Spark Editor should allow other players to connect
FocusedWolf
Join Date: 2005-01-09 Member: 34258Members
Join Date: 2005-01-09 Member: 34258Members
This may seem like an almost useless idea, but i'll put it out there anyway for peer review :P
I was thinking it would be cool if the Spark Editor featured a way for others to connect, like through a serverlist, to your instance of Spark Editor.
The benefits would be:
1. the ability to make real time changes to the map and receive immediate response.
2. real time comments from players walking around your map (maybe a permission system, like peer-protection in garrysmod, to only let certain players be able to change the map).
3. co-op map making?
4. people would be more enticed to fire up the editor / something ns2-related to do while everyone waits for the alpha of ns2.
5. some of the sub-systems of NS2 can be put into the editor (i.e. networking... maybe the character hud / weaponry / alien-human player models?) which will allow for bug reports early on before even the alpha.
Maybe somewhere down the road these features would be replicated in the actual NS2 game so instead of just joining a server to play, you might see a Spark-Editor-server to join... sort of like a avatar chat room experience / garrysmod? And also maybe down the road it would be possible to use an actual NS2 server to host these sessions, with the current Spark-Editor or your NS2.exe working as a client. Hmm maybe their's some redundancy here. :P
Just the ability to take a bare map and let other people populate it with props (i.e. garrysmod) could be useful. Especially for gigantic space-station maps with thousands of rooms :P
EDIT:
Posted this in thread but it should be here:
The "Cube Engine" has been offering this for quite some time:
<a href="http://cubeengine.com/" target="_blank">http://cubeengine.com/</a>
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Level editing has never been so much fun: a press of a key allows you to modify the geometry / textures / entities in-game, on the fly. Even more novel, you can make maps together with others online, in the unique "coop edit" mode (!)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I was thinking it would be cool if the Spark Editor featured a way for others to connect, like through a serverlist, to your instance of Spark Editor.
The benefits would be:
1. the ability to make real time changes to the map and receive immediate response.
2. real time comments from players walking around your map (maybe a permission system, like peer-protection in garrysmod, to only let certain players be able to change the map).
3. co-op map making?
4. people would be more enticed to fire up the editor / something ns2-related to do while everyone waits for the alpha of ns2.
5. some of the sub-systems of NS2 can be put into the editor (i.e. networking... maybe the character hud / weaponry / alien-human player models?) which will allow for bug reports early on before even the alpha.
Maybe somewhere down the road these features would be replicated in the actual NS2 game so instead of just joining a server to play, you might see a Spark-Editor-server to join... sort of like a avatar chat room experience / garrysmod? And also maybe down the road it would be possible to use an actual NS2 server to host these sessions, with the current Spark-Editor or your NS2.exe working as a client. Hmm maybe their's some redundancy here. :P
Just the ability to take a bare map and let other people populate it with props (i.e. garrysmod) could be useful. Especially for gigantic space-station maps with thousands of rooms :P
EDIT:
Posted this in thread but it should be here:
The "Cube Engine" has been offering this for quite some time:
<a href="http://cubeengine.com/" target="_blank">http://cubeengine.com/</a>
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Level editing has never been so much fun: a press of a key allows you to modify the geometry / textures / entities in-game, on the fly. Even more novel, you can make maps together with others online, in the unique "coop edit" mode (!)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Comments
Collaborative projects are the way of the future, and you can see this beginning to happen with Google Docs and Google Wave. I personally love the way Google Spreadsheet lets you watch other cells being selected and edited in real time by other people. Combined with a voice chat program of some kind, it allows magical things to happen.
Pulling people with different talents into the one map editor would be insanely awesome. Getting a level designer, 3d artist and 2d artist all into a vent channel and all staring at the same Spark project in real time would be too crazy awesome for words.
and we could test the netcode and engine for stability before the action functions are included (read: weapons)
do want!
If you wanna collaborate.
All pick a room and combine them...
If you wanna collaborate.
All pick a room and combine them...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
We're not talking about getting 20 expert level designers into one project so they can each go their own way.
We're talking about getting a level design guy and an art guy working in the same design space. No more "your turn, my turn".
Heck, even in the same room, it'd be useful to have those 2 people able to manipulate the project at the same time, from their own workstations, with their own setups.
Doing both together is impracticle
So... Great idea, but a lot less practical than you'd think. Of course, NS2 Team will be the judge of that last one.
I think some pretty amazing ###### could happen.
So... Great idea, but a lot less practical than you'd think. Of course, NS2 Team will be the judge of that last one.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I don't imagine it would be hell. All that's needed is some basic netcode that transmits the deltas between map states to all connected clients.
Of course the question of gain vs. cost is still valid. As you mention, someone can also just come up with a script that loops SVN updates and reloads the map so that changes are pseudo-realtime (although I'd imagine re-opening a map takes some time).
Things like this get really really messy because you have to deal with the scenarios where 2 people make changes in the same area at the same time, and due to lag neither sees the other persons change until they have finished making their own. The first change goes through fine, but when the 2nd change arrives at the server, the state that the map was in may no longer be valid due to the 1st change, and so what you are attempting to modify may not even exist anymore, let alone be at different co-ordinates to where you originally thought they were.
And there are imaginable scenarios where you want to be able to do this. For example, you could have one guy messing with the textures on a wall while another guy might be trying to extend the wall to make a longer corridor. Setting up the code to handle this sort of thing seamlessly is tough because you're dealing with an insane number of edge cases and you have to account for them all.
thats the spirit
Doing both together is impracticle<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I do both at the same time, much more reliable.
Of course I'm not two people, so that does help, but good communication is kinda important in order to do anything well.
Doing both together is impracticle<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->they actualy did that in the new house in front of my window here.
<a href="http://www.quelsolaar.com/verse/index.html" target="_blank">http://www.quelsolaar.com/verse/index.html</a>
Pretty sure it'd be inapplicable for mapping for anything anytime soon, since it's just one guy, and he's busy making his own game with it, but it's a cool concept.
<a href="http://cubeengine.com/" target="_blank">http://cubeengine.com/</a>
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Level editing has never been so much fun: a press of a key allows you to modify the geometry / textures / entities in-game, on the fly. Even more novel, you can make maps together with others online, in the unique "coop edit" mode (!)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<i>The following is just an Idea Nothing official</i>
What i am thinking personally, Is One Person who is hosting the map is an ADMIN of the map and the person who is helping has USER authority.
So the Admin Can do anything he wants. But the User has to Submit Major Changes Such as Changes in level geometry. The Authority can be adjusted to suit the USER. For example,
A Geometry User Could only edit and add Geometry to the level.
While an Props User could only edit and place the props in the level.
This could allow an quicker creation of levels and adding some networking to the Editor to get started. This would also allow the Speeding up of development of MODS for NS2.
Exactly. This is just... ridiculous. You can think of 'ideal' uses for it, but the reality is, you cannot design by committee, much less something that is 50% a work of art like a map. It'd be a gimmick people would use a couple times and then realize that Web 2.0 idiocy in everything isn't always a GOOD thing.
lmao! That just made my day.