Technical suggestion about the use of commercial Videogames for the realization of virtual spaces to be used as environments for customised adventures.

 
The commercial videogames can be used and edited also in indirect ways. Maybe that for creating a videogame, we need a virtual environment in wich set up an adventure. We can create a 3D environment with a 3D software, or we can arrange a photographic photo-set. Otherwise, we can make an hybrid between the two things, by creating a virtual set directly inside a commercial videogame.
 
Below, you can see two examples of what it is possible to do by conceiving a 3D vedogame as a virtual set. The first example is from Call of Cthulhu. The game is an adventure where is possible to explore many different areas with very different environments. Furthermore, no weapon is visible in most of the game's levels.
 
Using a software for capturing images and videos from videogames (as Fraps), we can capture a number of frames for creating a point&click 2D path. In this case, we have captured screens from the inside of a photography darkroom.

 

 

Call of Cthulhu

Those are part of the screenshot captured during the game...

 

...and this is a movie of the final result, after having arranged with Neobook the captured images in a 2D sequence, that can be used and enriched by adding hotspots and other hypermedial elements.
 

 

 
Obviously this isn't a finished game, but only an example of what it is possible to do using a commercial videogame as a virtual set for our poin & click customized adventure.

 

Here you can download both the .pub file (the project) and the executable one, in a way that you can make your tests on the functioning of Neobook (See in the Software section of the portal). To work on the .pub file, simply open it with Neobook.

 

 

 

The second example is from Golf, a sport videogame that presents many editable 3D natural environment. The screenshots were captured with Fraps again, but this time we have built with them a beautiful 360 degree panorama, similar to what is possible to realize with a photo camera. The panorama was then used to create an interactive frame with Adventure Maker.

Below you can see some examples representing the singles shots taken by the game. Note that the last two images are those mounted into the .exe created with Adventure Maker. The first picture is the one resulting from the stitching of all the captured images, the second is the same picture but elaborated with Photoshop. Remember that (in Adventure Maker) the panoramas require a 2048x2048 image to be created, as you can see in the Adventure Maker Tutorial.

By launching the .exe file that you can download below, you can pass from the right panorama (made with the second square image) to the wrong one (made with the not elaborate image), so you can see the difference.

 

 
Golf

 

 

 

 

 
Here you can download the .zip file including the .exe application and the source file. For mounting correctly the source file you must have installed Adventure Maker: go into the Program folder of windows, go into Adventure Maker's Folder, and then copy our folder into the Projects folder. Now start the program and open the project named GOLF, enjoy.