[2D/3D] Games within MediaLab

[Trevor Newell]

[edited from support email]

We're hoping to use a task which can be both cooperative and competitive. Our initial thought was similar to virtual tennis or pong. Can games like these be integrated into the MediaLab program and do you have any other ideas for cooperative and competitive games that would be useful?

[Trevor Newell]

When integrating either a 2D or 3D game into a MediaLab experiment, there are two possible routes I could see using:
1. An executable.
2. Using HTML/Flash/etc.

Any .EXE can be launched through a MediaLab experiment with command line parameters specified; however the software itself can't actually be used to program a complete game like 'Pong'. The problem with using a .EXE is that upon launching a .EXE the MediaLab window itself would lose focus so that the new window could be accessible. This isn't quite ideal given that MediaLab would then become a 'background' window. You get more power out of a .EXE; however the additional power available isn't -really- going to be used in a way that an HTML/Flash object can't just replicate.

In my opinion, the better route to go would be to use an HTML object with a Flash/Java/ASP/PHP/Ruby/etc. game integrated in. You still have a lot of flexibility by taking this route, and the actual HTML document can be displayed from right within MediaLab itself, meaning that the MediaLab window will always have focus.

It should also be noted that MediaLab can easily alter HTML documents. If you choose to integrate a game as a custom item through HTML, you can use MediaLab to effectively manipulate a variety of the game's 'base' variables. For instance, let's say that the user input their name at the start of the experiment. This variable could later be recalled through an excel worksheet, and then integrated into an HTML document. The HTML document could use this variable to tell the game what the player's name is. More information on this functionality can be found here:
http://www.empirisoft.com/medialab/h...stom_items.htm
http://www.empirisoft.com/medialab/h...d_features.htm