project website for:

DER RAUMAGENT


(The Space Agent, in German)
multimedia hypertext & interactive 3D audio|play
based on stories by jürgen ploog
der raumagent

concept | demos | screenshots | links | contact
A German version of this site will soon be available.
 
 

Concept.
Der Raumagent is a multimedia hypertext that realizes the 1993 short story collection of the same name by Jürgen Ploog as an interactive 3D audio play. By combining elements of classical radio play and video game features it creates an immersive multimedia space.
The stories of the cutup author and retired pilot Jürgen Ploog are highly suitable for such forms of remixes, as they are nonlinear in their narrative structure from the outset. Being cutup literature, they rather circulate around certain topoi than follow a linear story line.

From Ploogs stories passages were selected to be read out by the author, recorded and saved as audio files in a database. These audio passages then were described by a set of parameters, which in turn were used to trigger the realtime generation of the abstract 3D game world.
The listener/viewer/player can now navigate freely in these worlds und combine them to new successions by interacting with generated hyperlink objects. The successions of the audio passages add up to a complete new story in each user session.

To do so, we first had to analyze the original text concerning its structure and 'objects' (i.e. characters, environments, items with relevance to the story line, et cetera...) and assign attributes to them. Another challenge was to synchronize the players action to the audio passages (what actually makes a main part of the gameplay), as the duration of the audio passages defines the range of player activity and the length of his/her stay in a certain world.

Besides it is planned to implement diverse multi user functionalities like exchanging maps (which indicate where a player has already been) and walking through a world with another player.
Abstract.
--> download the abstract as .pdf (72kb)
--> home.
 
 

Demos.
10/10/03
We put some demo movies online.
Follow the links to open the quicktime movies:

--> demo .mov of an urban scene
--> demo .mov of an abstract scene
--> demo .mov of another abstract scene
--> demo .mov of a desert scene

18/09/03
We are currently porting the Raumagent to the Quake3 engine.
A first demo is available. We hope to present the final game by the end of the year. Further information on the changes will be available soon.

--> Download page for the Quake3 demo (currently only for Windows)

10/07/03
We have finished the initial development phase of the Raumagent. By now a shockwave 3D player is up and running to demonstrate the realtime generation of the abstract 3D worlds including audio, additional objects and hyperlinks.
In a next step we will add more terrains (i.e. passages with other environments) and source out the parameters from the lingo code to an easier to handle xml file.

--> View web based shockwave demo

If you encounter problems with the webbased demo, you can download the director players here:

--> Raumagent demo for Mac OS X (.zip/6.8MB)
--> Raumagent demo for PC (.zip/6.4MB)

An older version is also available. This demo runs by itself and will show an early 3D city environment for the Raumagent.

--> View alpha city demo

Besides we have build a small audio demo that will randomly play audio passages from the Raumagent. It demonstrates the suitability of Ploogs stories for interactive formats and besides gives a taste of Ploogs impressive reading voice.
The audio passages are in German only.

--> Play audio demo

The demos require the Macromedia Shockwave plugin. If you don't have it installed yet, get the latest version here:

--> Macromedia Shockwave Player

--> home.
 
 

Screenshots.
The screenshots below give an idea of the various possible worlds generated by the Raumagent engine. They are taken during development, so more will be added in the future.
Click on the thumbnails to view a larger image.


Screenshots.
--> More screens can be seen by reloading the home page.
--> home.
 
 

Links.
See the links below for related information. Links will be added by-and-by.

Websites by the project partners:

On Jürgen Ploog:

The official Website
http://www.ploog.com

Marcos Site on Ploog with a detailed interview
http://www.wortraum.net

Website by the publisher Galrev on Ploog and Der Raumagent http://www.galrev.com/material/seiten/ploog.htm

--> home.
 
 

Contact.
Der Raumagent is a project by Marco Spies and Michael Zoellner.
If you have any questions or suggestions please contact us:

Marco Spies (Concept and Audio)
marco.spies@gmx.de
http://www.heutenichtmorgen.de

Michael Zoellner (3D and Programming)
zoellner@formwerks.de
http://www.formwerks.de

Daniel Kupczyk (Quake3 Programming)
dk@schrittzwei.de
http://www.modul05.de

Mario Jakobs (Interactive Installation)
mario@l-4.de
General Queries:
--> send us an email.
If you have experience with either Lingo/Shockwave 3D and/or Java or a 3D games engine like Quake2, and you would like to contribute to the project, we are looking forward to your email.
--> home.