#SW Engine for TrainingCD
5 messages in this thread
I would appreciate hearing from anyone who knows of software that could be used
to create multi media, interactive training CDs. I know almost nothing of the
internal workings of a CD ROM. I know from the 15 or so CDs that I use that
various search and retrieval engines exist, and I assume they may be licensed.
What I would ideally like to be able to do create a interactive environment
where a student reacts to situations, and results flow from that response,
including FMV, graphics ect. I know this is happening to a degree on laser
disc, but the lack of installed hardware is a bottleneck.
Is it possible to do this on CD? Are there publishers who specialize in this
kind of training product?
-Chris-
You would want to look at Compact Disk Interactive by Philips. Go to the
Multimedia forum and look in the CD I library. You'll get the answers you're
looking for.
Harry
Harry,
Thanks, I'll check out the Multimedia forum.
-Chris-
Chris–
You're asking a complicated question. Harry Hallman mentioned CD-I, which you
should consider if you need low-cost delivery machines (CD-I players output to
TV monitors, and the players with FMV boards are slated to ship in August for
about $850 list price). CD-I development is expensive, however, and there's
only one authoring tool (MediaMogul) that doesn't require C language
programming. Expect to pay $45K – $55K for a development system that includes
the CD-I disc emulator and a CD-R drive (a write-once drive for making your own
CD-I disks), not to mention a fee of $500 per finished minute to compress your
FMV segments.
Another option is to look at the CD-ROM disc as a huge read-only hard disk. You
can then use any multimedia authoring software to develop interactive training
with the elements you want (FMV, graphics, etc.) and pay a CD-ROM service
center to put it all on disc for you (or buy a CD-R drive for $5K –
$8K and make the discs yourself). This means, of course, that your students
must have computers equipped with the necessary multimedia hardware to handle
sound, video, etc. You may also have to pay a run-time fee for the "playback"
part of the authoring software.
An authoring tool like Microsoft's Multimedia Viewer is less sophisticated that
a dedicated authoring system like IconAuthor or Authorware, but it has some
elements specifically designed to handle retrieval of large quantities of
information from a CD-ROM.
BTW, I do consulting on multimedia as well as custom development. Send me a
note via CISMail if you're interested.
Jim Kauffman / Lehigh Interactive Multimedia
Jim,
Thanks for your help. I'm new to the possibilitys of CD ROM, and may well need
a consultant such as yourself.
-Chris-