comStar Firewall alert - PhaseThrough
comStar Firewall alert - PhaseThrough
comStar Firewall alert - PhaseThrough
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
siMsense and skillware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .<br />
186<br />
POV wet record simultaneously, which can be crucial when you<br />
want to get the two POVs in the climatic fight sequence meshing<br />
up just right. When the technicians have the final experience<br />
record ready, they use the simsynths output samplers to transcode<br />
the record into a compressed format that can be put down onto<br />
media or broadcast wirelessly.<br />
Simsynths range in quality and cost, from small prosumer<br />
models that can modulate only a few EC/IC baseline tracks and<br />
process only a single POV to high-end studio simsynths that have<br />
forty-eight racked EC/IC modulators, polyPOV cross-processors,<br />
full emotive mapping software, and samplers that can output in<br />
just about any compression format known.<br />
experiencing a SiM<br />
A studio can create a masterpiece sim, but unless it can be<br />
experienced, it won’t mean a thing. Fortunately, experiencing sims<br />
is simple these days, since many commlinks include a sim module<br />
that can process ASIST. Even though experiencing a sim is easy<br />
now, there are still a few considerations to keep in mind.<br />
output formats<br />
Nobody markets wet records, even though there are a handful<br />
of freaks out there that would buy them. The simflicks that<br />
you and I experience have gone through post-production and have<br />
been sampled into a compressed format that is easier to distribute.<br />
The compressed ASIST is either broadcast over the Matrix<br />
or burned down to a piece of storage media and then our<br />
sim modules or sim decks uncompress the ASIST during<br />
playback. The three most standard forms of compression<br />
are listed below, though many others exist.<br />
Direct Experience Format (DIR-X) is a lossless<br />
form of ASIST compression, meaning that when uncompressed<br />
the simsense signal is identical to the pre-sampled<br />
signal; no signal quality is lost whatsoever. Aside from the<br />
wet record, this is the closest you can possibly get to actually<br />
being there and actually being the performer. However,<br />
DIR-X files are massive and are impractical for broadcasting<br />
over the wireless Matrix. Most wireless users don’t want<br />
to wait for hours for their sim to transfer and many nodes<br />
will block file transfers of this size to prevent them from<br />
bogging down their bandwidth. For this reason, DIR-X<br />
is usually only used for special theatrical releases or for<br />
special edition pay-per-view transfers. Despite being impractical,<br />
there is a small market out there among simphiles<br />
for DIR-X recordings.<br />
ASIST Control Transport (ACT) is a far more<br />
common form of simsense compression recognized by<br />
all commercial simdecks and sim modules. ACT files are<br />
about one percent of the size of the same recording in<br />
DIR-X, but that file size comes at a loss of signal quality.<br />
ACT works by sampling only specific signal maps on each<br />
track instead of the whole thing and then adds a command<br />
set to the file. This command set instructs the sim module<br />
or simdeck to approximate the missing pieces using the<br />
user’s own senses and emotions and a standard library of<br />
sensory/emotive tweaks. So in a scene where you are supposed<br />
to feel Nicky Saitoh’s raging anger, you are instead<br />
feeling your own raging anger tinged with a bit of what it is<br />
like to be an angry Nicky Saitoh. Most users won’t know the difference,<br />
however. How well a sim module can interpret the command<br />
set depends on the quality of the sim module, so your experience<br />
will get better on better playback machines. The manageable size<br />
of ACT files makes it the primary compression method used for<br />
simflicks, whether they are distributed on storage media or broadcast<br />
over the wireless Matrix.<br />
Scalable ASIST Stream Format (SAS) is the most popular<br />
format used for all those augmented reality overlays and is understood<br />
by all sim modules. The important thing about SAS is<br />
that it allows for better compression by prioritizing tracks and by<br />
relying heavily on a command set to approximate the signal using<br />
the user’s own senses and emotions. Since emotive tracks are rarely<br />
used in augmented reality and even then only on a rudimentary<br />
level, the emotive tracks are sampled infrequently. Similarly, since<br />
augmented reality doesn’t need the user to reproduce a specific<br />
performer’s ASIST, it can put most of the work on the sim module<br />
and sample less of the ASIST. If Stuffer Shack wants their AR ad to<br />
make a user feel hungry, they don’t care if you feel the same hungry<br />
that Joe the Out-of-Work Sim Performer felt, so they let the sim<br />
module approximate your own feelings of hunger. Simflicks are<br />
almost never distributed in SAS format because it removes the<br />
major draw of simflicks, the ability to experience something as if<br />
you are someone else.<br />
Unwired<br />
Simon Wentworth (order #1132857) 9
Change language