprimenting, the collision function I sent you has a small problem, itll work as is but when you're back up to working on the project drop me a line and Ill send the corrected function. My bad


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Gil Galvanti
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Posted: 18th Aug 2006 15:58
Alright no problem thanks .

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Kenjar
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Posted: 26th Aug 2006 12:31
How are you storing the data? On someone's central server? Or a website? How are you protecting against someone's system crashing? What sort of database are you using for long term data storage such as forum, chat logs or graphics?

Do you need a selection of different offices? I have 3D World Studio, and can knock up a few extra's if you like. Lightmapped of cause.

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Darth Vader
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Posted: 5th Sep 2006 16:12
Any news?
This program looks great!


Gil Galvanti
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Posted: 6th Sep 2006 05:57
Quote: "How are you storing the data? On someone's central server? Or a website? How are you protecting against someone's system crashing? What sort of database are you using for long term data storage such as forum, chat logs or graphics?"

Don't know haven't ever done stuff like that, and I really don't know how to do stuff like that, but I guess I need to learn soon don't I .

Quote: "Do you need a selection of different offices? I have 3D World Studio, and can knock up a few extra's if you like. Lightmapped of cause."

Eventually, thanks for the offer, I'll remember it when I get to that point .

Quote: "Any news?"

Nope, sorry, been busy with school, my main game (Pirates of Port Royale), and playing Battlefield 2 . I'll see if I can get some more work done on this sometime soon...

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Opposing force
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Hey Gil, how did you make it so the "player" can write on the whiteboard?

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Gil Galvanti
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It's actually pretty simple, I just detected if the player had gone into "draw mode" by hitting the spacebar on it, then created a white box in the upper left hand corner of the screen and painted dots whereever I clicked the mouse on it. Then I would get that image and texture the whiteboard with it . Here's the code for that part, since this will probably be open-source eventually, it doesn't really matter if it gets out :


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fasdfsdaf
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Posted: 7th Sep 2006 04:13
One problem i see with that code, in the very start. I don't know if i'm merely overlooking something, but the statement:



shouldn't that be outside of the if statement? because you don't set moving to 1 inside of the statement, and you can't get inside the fragment if you are moving, so that code will never be triggered. (unless that's the way it's meant to be)

Also, it might be easier if you drew on bitmaps (that were copied to bitmap 0 to show on the screen), and then grabbed the image from that bitmap. The reasoning behind this is that it might be easier to submit a bitmap over a jpeg, but i could be wrong (haven't coded in a while)

Just my 0.02

BTW, great job on this so far! (And what ever happened to the Port Royale WIP post? and how's the project so far?) This will be useful for all of those people who either want to fool around, or want a fun way to organize their team.
Gil Galvanti
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Posted: 7th Sep 2006 16:07
Quote: "One problem i see with that code, in the very start. I don't know if i'm merely overlooking something, but the statement:

+ Code Snippet


IF moving = 1
drawing = 0
resetdraw = 0
ENDIF



shouldn't that be outside of the if statement? because you don't set moving to 1 inside of the statement, and you can't get inside the fragment if you are moving, so that code will never be triggered. (unless that's the way it's meant to be)"

oh sorry, I should have explained that, that's handled somewhere else in the program, it's just saying if your moving the object, don't let it be drawn on .

Quote: "Also, it might be easier if you drew on bitmaps (that were copied to bitmap 0 to show on the screen), and then grabbed the image from that bitmap. The reasoning behind this is that it might be easier to submit a bitmap over a jpeg, but i could be wrong (haven't coded in a while)"

hmm...maybe your right, i'll have to look into that .

Quote: "BTW, great job on this so far!"

Thanks .

Quote: "(And what ever happened to the Port Royale WIP post? and how's the project so far?)"

I realized that it wasn't near far enough along for a WIP post so I let it die . I'm still working on it, Lukas is my "right-hand man", and I have some other team members, like the awesome 3D modeller, Heckno . I am hoping to have a new WIP post within a month or two .

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Posted: 7th Sep 2006 18:40
Hey, thanks Gil. That code will come in use. I need a blackboard for my game and this code is just what I am looking for. Thanks again.

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