Virtual Webcam

[Cirerey]

This might sound stupid, heck it might *be* stupid, but could a virtual webcam be set up to give people a view of the live game from www.planeshift.it. So people surfing by could see what the game is. Maybe it would be enough to get one or two to download the client. Just a thought...

[Minks]

Like that?
http://www.planeshift.it/ingame_cam.html

But they never use it anymore I think. 

[Gilrond]

You can set it up yourself if you want to run the client all the time. Probably such thing can be better done with some invisible GM clone character though. Since rendering happens in the client - it won't work on the server alone. So some client running is needed somewhere.

[Rigwyn]

You could also fake this by posting a still image of an empty town xD

[MishkaL1138]

You could also fake this by posting a still image of an empty town xD

*smacks!* Bad Riggy! Bad!

[LigH]

Miadon once used a self-built client to make "live" images for his signature. Long ago.

[MishkaL1138]

I thought the same thing as LigH. Pity he doesn't play. Everytime he did he'd tell me about putting his webcam up.

[derula]

You could also fake this by posting a still image of an empty town xD

That's not a good idea. Much better: make an animated GIF image that shows trees blowing in the wind or other nice effects in a place with no people in it. Then at least it would seem like the empty game had decent graphics.

[Talad]

If there is anyone interested in running the webcam let us know. Seems devs/gms are too busy with other tasks and we never managed to keep it up for much time.

[LigH]

  "Big Brother" surveillance in Yliakum! 

Don't we learn from the London Olympics hystery?

The terrorists never needed to plan any attacks, the costs of the counter measures ruined the economy enough already.
...

 

[Vakachehk]

How about having the webcam set as what Harnquist and other NPCs see?

[Cirerey]

How about having the webcam set as what Harnquist and other NPCs see?

A rotation perhaps, every 15 minutes or so a job moves it to another NPC's viewpoint? Harnquist, Gardr, Esamau, Jefecra, Menlil, Allellia, etc...
I'd say make it traffic sensitive (virtual motion activated) but that sounds like a PITA to build.

[Minks]

If I understand correctly, you cannot do this from the server, because the server does not create any images. (Harnquist does not see like we do...)
You need a custom built client to render and transmit the video images. And somone to run this client all day and having the bandwidth to stream it. And if you want the point of view to be changed automatically, it would have to be a botted client. 

[derula]

"Big Brother" surveillance in Yliakum! 

If the client used for the webcam disables chat and character names, you can hardly speak of a "Big Brother"-esque scenario, because PlaneShift has only like 5 different character models in the first place. Everyone looks the same!

My online character names logger is much more of a threat in that regard, muhaha.

[Rigwyn]

What exactly are you trying to show people, and is it something that you should show?

A window into the game is nice as long as what is seen will attract new players.  If I looked in and saw that the game was empty, or else that it was populated but people were just standing still and doing nothing (as is appears with role players), I would make up my mind about the game and look elsewhere.  That image screams 'boring'.