[software] Paradiso - PDF Available

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[size=142]“Searching for paradise is only a matter of searching within.” Anonymous[/size]

Programmed & Written by: BenDrummin58
Tested by: Li10, Nachician, The Mad Hatter, and TheRealJollyRoger

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Downloads
[color=darkblue]Adobe Flash Player[/color] 1,024 KB
[color=darkblue]Paradiso[/color]

Other Software
[color=darkblue]Infinity[/color]
[color=darkblue]LucidWarp[/color]
[color=darkblue]The Lucid Dreaming Digibook[/color]

FAQ[color=darkblue]
What is Paradiso?
How does the program work?
What’s your dreamscape like?
How much time do I have to take out of my day to do this?
Are there any guarantees for this program?
Is this free?
What’s the Paradiso Contest?
Who was the winner?
An excerpt from Paradiso
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What is Paradiso?
Paradiso is the next step in the lucid dreaming saga. First it was The Lucid Dreaming Digibook, which showed you the techniques, then it was Infinity and LucidWarp, which showed you how to use the techniques to induce a lucid dream, and now it’s Paradiso, the program to show you not only a creative way to induce lucidity, but also to show you one of the best powers to use while lucid: dreamscape creation.

Have you ever wanted to construct your own dreamscape, full of anonymous objects and pleasures all from your choosing? Not only that, but would you want to have that dreamscape appear whenever you wanted to, whether you were lucid or not? Well, I’m hear to tell you that this task is not an impossible one, but rather a simple and fun one.

As more and more lucid dreamers enter this realm of dreamscape creation, many others are desiring the same satisfaction of being able to construct their own world. The problem is, many don’t know how, or where to start. Thus, I’ve created Paradiso, which provides descriptions, techniques, and advice on how to make all of this possible, leaving the user with one awesome result.

With this, you can create your very own extensive environment, and you can put anything you want in it. You could even put dream characters and signs up that have the sole purpose to tell you that you are lucid. Start the dream out in this environment all the time, then you can gurantee paradise and lucidity right from the beginning!

How does the program work?
Like Infinity and LucidWarp, this program will be course outlined; that is, it will have days with steps within them that will all add up to give you your final result. Also like Infinity, this program is intended to allow the user to have their goal, which is getting their dreamscape to come to life, up and running within a small time frame.

The techniques used in this program are not yet eligable for releasing, but I can say that most, if not all, have been seen before.

What’s your dreamscape like?
Hah, fun part, lol. I won’t go in to much detail, for length sake.

Basically, my dreamscape is an underwater glass house, located 500 feet beneath the surface. To get in, I have a small island on the water’s surface that has a small building. Inside that building is a reception desk, along with a glass elevator. The elevator obviously leads down to the home.

There are many rooms. Some of my favorites are a portal room, which allows me to easily go wherever I want; a huge kitchen, which has much awesome food; a living area, which has a massive screened tv that plays jibberish, lol, and some really nice couches; a hangar that holds boats, cars, and airplanes; a white load room which basically is for me spawning DCs and fighting them and for me testing my lucid powers; and a view room, which allows me to look through screens that show wherever I want ( i’ve tried using this for shared dreaming, no luck yet ).

How much time do I have to take out of my day to do this?
If you’ve used Infinity, I can firmly say that you won’t have to spend nearly as much time on this. For people who haven’t, expect around a maximum of 15 to 20 minutes a night. Note, I said maximum.

Are there any guarantees for this program?
I don’t like guarantees, but people still ask me all of the time, lol. All I can say is, if everything goes as planned, you will accomplish your goal. I’ll re-write this section after the testing stage is complete, for I have no idea how people will react to this.

Is this free?
Like all of my software, this is freeware, and will be of no cost to you, the user.

What’s the Paradiso Contest?
The judges for this contest were: BenDrummin58, The Mad Hatter, WritersCube, and Jepeltw

Who won the contest?

An excerpt from Paradiso

first!

sounds great Ben.

Still using your other stuff to get LD’s though :razz:

Well, in a way, this too can supplement by also allowing for LDs to come. If you start out in the same place every dream, you’re going to soon realize that you will become lucid pretty much every time you’re there, especially if you add “Do a RC” signs or dream characters that tell you you’re dreaming.

Anyway, to clarify, if you would like to test Paradiso, the submission form will be uploaded on Sunday, April 8 2007. This registration, which will occur much like Infinity’s tester registration did, will last for 1 week, making its deadline Sunday, April 15 2007. So, make sure if you want to test that you sign up in that time frame!

totally doodz

All right, the next in the series is announced! I’m Looking forward to actually registering for testing this time.

How many ideas for prgramms do you got in your head?
number 4 and counting…

An own dreamworld…that´s what I´am looking for ( didn´t find a yet :cry: ) since I read WritersCube DJ but this could be the chance!

What versions do you plan to upload for Paradiso? I like the Digibook pdf version

dargh I wish I could test this… I need to get LDs though!!!

I have many, many, many more ideas :smile: .

As of now, I’m only planning on releasing one version, which will be a flash file, along with other “goodies” that may or may not exist upon release. If there are goodies, I will not make a pdf, for if you have to download a bunch of MBs for the essential goodies, you might as well download the cool flash program with it.

However, if no goodies exist upon release, I will add a PDF version; for this though, just know that it won’t be anywhere near as cool as the flash project.

Well, as I noted about in my above post, this program teaches you how to make your own dreamscape (duh). So, if you have that dreamscape appear at the start of all of your dreams, then you could put up signs everywhere saying “You’re dreaming” or “Do a RC!” and such. Also, you could use Infinity, or any other lucid inducing method of your choice, while working on this program. The possibilities are endless.

Ben, you’re like the stephen laberge of the technology era.
I know you said you want to study computer design or something computer-y like that…but have you ever thought about psychology as well? That way you might be able to do this kind of stuff for a living and be like…stephen laberge! Oh wait, I already said that…

maybe minor in it. I’m thinking about that, too.

Build your dreamscape, eh? Yeah, i was gonna do that anyway, so you’ll be helping me out :happy:.

Yeah, tonight ima try incubating a dream where i am in a field surrounded by forest. Then in an LD i’ll come back to it and build my dream city!

YES!

yup i already know the field is going to be perfect for it

That’s very sweet of you to say Indianinks :content: . While that would be an awesome thing to do, I have no idea where or how I could live off of it. And, I wouldn’t want to make what I’m doing right now in to my job. It would ruin my motivation. That doesn’t mean I won’t continue to do this as a side-job / hobby though :grin: . I also may minor in that, who knows!

Heh, go for it TheRealJollyRoger!

Anyway, I have an announcement to make. I’m holding a contest for Paradiso. You might want to check it out :smile: . Details below…

question: can it be n ideal dreamscape that you have built upon?

I’m not sure what you mean by that, but I’ll just clarify that it can be any dreamscape that you can imagine / create / already have created / etc… It doesn’t have to already exist, in fact I don’t expect it to already exist, because if you are here, you obviously want one to exist :razz: . Anyway, any dreamscape, real yet or not, is perfectly acceptable :grin: .

I mean like if i tell my plan for a dreamscape i’m going to build in an LD :happy:

Well, i’ll type it up tomorrow, no time for now.

I think some people are getting the wrong idea about Paradiso. I say this because of some questions that I’ve been asked; questions such as, “What if I can’t get lucid to do this in the first place?” Well, easy. Paradiso is highly eligable to both make you lucid and put you in your own paradise.

How is this possible? Well, when you construct your own dreamscape, which is what this program teaches you to do, why not construct it with all features? By this, I mean why not create dream characters and signs that have the sole purpose to tell you that you are dreaming, thus making you lucid? That way, every time you enter your dreamscape ( which could be at every start of a ND, or whenever you choose ), you will automatically transform into a lucid dream.

Think of this software as Infinity 2.0, but with a different name. It’s the same concept of getting you lucid, except it’s just in a different form, which has greater benefits ( ie the dreamscape ).

Anyway, hope this cleared up a few clouds for you with questions. Keep in mind the contest is still up for grabs, and since nobody has replied about it, you may automatically get the prize ( a tester position ) if you just post.

I got some time, so i guess i’ll typidy type it up now

Imagine, if you will, a forest clearing. A large one, surrounded by forest. One path leads into the clearing. It is well-traveled, with bridges built over every river, stream, and marsh. This path leads up to a grand gate. The gate is connected to a city. The city is magnificent, cast in marble and the finest stone. It is square in shape, with towers on each corner, as to defend from attack. One tower, however; is bigger than the rest. It is the tower that the mighty airships dock at, delivering supplies, and transporting people safely to the noble city. The airships themselves are quiet, with gentle humming of the propellers. Take a walk inside the city and you find yourself at a crossroads. You can go left, right, or straight. For now, lets make our way around going right. Immediately, you see a place for visitors to my world to stay. It is the Wild Wolf Inn. Apparently, ShatterSpike started a chain of these budding inns. Inside it is pretty basic. Some kegs of mead, a bartender, a nice eating area, an angel waitress :razz:. Keep in mind that the bar offers anything you might imagine. the barkeep is a great drink mixer and cook. The nachos are delicious. The rooms are also pretty average, but very nice. It is 2 stories and has about 20 rooms, most overlooking the town. Back on track, traveling around the town you find any service you might need. We have bakers, cheese shops, pubs, resturaunts, blacksmiths, leathercrafters,fighters, mages, and many more. You could stay days and still not see all there is to see. Now, ad you are walking, imagine a happy populous. They love their fair city, the capital of a great nation. There is no crime in the city, but for the occasional thief, there are guards (we’ll talk about them… soon). There is a church for healing any wounds you may revieve during your misadventures. Now we find ourselves back at the gates. If we go forward, we see a beautiful garden. It’s got flowers of every color and an orchard of apples. Blah, blah, blah. The center leads you to the keep of the city. A huge tower. On top you can’t help but notice two magical crystals floating around it. One is larger that the other, and rotates slower. Near the bottom of the tower, it looks more like a keep. There is a building attached to it, about 3 stories high. This is the Templar caste. Champions, guards, missionaries. Protectors of good. The first floor is a training floor, with teachers of whatever skill you may want to learn (though some argue that a specialist around the town can train you better). Also, you can find an armory here, where someone can craft you whatever weapon you want. The next floor is the quarters and meal hall for the templars. The quarters are nice, but humble, for the templar know the greatest prize is in helping the weak (awww). The third floor is where the officers of the Templar stay. This includes the room of the Grand Templar. If you want to visit, i will be happy to let you in :wink:. Going into the tower itself, above the first 3 stories are the royal quarters. They are very fancy. Even the servant’s rooms are nice. At the top is the throne room, where the king (well, i’m the real king, but he’s the figurehead) sits. He’s a bitchen king. One floor up, at the top of the city, is the observatory.

So you’ve seen the city, but it doesn’t end there. There is a whole world to explore. Perhaps you want to visit the werewolf clans of the forest. These noble people live humbly and have deep respect for the land. Or perhaps the Avion people of the west. The bird warriors are proud and strong, if a little arrogant. Or perhaps you want to visit the pirate’s den? or maybe clash swords with the orc menace (they ride on the red dragons of the north). I could go on and on but i’m tired of writing this so i’ll stop.

Edit> also, since Wyrmfell had such a sweet idea, the crystal on the tower keeps everyone in the city Lucid!

Nice dreamscape, TRJR! Here’s mine:

My dreamscape is, simply put, a colossal space station. From the outside, it appears as a large, donut shaped object with a dome around 3000 km in diameter extending into the center. The center dome normally has a clear view of the Neutron Cylinder it orbits (more on that later). However, a metal iris of sorts can close around the dome, and project any desired form of sky on the landscape.

The inner landscape of the dome itself is just as variable. It is essentially a very large Holodeck, as the landscape can be program to virtually any appearance, be it land or sea or sky. Things such and
gravity and atmosphere can also be changed.

The outer donut part of the station houses some more complex parts. There are five docking bays, each one containing ships from various sci-fi. The USS Enterprise, Serenity, TIE fighters, even The Last Starfighter, are all here, and well as some of my own creations.

One of the key components of the station is the SCCS, or Sub Conscious Computer System. It appears as a metal sphere, with bright blue light coming from the various lines and sigils on its surface. It is basically a way for me to allow my subconscious to regulate my dreamscape so I don’t have to be constantly focusing to keep it existent. This computer’s main focus is broadcasting the Lucidity Matrix, a network that keeps all people in the station lucid, as well as keeping random dreamstuff from happening, such as the wall melting into bananas. It also serves as a database, storing and giving information whenever required. The SCCS is housed behind where the dome is attached to the main station.

Around the SCCS, there is the main control panel. Self-explanatory, really. The various switches control such mundane things as the hallway doors and docking bay, to the bizzare, such as re-arranging the hallways or making/deleting rooms.
A large black dial controls Time Dialation.

Despite it being a dreamscape, I like having various scientific theories alive in my dreams. Thus, the station orbits a massive cylinder created from Neutron stars. This cylinder is constantly rotating, its incredible mass rotating the very time and space around it. By twisting the dial at the control panel, the station moves close or further from the cylinder, thus allowing the dream time to be elongated by as much as a whole month, if not more.

Of course, the station has the basic comforts. In the mess hall, the Food Synth can create any sort of food or drink imaginable, to your exact specifications. There are bedrooms for the staff and guests. The staff work on keeping the station operative, as opposed to the SCCS’s job of keeping it existent. If a part of the station or ship is broken, just ask a passer-by and they’ll be able to fix it.

For convenience, ever door will open to the room you want to go to, even if they are on opposite sides of the station.

Other Rooms:
Greenhouse Room:
This room is a self-contained environment for the growing of plants, as well as the keeping of almost every animal in existence.

Transport Chamber:
This room contains several white pods. By stepping into a pod and closing the pod door, you are transported to another dreamer’s dreamscape. This is also where other dreamers enter the station from their dreams.

Security Center:
Guns, lots of guns. This is where the dream security hub is located. Its only use is for SDs. Crash my station? Try and scare me with a nightmare? The Security Center will make you wish you never went to sleep that night :ebil:

Well, there’s my dreamscape. As you can see I may over over-thought it a little. :grin:

i like it, but a couple of things

  1. send a lazer beam down to blow up my city, and you die.

  2. becha i can beat the security system

  3. Ooo what about some Starcraft Battlecruisers in the docking bays?

  1. Okay, so long as you don’t send up any fireballs or magic missiles.

  2. I’d like to see you try.

  3. Awesome idea. Also, gundams and Battlestar Galactica.

I’ve thought about my ideal dream place before :smile: I’ve never had the chance to create it, but someday I will. Still, I’ve worked a lot on my idea. I’ll type it down here:

First, I’ll start with my own sanctuary. Most of my dream land consists of wilderness, with huge open grassy fields and forests. My sanctuary consists of ruins from an ancient civilization, located between a cliff and a forest. Old broken white stone walls are all over the place, and there’s a large area which has been almost completely been taken over by grass and plants. There are broken stone pillars around, along with ornamental structural parts.

The floor has fragmented parts of the white stone, which seems to be what was used to build all of the building. Walking into the ruins, there’s a huge area which seems to be the one in best shape, and instead of consisting of just broken walls or shattered pillars, it’s almost as good as new. It’s a large library. The ceiling and the walls are perfect, and there’s a lot of sunlight coming in, since the place is open (but with enough distance to keep the books safe). Still, vines are growing around parts of the ceiling and on some of the pillars, but they give them a rather interesting appearance.

There are stone tables and seats all over the place, which were used, in the past, by those who went to this library. The shelves in which the tomes can be found are sculpted on the white walls. The books are also kinda big, at least 10 inches tall each. They are all white as well. The shelves take at least three or four walls, and there are 5-8 for each wall, considering they go even to about 3-4 meters high (there are conveniently placed ladders around, which can be moved if need be).

Walking deeper into the ruins, we find stairs leading down into the earth. A huge door can be found, however, the place it leads to depends on the user’s wish (it doesn’t take them everywhere, but to special places within the ruins). One of the places it leads to is to the “inner realm”, where the user may find his/her spirit guide and power animal, though he/she must be ready to do so.

The second place it leads to is one of my favorites. It’s the “galaxy room”. It really doesn’t have a name, but I thought that would be a good name for it. As you walk inside the room, the walls and the ceiling form a sphere around you, which represents perfectly the sky. Blue and white stars are all around you. There’s not enough light for the user to see him/herself or the ground, but that doesn’t matter, as the room is completely safe, used for meditation, relaxation and stargazing :smile: It can also change into a real simulation of outer space, with no gravity, of course, and since it’s a dream, with no need to breath.

The third room is not exactly a room. I call it “Moonlight”. Using it, the user will be transported to a special place, lit only by moonlight. The place pretty much changes, depending on what the user wants, but most of the time it’ll take the user to the outside area of the ruins, but on nighttime. It’s a really beautiful sight, to see the white ruins with the moonlight over it.

The fourth option is what I call the Firefly lake. It’s obviously a lake, near some woods. It’s also during nighttime, and as you wander around this area, fireflies roam in the dark, under the moonlight. Another beautiful sight :smile:

There are other rooms, but these are the most important… or at least my favorite ones.

You might be asking yourselves about the DCs and other people, right? Where could they be? The thing about my sanctuary is that there aren’t much people around, as it’s a sanctuary :razz:. Still, some are allowed within it’s facilities, and those are calm people, looking for wisdom or meditation.

Others who show around on the occasion are the Masters. The Masters are a group of people who teach me and the Sanctuary Dwellers the wisdom of the ages. They teach us about life, dreams, and everything else.

For now, enough about the Sanctuary. There’s more to my dream land than that. Following the path outside, there’s a path along the forest, in which travelers may usually find monks going to the different temples on the surroundings. They may even stop to give you a piece of advice or have an interesting conversation. Specially a Japanese old man with a short white beard and a shaved head - he’s quite an interesting fellow, and may give you some nice pointers.

Continuing, we’ll get to a medieval-looking castle. There lives a community which, despite living in a castle, is rather evolved. It’s just that they, like me, like places like castles. In fact, I act as a leader of some sort of the castle dwellers, considering I’m the dream creator, but everyone’s pretty much fine. Life is peaceful there. There’s a throne room, but really, I don’t hang around much in it.

All over the castle are beautiful stained glass windows with all kinds of drawings. There’s a huge gallery with paintings and such, and, of course, a red carpet :smile:.

On the underground of the castle lives a wizard, who looks a lot like Merlin. He teaches me stuff sometimes, but also he’s free to continue his studies whenever he wants. The underground area leads into caves with ruins from an old civilization, but an exploration team is still digging it. The wizard is also studying arcane symbols and runes which are all over the metallic, copper-colored walls of the old civilization.

There’s also a path leading to a secret passage near my Sanctuary, which was built for easier access back and forth.

Now besides all that, there’s also the place I call the Battledome. The Dome isn’t located in any special place, really, it floats in oblivion, and can many people can go there easily, they just have to will it and it will happen, or they can use the door in the Sanctuary.

As they arrive in the dome, there won’t be anything except darkness around it, and if someone falls down, they’ll be safely teleported back. A hostess on a information hut gives information for newcomers and welcomes all the visitors.

Oh, by the way, unlike the Sanctuary, the battledome is open for EVERYONE. In fact, I only decided to limit the access to the Sanctuary for those really interested in it to avoid crazy people trying to trash it.

There is much to do at the Battledome, and since it’s not only about battles, lately it’s been considered changing it’s name to Duel Dome, which is also much more commercial, with the double D and everything. I’ll now list what you can do in the battledome: (Hold on, I’ll get back to explaining how stuff looks in a sec)

- Battle!
This one was pretty much obvious, but lemme break it down for you. Battles in the dome follow certain rules. The first of them is nobody really gets hurt or dies, or even feels pain. The battles are not gruesome.

In the dome, there are basically 4 or 5 kinds of battle. Weapons battle, in which the fighters can use any weapon they want, except for firearms. They slash, smash, hit, pierce etc at each other and all of them have life bars or HP (that’s decided prior to the battle), which depletes as they get hit. Mind that, even if they aren’t really hurt, they do feel the impact of the hits, which obviously can make them, for example, lose balance. Oh, since it’s a dream, they may summon and change weapons at any time, unless it’s forbidden on the pre-battle planning.

The second kind of battle is the Magic/Super-Power Battle. In this match, no weapons are allowed, and the players must use their own created techniques and powers, using magic attacks, Dragonball Z-ish ki blasts and such to win the battle against their opponent(s). In any case, the level of power they can use and kind of technique can be defined prior to the battle, if need be. Oh, almost forgot. In this kind of battle, super-jumping, flight and super-speed are allowed.

The third kind is hand-to-hand battle. Basically, the players use their own fighting techniques to beat each other. No powers or weapons of any kind are allowed.

The fourth kind is the Gunslinger Battle. Any kind of firearm is allowed, and, as with the weapons battle, you can change and summon guns mid-fight anytime. Not much to explain, after telling about the other kinds.

And now, here are the most popular kinds of battle: The Mix Battles. Mix Battles allows players to mix the rules from different kinds of battles, leading to interesting results. I’ll list some of my favorites:
-> Magic Gunslinger Battle (Using magic-charged bullets)
-> Weapon + Gunslinger Battle
-> Magic Weapon + Gunslinger Battle
and so on…

Finally, the battle style which most will prefer, the Free Battle. Free Battle allows you to do/use ANYTHING you want on your fight. Also, there’s the option of not using life bars/HP, leaving the fighters to just fight for fun.

All of the fights are mostly fought on one-on-one, but free for all deathmatches are also available, as are team deathmatches. Depending on the match, there is no limit to the number of players.

Oh, by the way, all fights can have specific smaller kinds. Which means you can have a special Sniper Match, for example, or a Fireball-Only Match.

Walking inside the Dome, in the fighting area the players can find five doors (though some more may be added from time to time). Each door leads to one kind of match. Once inside, the players decide on rules (if they want) with a lady, and also choose an arena.

Arenas can vary to pretty much anything the fighters can think of. The size of the arena varies with the kind of fight they want and the number of fighters. It’d be useless to make a hand-to-hand fight on a huge arena, for example. However, in some cases that can be changed as an extra for the match, such as a handicap for a fight or whatever. (E.G.: A super-power match on a small arena).

The players are shown on a big projection on a wall a virtual view of the arena they want, and they can change it to their likeness before entering the fight. In any case, they can pick a random arena if they want.

By the way, as with the other activities, it doesn’t matter if too many people get into the same door. There’s room for everyone, and, as a plus, they’ll get to individual arenas (if they choose to do so), and since they are dream areas, it’s pretty much fine, as they don’t take physical space from anywhere, really.

Now, let’s continue to another attraction of the Dome:
- Flight Area!
On the second larger area from the Dome, the Flight Area, is a single door. Despite being only one, it leads to different options of flight. That’s because it’s highly customizable, which would make things harder if there were many doors.

Fliers can choose to use wings (and change wings, if they want), fly with jetpacks/contraptions or with nothing at all. The choices are endless, and up to the user’s choice. The sceneries and arenas for flight also vary to the players options, but some of them include:
-> outer space
-> over clouds (with several weather options)
-> over different places in the world
-> etc.

There are also flight competitions, which include fights and races. However, the most popular option if the Freedom Flight, in which you just fly around and explore any place you want.

And now, the next option…
- Races!
I’ll be brief about the races… They’re pretty much… races. Pick any vehicle you want, fly, run on foot, use magic powers. Anything. It’s a race, and as the other activities, the players pick the rules, specifications and arenas before the races.

Finally, the last area (for now):
- Training Area!
The training area was created for those who go to the Dome to learn more and hone their abilities. It’s got a Dojo, for martial artists to fight and learn new moves; a gym, for sports and such; and the training area, also known as the Free Area.

The Free Area allows it’s users to do ANYTHING they want in a limited area. The most popular arena for this practice is the White Oblivion one (AKA Purgatory), just an infinite field of white, with white floor under your feet, white skies, etc. If you wish it to be, it’s can be endless. There, fighters/fliers/etc can train different techniques. They can also pick arenas to get used to the different places. Helpers can be summoned by whoever is inside, and they may give you tips or teach you new techniques.

That’s pretty much all I’ve planned for now. More may be coming soon, but that should give you guys a nice idea of my dream land :happy:.

(o_o wooo! I hadn’t noticed I spent so much time writing this… Hmm I’ll also post it on my DJ!)