2018-04-22 21:49:34

Hi all,
Sorry for the shoddy subject line.

I've been working on Mindspace for a while now. It's what I am calling an audio-first virtual reality. That is audio is the primary means of showing information, but there is text too, since pure audio would be a drag.

It's played on the web and works on Chrome, Firefox and Safari on all opperating systems that I've tried it on (including mobile ones).

I've already got a lot of stuff working:
Rooms
subway-like cars (can be made into anything with names and sounds)
Mobiles
Phones
Shops (half implemented)

Probably other stuff that I've forgotten too.

I've started work on starships, and they can move as you'd expect, acceleration and stuff is configurable on a per-engine basis.

Everything is stored in an in-memory sqlite database that is dumped to disk every so often. As such everything is modular.

There's a few things I'm struggling with, namely starship autopilot and (ideas mainly) money / banking.

If anyone's interested in getting in on this medium-sized project feel free to check out the code and have a play, or connect to the game.

What you'll be developing (github side) is an open source server which can be used by anyone. If you've ever used Lambda MOO you'll quickly realise that what you start with is a very basic subset of commands, allowing you to enter code from the client (python command), run actions (with the action command) although you'll have neither actions or objects, the ability to accept keys from the client (with the key command), and the ability to speak through your microphone and have it sent to everyone else in the current room, although there'll be no way of starting that from the client without running something like the following:

send({name: "toggle_recording"})

If you want to help out game-side, it'll be a game which I control, usual stuff about being a builder or admin applies: Don't be horrible basically. Other than that the game-side stuff hasn't been thought through (apart from the back story which I wrote). This isn't because I'm not going to think about it, it's just that currently it's only me developing it, with a friend of mine occasionally building stuff and testing things.

I'm really chuffed with what I've got so far, and hopefully others will find it interesting.

Eventually the instance that I'm running will be a game which I'll announce to the public. I want to get a few more things running there first though.

If you want to get in touch with me, my email address is .

Hope to hear from some of you.

Take care,

Chris

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I have code on GitHub

2018-04-23 04:12:48

OK, a few things. I've tried your game and like what I see so far. It seems quite nice, and immersive. My only concern on that front is that the rooms seems a little to big for my comfort, like I'm always walking through areas with nothing interesting going on and it makes for a boring journey always walking from end to end at least 50 or more steps most of the time.

Aside from that, what you have going is a decent start.

I do know some MOO coding, but there are far better people here than I. I am a fairly decent builder though. If you need help with either, just let me know.

Facts with Tom MacDonald, Adam Calhoun, and Dax
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2018-04-23 06:51:08

as I've allready said, I'm happy to join in, even because I think I can learn from this project

Paul

2018-04-23 16:46:53

Hi both,
Thanks for the replies.

@ironcross32, the Antara is big for 2 intentional reasons:
Firstly it's an intergalactic ship. Not sure if you found the history or not, but it's in there somewhere.
Secondly, I was hoping people could use that time to read up on stuff, check out hotkeys or listen into public communications channels (not applicable at the minute because there's hardly anyone online).

Given these two facts, do you still think it's too large?

Also, it's not written in MOO. I just gave MOO as an example. Everything server side is Python, with the web client (which changes rarely because of its dumb nature) written in HTML / JavaScript.

@pauliyobo, I know you can contact me in several ways, but feel free to ask me anything. I'm happy to help out with understand the code, even if that means me writing in more comments... I get that I'm not too hot on writing them.

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I have code on GitHub

2018-04-23 17:23:30

Wow, I enjoy the game so far. Interestingly enough, I’m playing it on my iPhone ate. It works pretty well. I’m going to try it on my Windows PC as well. I was using the on screen keyboard on my phone to play the game. It would work much better if I use my Bluetooth keyboard. LOL.

2018-04-23 17:26:26

AH, and I thought you pulled off some ingenious way to connect MOO through a web client and stream sounds, etc. lol. Actually, yes, I do think its a bit big. One thing you could do though, if you were reluctant to shrink the rooms a bit is to add some sounds as you pass by. Static ambiances etc. like the background beeps and stuff of consoles, even if they're ones you can't use, just things to make the journey a little less boring.

Facts with Tom MacDonald, Adam Calhoun, and Dax
End racism
End division
Become united

2018-04-25 01:30:10

Hi both,
Glad it worked on the iPhone 8. Did you get sound? My fiance has been struggling recently on her iPad, and I was worried I'd messed something up.

Actually it's quite easy to set up a web-based MOO / MUD client - that's where I nicked the web socket idea from. I've never been the same since I saw Tyler Spivey's web-based MUD client setup. smile

Instead of shrinking the rooms (I like the Antara! tongue), I'll put in some kind of transport system down the centre of the ship. It would make more sense than consoles in a room which the description says is full of sleeper births.

Did you both find the lists of hotkeys and help channels and such?

BTW, if anyone has any ideas, there's an ideas system in the game. You access it from the main game menu (escape).

HTH, and thanks for all the feedback.

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I have code on GitHub

2018-04-26 01:50:25

I'm in game, now, just using the time while I plod along to reply. I like the concept here! I've not been in it long, but this has a lot of potential!

I'm interested in helping out, though I can't make any major commitments quite yet, I need to finish something else off first, but once that's put down for a while, I'd certainly be happy to make some time to help with the development if you need it.

I don't see any issues or anything yet, so you'd need to find a way of sharing what you'd like people to focus on. Or would you rather handle that through e-mail and such?

All in all, looking good so far here!

2018-04-26 17:36:54

If
You need sounds, feel free to contact me

Power is not the responsibility of freedom, but it is actually the responsibility of being responsible, it's self, because someone who is irresponsible is enslaved by their own weaknesses.

2018-04-27 01:38:13

You should update the first post with your info, your thing that I think was supposed to refer to your github repo isn't a link, and your email was blank. There is help you can access on how to add links, but ehe syntax is like this:

[url=http://example.com]Go here[/url]

. I wrapped that in a code tag so it wouldn't render. You wouldn't have to put the = there and could just open the tag and put the contents of the URL between the opening and closing tag rather than some title text and it would render the link as the URL in full.

I would be interested in helping however I can, I am best with building, don't know much about servers and stuff, but yeah I know about like the basics of python and if you have structures already set up, I could learn that.

I am complete at building, meaning I don't leave rooms undescribed, I set all possible message (MOO), due to the fact I've done most of my building there, etc. I am not the most poetic, or artistically brilliant, but my description I feel are complete. I've seen worse, but I've seem better as well.

Facts with Tom MacDonald, Adam Calhoun, and Dax
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2018-04-29 21:15:42

Hi all,
Just wanted to say I've got all your messages and will reply properly when I have time.

Anyone who is interested in building or helping out in game, if you could send me an in game message (press p and find my name (Cray West), so I can keep track of who is which player).

Sounds are very much welcome, as are builders, and of course coders.

Something which might interest some of you: If you download the source now from Github, there is a minimal.yaml file in there. That is a database which should be enough to get you up and running. It contains all commands, hotkeys and credits from my running version, but no rooms or objects. From that you could have a bash at building your own instance if you wanted.

Of course you'd first need to generate SSL certs using letsencrypt or by self-signing.

Thank you all so much for your continued input and encouragement.

Reply properly when I've time,

Chris

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I have code on GitHub

2018-04-30 16:15:28

As promised, a more in depth reply:
@techmaster20, I would love a full time sound designer working on this thing. Of course there has to be some ground rules, the most important of which being that none of the sounds used can be illegally obtained.

Secondly it's worth noting that there is currenly no money in Mindspace. There is of course the advertising framework which is populated with a few place-holder advertisements. People can get rid of them ads by paying me and I'll set their donator flag, and there will hopefully be some money coming in from ad revenue, but I doubt it's ever going to be a multi-million pound business. Also the sounds are currenly uploaded to Github with the code, and I've no immediate plans to change that until someone gives me a valid reason for doing so.

That said what I am offering to anyone who works with me are honest references if you need them for any other work - I'm not looking to keep people hostage! smile

@ironcross32: If you're interested in building then please feel free to log in and I'll assign you a test zone.

I'm not looking for the biggest or the best, I'm looking for people to create zones that captivate players' imaginations.

I should say right off the bat that as a builder you would be a member of staff on Mindspace and will be expected to act as such.

I've just revoked a builder's admin permissions because they were flashing their teleport abilities over skype while not actually doing all that much in the game. I'm honestly not a task master - actually I quite like to work at a relaxed pace - but I won't tolerate people dicking around.

Anyways, if this post hasn't put anyone off I'd love to hear from you both, and anyone else who is interested in participating.

I have just organised the todo list into "Completed" and "In Progress" folders which should help anyone whose interested find themselves a task to tackle. Of course people are welcome to submit a pull request with suggestions for more todo items.

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I have code on GitHub

2018-04-30 17:49:10

I can tell you that I've served as staff before on certain projects, and I get the level of professionalism that must be demonstrated. I co-administrate a MUD now. I am not the original creator, but I help him run things. We don't have much of a player base, but we're not much of a game. We do have a lot to offer, its just not in the traditional sense. For instance, there is an open, non-linear approach to doing things, you are never told do A, B, C, then D. We also simulate everything from power to food production. When players buy food, the system on the back end accounts for that food and deducts it from our total. If it isn't there to deduct, the player still gets their food (indeed, the accounting doesn't take place immediately), but the system will flag it and keep checking until we do have the food at certain intervals.
I believe I can fulfill your requirements, I'll check in a little later.

Facts with Tom MacDonald, Adam Calhoun, and Dax
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2018-04-30 21:34:32

@ironcross32 Sounds awesome. I look forward to chatting with you. I'm on English time so hopefully I'll still be on when you rock up.

I'm particularly interested in the simulation aspect of your game! Are there publically-available connection details?

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I have code on GitHub

2018-05-11 14:57:17

Hi.
I have briefly given this a try.
Holy shit this is much cooler than I thought from reading the description. Am I understanding this right, that I can have my own server, and make my own game out of this? This is a fantastic system...

Best regards SLJ.
Feel free to contact me privately if you have something in mind. If you do so, then please send me a mail instead of using the private message on the forum, since I don't check those very often.
Facebook: https://facebook.com/sorenjensen1988
Twitter: https://twitter.com/soerenjensen

2018-05-11 15:12:33

Yes that is correct. All you need to do is generate your own SSL certificates and run the server with minimal.yaml.

I'd recommend copying that file to be world.yaml (which is the default filename for the database), that way you can use the included start.sh script which automatically does a git pull before loading the world.

It is worth noting that by default log files are piped to a file called mindspace.log. Of course you can change that on the command line with something like:

python main.py -l - ...


Where ... is the paths to the cert files in whatever order they go in... I wrote start.sh so I didn't have to type it all the time.

With the default logging setup, you can issue a command like:

tail -f mindspace.log

on a different console.

I'll put all this in a readme file which will probably help new people.

HTH.

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I have code on GitHub

2018-05-11 15:34:04

Yeah I gave it a shot and it wouldn't run, but python stuff never does for me lol. It was mad simple to get an SLL cert which I'm using for other shit as well using certbot.

Facts with Tom MacDonald, Adam Calhoun, and Dax
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2018-05-11 15:47:37

How did you try and run it? It should be a case of:

virtualenv -p python3 env && source env/bin/activate && pip install -Ur requirements.txt && ./start.sh

That's assuming that certs/privkey.pem and certs/fullchain.pem exist of course.

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I have code on GitHub

2018-05-11 15:59:16

OK... It's even easier now. I've put defaults on the key filenames, so as long as they're there,

python main.py

should do the trick.

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I have code on GitHub

2018-05-11 16:07:16 (edited by SLJ 2018-05-11 16:34:20)

Hi Chris.
Wow, sounds fantastic.
I don't have much experience with Python yet, and I don't have much experience with SSL certificates. But it shouldn't be difficult to learn all this to get it up and running. I'm running a Ubuntu server and my own website, so I have what's required.
I'm so impressed by how all this works. Has combat been made yet? Can you go up and down using the z coordinates like jump or by using stairs? Well, time to dive some more into this awesome project...
Edit the post with some more questions:
1. THe actual theme is a space theme. If I run my own server, can I then choose an other theme? I know I of course have to add all the text, sounds etc. on my own. What I mean is: Is the game designed so I can't easily change things into an other theme.
2. I have something in mind in danish, my primary language. I know I can make all room descriptions, items etc. in danish. Is the game multilanguage ready, meaning items, rooms etc. can be written in multiple languages? That would be awesome.
I have looked at all the files from the master release. I don't know the Python programming language, I have briefly looked at it and might continue studying it, but it all seems very strait forward and extremely organized regarding to all the files and folders. I'm so impressed...
I have looked in the requirements.txt, which mentions a ton of things which I never have heard about before. smile So I basically just need to install all the requirements using Ubuntus apt-get function?
Again, this project seems so unbelievable awesome, and I'm sorry if you find all those questions overwhelming...
Oh by the way: I have tested this on my Mac using VOiceover in Safari. The first few minutes, all the text got read automatically by VOiceover. But suddenly, I needed to read it manually. But it's a great start for sure...

Best regards SLJ.
Feel free to contact me privately if you have something in mind. If you do so, then please send me a mail instead of using the private message on the forum, since I don't check those very often.
Facebook: https://facebook.com/sorenjensen1988
Twitter: https://twitter.com/soerenjensen

2018-05-11 22:25:47

@SLJ:  Combat system isn't allready introduced, we're working on it.
No, currently you are not able to walk up and down.
Well, I do believe you can change the theme of the game, because the game it's primarily a space game, but it's not concentrated only on that
The goal of the game is to have a realistic simulation game, where space will be part of it.
About the language, I believe we still need to make a  translation system.

Paul

2018-05-11 22:31:38

Hi,
There is no translation system, but honestly Python supports Unicode, so you can write stuff in whatever language you like.

Way I see it... We can add in an unlimited amount of tables, so if people want spells or whatever, all they have to do is add the relevant models in the db directory, import them and they're good to go. You'll get no starships getting in your way if you want to create Hogwarts or whatever.

I've kind of been ignoring the z coordinate for now... Sort of wish I'd not bothered implementing it to be fair. smile

Only thing that uses it so far are ships when they land and launch.

Hope I answered all of your questsion. If I did not feel free to ask more stuff, and never feel like you're asking anything stupid. There are very few stupid questions, but lots and lots of stupid answers. Damn. I should have that as my signature! tongue

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I have code on GitHub

2018-05-12 00:21:21

The one reason why I would  suggest changing it is if we created a Bit torrent sync folder between me and you for the sounds. Don't worry, all the stuff I'd give you is strictly recorded by me. I don't want to deal with licenses, and have the skill and equipment to record, and most audio games use all the same libraries anyway, and we  need some original stuff.

Power is not the responsibility of freedom, but it is actually the responsibility of being responsible, it's self, because someone who is irresponsible is enslaved by their own weaknesses.

2018-05-12 05:16:18

My instance is up and running, you can go to my site at http://ironlabs.me and click the link to get there or just click here.

Of course I couldn't' have done that on my own because I'm an idjit, so needed a lot of help from @chrisnorman7, but it is running now. Not a lot here as I'm still working on it.

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2018-05-12 06:20:06

@23, I believe that's doable.
We can get new sounds as long as they don't break any copyright or license.

Paul