ULTIMENTLY FAR FETCHED IDEA!

Dreamcube017 · 10-15-2006, 11:16 PM

Ok, when you hear thi... read this, you might fall out of your chair, but I did a lot of thinking and this could work... But before I go into what it is, I have to educate you guys on some things first.

Ok, I am vidually impared. (I obviously see well enough to play IIDX if I sit close to the TV. :P ) ANyhow, I hang around other people that are completly blind or can't see enough to play it. I showed some of them the beatmania controller and they thought it was really cool. I also told them of other music games such as AMplitude, DDR, GH, ect. I then told one of my sighted hardcore DDR friends about the idea of making a music game that both fully sighted, and fully blind people could play. He totally dismissed it and that kind of made me angry. It was like, "Oh well, too bad for them.". So I thought about it for about a month and a half and I came up with sort of a beatmania that fully blind people could play. But right now it only has 3 notes because they have to use one hand to fell when the notes come accross. It sounds dumb, but it's just a concept. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning.

I'm sure you know what braille is. Well there's something called a braille display that is either connected to the computer or part of a small computer that talks called a Braille Lite/Type Lite/Braille Note... well, anyhow, here is a link to what a braille display looks like.

http://libbraille.org/braille.jpg

That's a pretty basic picture of one.

Ok, here's my idea. There can be more notes when I fully formulate this, but right now, like I said, there are only three, but hey. It's a start, right?

each note would be one of the dots. One of your hands would be on the keyboard to press the three coresponding keys. The notes would either stream to the left or to the right. When the note hits the very right where will be two rows of dots, one of them flashing on tempo with the song.

So bascially, the dots will scroll to the right or the left and when the get to the very right or left, you would hit the button that is needed. Of course it would have normal things like speeds and stuff and you could use most of the normal type IIDX options.... Hm, maybe there can be 4 notes instead of 3. Ok, 4.

This is ULTRA sketchy right now so it's still a rough idea.

I know it's REALLY far out there, but ignoring the work and programming that would have to be done, what do you guys think of this idea.

If you don't like it, please say so in an orderly fashion. Thank you.

Dreamcube017 · 10-16-2006, 05:03 PM

Hey, can this be moved to either the beatmania or community projects forum or both?

google666 · 10-18-2006, 09:34 PM

I think this sounds interesting...

You should develope the idea further.

Dreamcube017 · 10-18-2006, 10:38 PM

I will.. THere's only one sad problem... I suck at writing computer programs and therefore would need some help on doing that... but even before that, yeah. The idea's still in development.

Daniel · 10-19-2006, 11:12 PM

Without working really hard on it, I don't think it will ever become a reality.

Dreamcube017 · 10-19-2006, 11:54 PM

Well duh. It obvioulsy would be no easy task.

But I'm still working on a concept first. Once I figure that out, I'll be able to state what kind of engine it would run under. Heck, it could be an entirely new music game in its own. I don't know.

Well I promise you, I will come up with something. It would be greatly appreciated if you guys just tried to think up any type of music game that blind people could play only because I believe that they should have the joy of experiancing the same thrill, excitement, and frustration that we have when playing a rhythem game.

Well, just give it a thought in your spare time.

Thanks for responding.

Dreamcube017 · 10-29-2006, 02:11 PM

Ok, I know bump posts are bad, but I don't think it registers as a new post if it's not and I have an update.

Well I've talked to some more people about it and I'm going to see if the refresh rate for a braille display will be fast enoguh. If so, then I have something to work with. If not, then I'll come up with another way.

ceraf · 11-03-2006, 11:03 AM

i always thought about if there was a way for blind people to play rhythm games. I like this concept! although it may be difficult to implement, especially the hardware.

Dreamcube017 · 11-03-2006, 01:50 PM

Yeah, I know. The only think I could come up with is the braille display. The cool thing though is that everyone braille lite/Pac mate/Braille note has a braille sidplay on it. (Those are like small computer without screens.) I'd have to find a way that the engine can run on there and on a normal compujter. I'm going to take this to a person that is capable of playing the normal IIDx games and knows alot about adaptive technology That way, they will be able to see it from both ends.

giamatti · 11-04-2006, 09:29 PM

i think it's a great idea that you want wisually impaired people
to have a taste of music games
you should let a lot of people know about this
this will really catch attention

giamatti · 11-04-2006, 09:31 PM

it does seem far-fetched, for now
get it to a lot of programmers
and it won't seem so

Dreamcube017 · 11-05-2006, 12:37 AM

Yep. That's the idea.

Actually, I'm going to a conventer for blind people in a little bit. I'm not sure how I'll do it, but I'll try to explain how beatmnia works and see if anyone can help with the project.

Dreamcube017 · 11-30-2006, 10:06 PM

Ok, here's a MEGA update.

I've decided to take my sights off a IIDX for visually impared people and look at DDR which is actually quite easy. It will work like this.

It will verbally tell you the arrows exactly one beat before you step (press) them.

LIke this.

Left-step, up-step, etc.

REMEMBER, you step on the arrows exactly one beat after thay are said. I count off the beats at the start of the song so you get the idea of what the beat is.

Here is the ultiment goal.

I want to make a theme in StepMania that has it so that when you arrow up or down on the menues, it actually says what each choice is outloud instead of just making a sound. The theme should also be able to make it so that the program will tell you the arrows a beat before they are stepped instead of someone having to make a special simfile just for that. This way, any simfile anywhere can be used.
I don't know how to make themes and I'd like to learn so I could start on this or if someone would help me make it, that would be appreciated. Is this stuff possible through only a theme, or would the actual program need editing?

NOTES:
There are single and double arrows in this version of DDR. (The visually impared version. DDR-A (Accessible).)

Freeze arrows will not exist in this version because that woul make things a bit too complicated.
The theme I'm thinking of would have it so that when this theme is running, it would just turn off the freeze arrows in a song or make them into normal arrows.

The songs I'm giving you only have single arrows although they could have doubles.

I'll explain how doubles work later.

It might seem a bit confusing at first, but if you think about it, it's not that much different from the sighted version. Since it's in audio, it might be slightly harder, but I believe even hard songs are doible once you get the hang of it.

Oh, one more thing. Try the songs with the arrows on as usual, then try putting the target arrows on "dark" and the arrows on "Stealth" and try playing the song. This is how it would be for people who couldn't see them at all.

I already have two simfiles that do this. One is on beginnr mde and the other is on standard mode. I plan on making more later.
Here is a link to download the pack with the two songs in it. Yeah, my voice might not be the best, but it works.

Here's the link.
RapidShare URL (Share as much as you want) Size DLs Last download
http://rapidshare.com/files/5540920/...examples.smzip