January 23rd, 2009 ~ Trackback

There are many examples of red5 chat tools and apps all over the web. The downside is, we have yet to see any examples used in commercial projects or any real world examples, which makes it difficult for most developers, who are not involved in open source collaboration’s, to see the benefit of using Red5.

However, that being said, I am very excited and proud to say that I, including many other talented developers, was involved in the conceptualization and development of an outstanding, groundbreaking, and innovative use of Red5 for a major web project…

ZOS – Last Tango in Jadac – http://zostv.com/interactive

Last Tango in Jadac, follows an interactive cinematic following the characters of the series featured on The Movie Network.

The experience is a mix of Papervision3D, Red5, and interactive video that take you on a journey while allowing you to explore and discover your own paths and unfold the dense storyline. This project was produced by Whizbang films in association with the Bellfund and LifeCapture Interactive.

The chat tool is quite an accomplishment, it is very unique, and definitely adds to the over all user experience.  It allows for users to communicate with each other while they are exploring the the PV3 world of Jadac. Considering there are no avatars the chat tool becomes an essential part of the experience and game play by aiding users follow the storyline and successfully complete the 3 missions, and discover hidden secrets and easter eggs.

The chat tool is a multi-layered application that can be minimized and maximize, sort users, find friends, and choose from to different display options. It also allows users users to log in anonymously, randomly puts users in different rooms, displays current population, handles special characters and html tags, stores and tracks user sessions, disconnects during idle time, and more.

ZOS Chat Organized View

ZOS Chat Random View

We had many obstacles and challenges to over come while working on this project. Initially the chat tool was written in AS2 and eventually we decided to port it over to AS3, as well we had to learn how to uses eclipse, compile java, and build server Red5 modules to handle all our functions. Working on this projec was a labour of love and well worth it it.I hope that in the near future we will be able to extend the chat tool and more features as well as open source it.

At some point I will embark on a step by step tutorial of both the java and as, as well I hope to open source it. In the mean time we hope you enjoy it.

Original concepts for the chat are the brain child of Geoff Whitlock ( CEO, Lifecapture Inc. ), creative concept developed by  Dan Riley ( Creative Director, Lifecapture Inc. ), Lead developers Brendan Sera-Shriar and Ryan Andal ( Contracted by Lifecapture Inc. for this project ), Red5 Java developers Brendan Sera-Shriar and Andy Shaules ( Contracted by Lifecapture Inc. for this project ).

The entire project took over 10 months to develop with team of 20 plus developers, designers, writers, directors, producers, motion graphic artists, animators, and other specialty staff, please visit http://zostv.com/interactive for a full list of credits.

Visit http://zostv.com/interactive for the full experince.

Categories: AS3, Java, Red5 ~