Newbie adventure game question

[Liam Shannon]

Hello,

I am so new to Revolution that I don't even own it yet. That said, I  
am very excited to join what seems to be a very exciting community  
and growing capability and I hope someday to be able to contribute as  
well as query. For now though, I am just a bunch of questions.

My first question has to do with my main reason for arriving at  
Revolution. I want to create an adventure game. And while I am well- 
schooled in everything from Strata CX to Final Cut Pro,  I (since the  
demise of mTropolis) have no way to bring my individual files  
together in a working app. As a result, I have spent literally months  
and months searching for an app that would let me author on the Mac  
(if I was Windows based I realize I would have more options but that  
is not really an option). To this end, I had been trying to learn a  
program called Pipmak (http://pipmak.sourceforge.net) which is based  
on Lua and allows the creation of a really cool panoramic node-based  
adventure game experience. Unfortunately, as I do not have a  
programming base (since using Basic in the 70's) I can't even figure  
out how to launch Lua on my Mac. And Pipmak doesn't offer the other  
functionality (easy scripting, sound handling, etc.) that I need. So  
here I am.

But, I am still jonesing for the ability to create a 360 degree  
panoramic experience (like the later Myst games) and yet the folks at  
Revolution have informed me that Revolution can only create the kind  
of experience presented in the original Myst - ie. face forward, want  
to look left then click left and dissolve to another straight on  
image of what is on the left. To get beyond this they suggest  
Quicktime VR but I must admit I find Quicktime VR to be very jumpy,  
limited, and somewhat unreal feeling and I would much prefer the kind  
of feeling one gets in the Pipmak demo (http://pipmak.sourceforge.net/ 
downloads.php).

So here (at long last) is the question. Why can't one achieve the  
same effect as Pipmak in Revolution?

If it matters, the Pipmak documentation, which explains how it  
stiches panoramas out of flat images,  is also at the link above.

In advance, thanks for any thoughts.

Liam





Liam Shannon
Creative Director
Fresh Cut Grass Advertising

22 Everett Street
Sherborn, MA 01770
(508)545-2125