Art 173 Virtual Performance (vperf) Technical Notes

Simplified functional layout of vperf :

A tight and on-going community of virtual personas (avatars) will be invited to our performance set of 3D spaces. There they will interact with these 3D sets which will have active objects, links to web pages, sounds and other spaces and avatars including class members as role players (actors or narrative facilitators). This constitutes the virtual performance area. There will also be an invited physical audience observing the virtual performance via web pages, projected views of the performance and with the physical side of the role players and the “back stage staff.

The performance has many technical elements that can be used to convey the narrative and performance.

Spaces

Link and Active Objects

Community (Interactors)

Role Players

Physical Audience & Space

Story mechanisms

Spaces (3D sets and there associated links)

Set the mood

- Background sound

- Look & Feel

- Object design

- Color

- Lighting

- Textures

Create staging areas

- Where people interact

- Scale effects interaction

Active Objects

- Links to Spaces, or web pages

- Audio play in range

Navigation

- Paths

Links and Active Objects

Web pages links (passive – must be clicked on to initiate)

- Convey informational details

- History, memory, mythology

- Added detail

- Left messages

- Future predictions

Object Sound (active – fires when an avatar is in range)

- Same as web links (but computational expensive and linear)

- But more subtler and environmental

- Sound and Music

- Mood, pacing, subtle clues, …

- Voice

- An object character

- A message from a character

Other spaces

- Doors to parts of the same scene

- Doors to other spaces

- Effect pacing, navigation and role players

Role Players (Class avatars in vperf space)

Avatar form

Persona & identity (filled in)

A back story (a web page click-able via the avatar)

A script or role to play

- Real character

- Give clues

- Push narrative

Community (Traveler community members who are interactors)

True interactors of the narrative

- The live of our narrative

- Will interact with each other that is the story

- Will pass clues and story elements on to each other

The invitation – we use the invite as a narrative element

- Email – different invites create narrative conflict

- Web page

Confederates

-Community members who work with us

False confederates – ‘’ but with a false narrative for conflict

Known histories

Narrative needs to be at there level

- As interactors they must “get” the story

Reuse ( i.e. rocky horror)

- Can our vperf be reused by the community

Physical Audience and Space

Note: a client = 1 person in world via a networked computer

Large projected view of performance space

- More than one view/projector?

- From the view of a role player ( reuse of client)

- Or camera operator (a separate client)

Role players

- Each needs a client

- Audience should see and give suggestion to them (via guide)

Cameraman

- Non-role player in performance who gets best footage for projected view

Posters/ Wall hangings

- To help audience with story

Festive atmosphere

- Food, wine, costumes, props

Narrative style

- For audience and interactors, best is story has many small moments that a big one, …ambient

Story Mechanisms

Onion (Dual level unfolding story)

- Simple surface level events

- Deeper level meaning for those who unfold it

Theme

- An archetypal theme that the I-narrative is placed in

- Best to pick a known genre that grounds the otherwise interactive experience

Entertaining to the casual interactor or viewer (surface of story onion)

Reveals deeper meaningful for those who fully immerse in the story

On a level that the community (interactors) can relate too

Narratives Types

- Maze

- Journey

- Discovery

- Goal-oriented