hi.
i started working on an adventure game whose interface is text-based… that is … the user issues commands by typing text. i also need the regular FPS input (to look around and move, etc)
do you have any advice on how to create the command console? my biggest problem now is how to capture the Input stream from the keyboard… looking at the JME examples … it looks like you can only use keys to trigger events.
thanks in advance for any insight you might have on this.
Use Swing components with the JMEDesktop implementation. That would be a pretty easy way to get going.
i've read that using JMEDesktop would impact performance … i am thinking of using FengGUI
BUI is quite performant too.
…but the game idea is very interesting 
so you interact with a 3d world by typing text? post in the showcase as soon as you have something to show. 
Hi,
I got no real advise on your actual question however I do wonder how this game is going to work?
Having the game world actions based on typing sounds heavy (that is you'll be typing a lot). So using the mouse to look around would result in you having to type with one hand or constantly switch back and forth between the keyboard and mouse. Eitherway it sounds kinda annoying to me.
Also if you are using the standard FPS control's you'll actually need to switch to a typing mode (like UT, Quake etc) which would be insanely annoying if you had to type loads 
(although that would make getting focus easy)
Just some design issues to think about really.
- Chris
Who remembers the words: "bite lip"? 
vear said:
Who remembers the words: "bite lip"? :D
The Hulk game?
renanse said:
vear said:
Who remembers the words: "bite lip"? :D
The Hulk game?
Correct.
Back in the old days there were lots of good text-based adventures. And i remember some which were in-between text and point&click. The screen elements were shortcuts to textual commands. Clicking on a door would generate an "open door" command, etc.
In todays perspective a textual 3D adventure could be a very interesting idea. 3D interaction could be as normal, but NPC conversation could be text based. A boring thing in adventures is that all NPC's have a predefined set of questions and answers. Using textual interaction you could freely "talk" with NPC's about anything, getting information and solving puzzles as you do.
And an idea for your textual interface: if it fitts with your world, why not make comic-book style text-bubble in which you can type? By clicking on an NPC you would get the "talk" bubble, and by clicking on your character get the "think" bubble.
Even Zak McKracken was kind of that mix. You could click the screen elements, but you could as well enter key shortcuts to them. The mouse was "only" a tool to mix the various kinds of possible actions.
i suppose you both mean SCUMM. hehe. you could do quite funny "command" combinations.
still, what vear suggests sounds very interesting and challenging. on the other hand i would miss the funny dialog options such adventures always provided. ahh… the old days…
edit: how would you call such a system "scummy monkey" ? 
with text commands, computational linguistics (natural language processing, etc) and proper AI system you can make the game more open-ended. Gentleman Hal: the point and click stuff is faster and maybe less annoying but in terms of story telling and game play the menu-driven adventure games are limited because the paths are finite and scripted. i am also trying to design something new and challenge the old forms. there are plenty of designers riffing on the same “templates”
have you guys/gals heard of Facade? disregard the graphics and play it or/and read about it:
http://www.interactivestory.net/
btw I figured out how to switch from text input to FPS (using the TestKeyInput example. duh!). I still cannot disable the FPS handler and while i type, the bound keys still trigger actions.
Have you made any progress in natural language processing? This is something I've been working on here and there for my own AI system to be able to create bots that can comprehend natural chat messages sent in-game and respond appropriately.