Topic awaiting preservation: Black & White (Page 1 of 1)

I was wondering if it was ever possible to make a web page implement a feature from the game Black & White. In Black & White, when you want to use a magic, you would draw certain shapes using your mouse. Of course, these shapes didn't have to be precise, in that if circle referred to fire, you can draw an oval, and it would still recognize it as fire. I'm guessing I'd have to follow the mouse position, save them in an array, and find patterns where the mouse seems to be drawing some sort of shape. I'm stuck on the algorithms that I would use. They used spiral circles, spiral squares, circles, double circles, squares, zig-zags, etc. in Black & White. Is it even possible to do so much without lagging the page too much?

Oh, that's a cool idea. It's entirely possible, as long as you don't have to draw the shapes on the screen (*that* would be very difficult). Yeah, keep an array of the mouse's position, and look for key characteristics... like, if it went up, left, down, and right, with only occasional errors, and then it did that again and again, each time doing it over a smaller period of time, then it probably went in an inwards spiral.

junkyboy: I'm a big fan of B&W and I know how frustrating it can be to not quite get the shape right (or making the wrong shape) and although it sounds like a good idea (it does lead to a very uncluttered interface) I suppose it depends on what you are planning (there are probably simpler ways of doing this!!). Might Flash be a better medium to do this in?

One additional thought is that Opera already has some kind of system like this doesn't it? I don't use it myself but I wonder if it might interfere with that. Worth looking into if you follow this route.

Sorry I couldn't be any help on he main thrust of your question.

Emps

Sorry I got back so late - my computer just went caput.
Slime - Thanks for the input. What should I use in this case, though? DHTML/Javascipt? Or should I try creating a Java applet (I guess that would have to take the whole screen though, right?) ??
Emperor - hehe, I just thought it would be a really cool idea to implement :P I might try looking into flash as you said, but I'll try other methods as well Thanks for the input tho!

I guess it's best to stick with DHTML/Javascript.. Well, time for tons of reading

junkyboy: I'm sure its doable (as long as you make the shapes nicely distinctive - as they do in B&W, although I still mess things up more often than I'll admit!!). You need to start by tracking the cursor. Have a look at this:
www.gurusnetwork.com/tutorials/dhtml/cursorchaser/cursorchaser.html

Bugs is very good at this type of thing (amongst many other things, of course!!) so have a look at his site too.

Emps

Ooooooo, that's some interesting stuff you guys are kicking around here. I'm not at all familiar with the game Black & White, what's it all about? Is this like a board game or a computer game?

. . : newThing

Emperor - wow, thanks for the link! This tute is really great!! Hehe, I sometimes get the magics all messed up too
Slime - B&W is sort of like the game Settlers (or.. SOMEWHAT similar to SimCity as well ), except B&W incorporates a magical being (monkey, cow, etc.) in the game as well. Basically, you're a God, and you try to convert all the people on the map to your "religion," I suppose. You use magical spells (rain, fire, lightning, etc.) to try and convince the people on the map that a God DOES exist, and to cast these spells, you're supposed to draw shapes on the ground with your "magical hand" (i.e. the mouse, hehe). They have various spells and various shapes as well. So, I was thinking if it was possible to "draw" images with the mouse (for example a circle), and link that to, for example, a link on my page I just thought it would be really cool if this was possible, and as Emperor said, I guess it's all got to do with creating distinct shapes I gotta reinstall B&W sometime, hehe :P

junkyboy, I'm not aware of anyone who has done this in dHTML yet but I'm tempted to try someday. Thanks for the description of the game, it's sounds very much like a game I used to play a few years ago called Populous.

. . : newThing

Hehe, I've heard people saying that B&W is a clone of Populous in some sense I'll be trying to code this myself, although I probably won't get anywhere with this :P Well, gotta start coding

Hardly a clone!! It is a God Sim and it is made by the same guy but it is a long way from Populous in look and feel (lets be honest the first Populous was 10 odd years ago now wasn't it?? So computer specs have moved on a bit). One of the impressive and innovative features is the 'stripped down' user interface - it is basically your Godly hand which is used for most things: interacting with your creature/the environment, casting spells, etc. I've wasted plenty of time on both games although why I don't just call down some Hot Hail for real is a mystery!!

junkyboy: It is worth looking into as an experimental interface and I'm sure a number of us would be interested to see how you do with this so keep us posted. Keep the shapes simple and distinctive so the sums don't get out of hand.

Emps