Comments on: On Immersion: Do Trees Fall in Virtual Forests when Nobody’s around? http://altitis.treehuggers.info/2010/05/07/on-immersion-do-trees-fall-in-virtual-forests-when-nobodys-around/ Seeking Better Worlds Sat, 11 Feb 2012 14:50:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Tesh http://altitis.treehuggers.info/2010/05/07/on-immersion-do-trees-fall-in-virtual-forests-when-nobodys-around/#comment-1811 Tesh Fri, 07 May 2010 19:25:32 +0000 http://altitis.treehuggers.info/?p=686#comment-1811 One bit of good news is that it doesn't take all that much to give the illusion of life. The wolf-rabbit thing comes out of predictable and *existing* mob behavior (likely with a little aggro flag modifier). Little tweaks to existing systems can go a long way in this vein. Environment changes are something else, but even those can be piped through a procedural system that allows small scale local changes. I think it's worth the time and dev money making these things happen, but then, I lean heavily on the "virtual world" side of MMO design rather than "gaming lobby". Thanks for the link, and great article! One bit of good news is that it doesn’t take all that much to give the illusion of life. The wolf-rabbit thing comes out of predictable and *existing* mob behavior (likely with a little aggro flag modifier). Little tweaks to existing systems can go a long way in this vein. Environment changes are something else, but even those can be piped through a procedural system that allows small scale local changes.

I think it’s worth the time and dev money making these things happen, but then, I lean heavily on the “virtual world” side of MMO design rather than “gaming lobby”. Thanks for the link, and great article!

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