Guide to the AlphaWorld and Active Worlds FAQ
Questions and Answers about Downloading Questions and Answers Surrounding Immigration Questions and Answers About Connecting Questions and Answers Surrounding Building Questions and Answers Related to Running Active
Worlds Questions and Answers related to Performance Questions and Answers related to Your Identity Questions and Answers about Linking Active Worlds
to web pages Questions and Answers about Action Commands
Questions and Answers about Downloading
How long does it take to download Active Worlds Explorer?
It is a 1,200K file that takes approximately 15 minutes to download
using a 28.8 kbps modem.
If you can't download Active Worlds Explorer using your browser,
then what?
If you are unable to download Active Worlds Explorer using a browser,
try our direct ftp site at ftp.worlds.net/pub/. If you
receive a message reading, Cannot open passive connection, log
in once more using "anonymous" as the user name and
your e-mail address for the password.
I'm trying to download, but transmission stops before the download
is complete.
1. Confirm that your Internet connection is working properly by successfully contacting another site.
2. Try to reach the Worlds home page at http://www.worlds.net. If you are able to do so, then the Web connections are fine.
3. Try downloading AlphaWorld again.
I just downloaded the program and cannot find the AlphaWorld
icon.
A: Use the Windows Search tool to find the aworld.exe file. If
you like, make a new icon that will be easier to find in the
future and attach it to aworld.exe.
What’s the connection between WIN32s and AlphaWorld?
AlphaWorld is a 32-bit application. This means that in order to
run it, you must either have Windows 95, or Windows 3.1 with WIN32s
(version 1.3) installed.
If you are running Windows 3.1 and do not have WIN32s installed,
you will need to download and install WIN32s (free from many ftp
sites, including Microsoft's) in order to continue using AlphaWorld.
If you already have WIN32s installed, you need to make sure that
you are running the latest version, 1.3. If you are running a
version earlier than 1.3, you will get DLL errors when you try
to run AlphaWorld. If this happens, download and install the 1.3
upgrade from Microsoft's Web site.
What hardware do I need for optimal performance?
The first requirement for achieving good performance with AlphaWorld
software is having good hardware. You really need at least 16MB
of RAM and a 486/100 to get decent performance. A computer with
a Pentium chip helps a lot. This is not because the AlphaWorld
software is slow or inefficient; it's the rendering engine used
by the software that is resource-hungry. This is true of any 3D
rendering software, and especially if it runs under Windows.
Questions and Answers Surrounding Immigration
I entered my e-mail address, but didn't receive an immigration
number back in an email
If you entered your e-mail address correctly, it will take a few
minutes for your immigration number to arrive. Check to make sure
that your Internet connection did not fail on your first attempt.
If there is a problem with your connection, or if you have waited
for a long period of time, try entering your e-mail address again.
What is the message, User name is already taken?
Another AlphaWorld citizen is already using the user name you
have chosen. Please choose a different user name. Keep in mind
that more than 125,000 people have already immigrated to AlphaWorld,
so you might want to try more obscure user names to increase your
chances of success. If you're trying to reimmigrate with the same
name you were using before, you must use the same e-mail address
and citizen identification number with which you originally immigrated.
I have a new e-mail account and cannot successfully reimmigrate
using my old user name and password. How do I get my old citizen
identification back in AlphaWorld?
Reimmigrating is not necessary if you have a new e-mail address.
If you are required to reimmigrate, you will need to know the
following: your old e-mail address and the immigration number
assigned to that e-mail address; and your old user name and password.
It is important to document the e-mail address used during immigration
and the immigration number sent to that e-mail address. The best
way to do this is to save and document the contents of the aworld.ini
file in the aworld folder.
Will I lose my property rights if I reimmigrate?
If you always reimmigrate with the same e-mail address, you will
not lose your property rights. You are in danger of losing access
to your property if your e-mail address changes. However, you
can prevent this from happening. It is important to document the
e-mail address used during immigration and the immigration number
sent to that e-mail address. The best way to do this is to save
and document the contents of the aworld.ini file in the aworld
folder.
I just reformatted my hard drive. Can I use the same user name
and password?
If your e-mail address is unchanged, simply reimmigrate. When
reimmigrating, enter the e-mail address used during your initial
immigration session. Then enter the immigration number sent to
you and your old user name and password.
I just reinstalled AlphaWorld from the Web site and it's asking
me to submit my e-mail and get a new immigration number. Why?
Sometimes a new install will ask you to reimmigrate because you've
overwritten the aworld.ini file as part of the install. Here's
what you can do: the best way around the problem is for you to
save a copy of aworld.ini somewhere else, and then write your
saved version over the newly installed aworld.ini.
Another good reason to make a backup copy of aworld.ini: As long
as you resend the immigration number request with the same e-mail
address you used last time, you'll get the same immigration number
back via e-mail. Then enter the same user name and password you
used before. Your citizenship will then be restored and you'll
still "own" the same land and objects in AlphaWorld.
If you don't remember your old password or user name, don't try
to enter new ones with the old immigration number! That number
will already be taken. Similarly, you won't be able to reassume
your user name and password (and your property ownership) unless
you're using the same immigration number you used originally.
Questions and Answers About Connecting
Should I Run Active Worlds Through Explorer in Windows 95?
What happens if I launch Active Worlds by double-clicking on aworld.exe
using the Explorer in Windows 95?
For Windows 95 users, make sure to launch the program from the
Windows Start button instead of the Windows Explorer. Using the
Explorer sometimes has unpredictable results.
Will AlphaWorld run through a firewall?
Talk to your ISP or system administrator about this; you need
to be able to send (TCP) on ports 5670 and 7777, and receive (UDP)
on port 3000. At this time, our product is not designed to run
behind a firewall. Please watch the Avatars! book Web site
for information regarding product updates.
What is the message, Cannot connect to host?
There are several reasons you could be getting this message:
- You are running from behind a firewall: At this time, Active Worlds does not run from behind a firewall. Please contact your network administrator for assistance.
- The host you are trying to connect to is down, but only for a brief period of time. Wait for a few minutes and try again.
- You may be having problems with your SLIP or PPP connection. Contact your Internet service provider or network administrator.
Why does AlphaWorld come up in stand-alone mode?
Stand-alone mode (as opposed to multi-user mode) means that AlphaWorld
is running only on your system, and is not communicating with
the host. In order to communicate and build in AlphaWorld, you
will need to access AlphaWorld in multi-user mode. If you're in
multi-user mode, the ..Is Stand-alone message will not
appear in the window title.
What is an auto upgrade?
When logging onto AlphaWorld, you may see the message, You are
using version (earlier version) of Active Worlds Explorer. Your
version will work, but may not have all the latest features. Press
OK to automatically upgrade or cancel to use your current version.
Choosing Yes will run a program to automatically update the Active
Worlds Explorer files. The update sequence will launch the new
version of Active Worlds Explorer and you will be on your way.
Choosing No will stop the automatic upgrade program, and you will
have a chance to click the Yes button the next time you log on.
You may receive the message, You are using version (earlier version)
of Active Worlds Explorer. Your version is out of date and needs
to be upgraded. Press OK to automatically upgrade or cancel to
use your current version. You will need to upgrade when you receive
that message. If the upgrade fails for some reason, you're probably
best off reloading all of Active Worlds Explorer again.
I can see the buildings in AlphaWorld, but I can't see what
users are saying, and they are unable to see what I'm saying.
If you have installed WING (graphics subsystem for Windows 3.1)
and can see your own speech, but not the speech and/or avatars
of others, or if they can't see you, you may have a problem with
a firewall. Talk to your ISP or system administrator about this.
You need to be able to send (TCP) on ports 5670 and 7777, and
receive (UDP) on port 3000.
What is the message, Citizen identification number is not valid?
You have probably changed the information in the AlphaWorld Identity
dialogue box. Verify that the ID number you got in your immigration
mail is filled out correctly and try again.
If you’re missing the identification number, but your password,
user name, and e-mail are fine, submit another request for an
immigration number and use the same e-mail address. The same number
you initially got will be mailed back to you.
I can connect to AlphaWorld but cannot see buildings.
You're not getting local cache, that is, the file on your hard
disk that registers the whereabouts of things in AlphaWorld is
not getting updated. If you see, Waiting for server on the title
bar of the AlphaWorld window, then wait for a few moments. This
message appears when traffic on the Internet is heavy or your
Internet connection is being interrupted. You might want to establish
a new Internet connection and launch AlphaWorld again, or if this
persists for some time, try re-entering AlphaWorld later.
Questions and Answers Surrounding Building in Active Worlds
Can other people change my property?
No. Anything you build is uniquely stamped with your AlphaWorld
identification. Should anyone else try to change or move your
object, they will get the same messages you get if you try to
change someone else's object. The message reads: You are only
allowed to change your own property , or You are only allowed
to demolish your own property.
What makes up an Active World?
There are several components which make up any Active World. The objects you manipulate to build with are primarily the renderware objects, sound and the city cell data. Active Worlds components include:
- city cell data
- renderware (RWX) objects, such as models, flats, and textures
- avatars
- avatar animation sequences
- sounds (MIDI and WAV files)
What is the message, Only registered objects can be used for
construction?
Registered objects are the object types that the server recognizes,
which includes all the files in your \Models directory. (There
also might be other valid objects that you haven't encountered
yet. These won't appear in your Models directory until you dynamically
download them as you first see them.) You will get this error
message if you somehow misspelled something while trying to change
the Object field. Check your spelling in the Object field against
the spelling in the Models directory and try changing that object
again.
What is the message, Your construction request could not be
processed?
You are trying to change an object that has not yet been processed.
Wait for a few seconds and try again. Make sure the processing
request message doesn't appear on the window bar.
I keep getting encroachment errors even though there is nothing
at the site I'm trying to build on.
Make sure to look above and below you: the encroachment boundaries
also extend vertically. Then make sure that the ground isn't an
object that someone has already built. Click on the ground and
see if you've grabbed something. There are grass-like objects
that look pretty similar to the regular ground in AlphaWorld,
which people use as placeholders to reserve property for future
use.
I’m having a hard time finding a place to build. What
should I do?
If you are using AlphaWorld for the first time, take the scenic
tour. You will see the creations of other AlphaWorld citizens
and get an idea of what building objects are available. To find
a building space, you will need to venture away from Ground Zero.
The fastest way to move around AlphaWorld is to use the Ctrl
+ Alt + Up arrow keys, or teleport to likely coordinates. You
can use the teleporters to take you to frontier areas of AlphaWorld.
The New World Times often features articles that show you
where vacant land can be found.
If you see the message, Waiting for server on the title bar of
the AlphaWorld window, then wait for a few moments. You probably
haven't received the objects in that area yet. This message appears
when traffic on the Internet is heavy or your Internet connection
is being interrupted. You might want to establish a new Internet
connection and launch AlphaWorld again, or if this persists for
some time, try re-entering AlphaWorld later.
How do I prevent vandalism of my property?
Vandalism is an ongoing problem in AlphaWorld. By vandalism, I
mean leaving objects in what others believe to be their territory.
As I see it, there are two main types of vandalism: someone comes
along and doesn't know any better, copies an object to see if
they can, and leaves it there. Then there are destructive people
who get their kicks from messing up what others have done.
Remember, in AlphaWorld the definition of ìyour property"
is objects that you have built, and the space above and below
them. And nobody can build above or below your objects except
you. It has been suggested that Worlds Inc. hire a full-time janitor
who can delete trash left on peoples’ property, but this
would be pointless. First, there are approximately 125,000 citizens
and 2 million objects in AlphaWorld to date. (As of 02-15-1996
Can that be updated???) It would be impossible for one person
to police such a large area and so many objects for so many citizens.
Second, by definition in AlphaWorld, any object built by anyone
makes the area in which the object is built their property.
The Solution
There is a very simple solution to this problem. Before you build
anything, reserve the area you need and some extra space around
it by laying WALK6 objects??? end to end across the entire
area. If you would rather have the AlphaWorld bare ground grass
under your construction, just put the WALK6 underground (make
sure it's at least a few meters under so that it doesnít
bleed through the ground in third-person view.) Now, this area
is all reserved for you, and nobody but you can build on it.
Please take the extra time to properly prepare before you build.
Once you have claimed a plot, it is yours. Then you won't have
to worry about your labor being ruined in AlphaWorld, either intentionally
or unintentionally. When in doubt, just spread out into even more
space than you think you'll need. You can always delete some of
your WALK6 objects later, or keep them there and have a big yard.
Questions and Answers Related to Running Active Worlds
I'm using the new Teleport/Coordinates option but it doesn't
seem to work correctly.
The proper syntax for teleport coordinates is:
#####N (or S)
#####E (or W)
###A
###.
These should all go on one line separated by spaces. For example:
4000N 500W 20A skew???180 would take you to 4000 North
500 West at 20 altitude, facing south.
My Active Worlds are taking up a lot of disk space; what is
happening and what can I do?
The more you travel in AlphaWorld, the more objects you get in
your cache, and the faster travel becomes. As you travel, you
will also pick up more city data, all those anchor triangles to
which the objects attach. This means that the more journeys you
take, the more disk space is taken up for AlphaWorld and other
Active Worlds—40MB or more can be consumed. If this is a
problem, the best solution is to remove AlphaWorld and reinstall
the Active Worlds Explorer.
Questions and Answers related to Performance
How do I Optimizing Rendering Performance?
Assuming you have the hardware to run AlphaWorld properly, there are still things you can do to make it work better:
- Keep other applications to a minimum. AlphaWorld wants a lot of resources. Don't split your system up among too many applications if you want AlphaWorld to perform at its best.
- Run in a small window.
- In general, the smaller the window, the faster the scenes render. The fewer pixels needed to paint a picture, the faster it will paint. If you are using a high-resolution video driver, say 1,024 by 768, you may need to maximize AlphaWorld's window (640 by 480 pixels is the largest it will grow) just to see things! The window will be relatively small in physical size on your monitor, but AlphaWorld will be rendering as many pixels as it can, which will slow it down tremendously. You may want to try an 800-by-600, or even a 640-by-480 driver, and see how well AlphaWorld performs with a smaller pixel count (although the window may actually look larger relative to the size of the monitor)!
- If you change video resolution, try to keep the color count to 64K (16-bit color). This is the best way to view the world; 24-bit is not optimal, 256 colors (or 8-bit) is even worse.
- If you are using Windows 95, there is an excellent utility called QuickRes, which allows you to change video resolution without restarting Windows. Give it a try; you can download QuickRes from the CD. If you're using Netscape, be aware that .exe files sometimes download as if they are HMTL, so use your right mouse button to click on the link and choose, Save this link as... to save it to disk. (QuickRes was evidently written by a member of the Windows 95 development team, but it is not officially sanctioned by Microsoft.)
- The nice thing about using QuickRes with AlphaWorld is that you can run at your favorite general-purpose video resolution until you load AlphaWorld, then switch to a lower pixel density while running AlphaWorld, and even switch back and forth with AlphaWorld loaded!
- Make sure there is plenty of free disk space.
- Windows will want to swap out, and as your AlphaWorld cache grows, you'll need a lot or space. It never hurts if disk space is contiguous. (Defrag and other utilities optimize your hard disk.)
- Stay away from cluttered areas. AlphaWorld is at its worst near Ground Zero, where there are just too many objects.
Bypass Collision Detection
You can use Shift to bypass AlphaWorldís collision detection,
at least until such time as this feature is discontinued (it may
be). Not only will this enable you to walk through walls, it may
speed up movement since the software doesn't have to check for
collisions. Be careful! You may go underground if you hold down
Shift while descending with the gray Minus key.
Optimizing Windows’ Performance
The stickiest thing about optimizing AlphaWorld's performance
is optimizing Windows' performance in general. If you are not
absolutely sure of what you're doing, don't change your Windows
configuration. If you are sure of what you're doing, be sure to
make a backup before changing anything anyway! Here are some hints
for optimizing Windows' performance:
Windows 3.1 and Windows for Workgroups uses a permanent swap file.
Windows just loves to swap to disk. With a
permanent swap file, this is usually faster. Windows 95 wants
to manage the swap file itself so it can eat your whole disk,
but under 3.xx??? a permanent swap file is highly recommended.
Windows 95: Make a fixed-size swap file.
Windows 95 suggests that you leave everything to the program as
far as the swap file goes...but you can allocate a rather large
swap size as both the minimum and maximum size, which will stop
it from going through long pauses while it frees up the disk space
used in swapping. This is the equivalent of a permanent swap file
in Windows 3.xx.???
Windows 3.xx:??? use SMARTDRV to cache your disk. Windows 95 has
its own caching, which may or may not be as fast as SMARTDRV...but
if you are using Windows 3.xx??? and have 16MB of memory or more,
you should be using SMARTDRV to optimize disk access. Stick it
up in high memory??? with MEMMAKER and set it up to use expanded
or extended memory for the cache.
Experiment with buffers in config.sys
Buffer size in config.sys can really make a difference in your
system's performance. If you're using SMARTDRV, try setting your
buffers to 8 or less (8 is decent for floppy drive access; less
may slow down floppy access but may marginally increase hard disk
access speed.)
Max out your DOS memory
Strange as it may seem, the size of DOS memory before you start
Windows makes a big difference in the speed that Windows applications
run. With Windows 3.xx??? you can use the DOS MEMMAKER program
to optimize high memory...again, make sure you know what you're
doing before you play with this, and backups are very important
before altering your system in any way.
If you're using Windows 95, make sure that you have gotten rid
of such memory hogs as CD drivers and network drivers, which load
in autoexec.bat or config.sys. Use Windows' built-in drivers for
these if at all possible.
Questions and Answers related to Your Identity
Aworld.ini: your identity in AlphaWorld
Your password, e-mail address, and name, are all stored in a file
called aworld.ini in your AlphaWorld folder. If you have to remove
AlphaWorld, and this file is lost, you could lose your identity.
I recommend you keep a backup of the aworld.ini file.
Using aworld.ini for collaborative building
Do not share your aworld.ini file unless you plan to allow one
or more trusted friends to build collaboratively. If you want
to do this, you can send the aworld.ini file to your friends by
attaching it to an e-mail. They must retrieve this file and place
it into the directory where their Active Worlds Explorer is installed
(normally C:\aworld or in the Active Worlds folder in Windows
95). Note that they should save their old aworld.ini files, otherwise
they will lose their own identities. If you use this shared aworld.ini
file, all objects you place down will have the same ownership.
Everyone will be able to build and modify objects in the same
area.
A look inside aworld. ini
A sample aworld.ini file is shown below. I’ve highlighted
the entries most important for you: your e-mail address, original
immigration number (as opposed to your citizen number, found under
the Help menu in the Active Worlds Explorer), your given world
name, and your password. Chances are you will never have to look
inside your aworld.ini file, but knowing about it can be important.
[network]
host=alphaworld.worlds.net
port=7777
[browser]
name=Netscape
[citizen]
host=alphaworld.worlds.net
port=5670
e-mail=digispace@aol.com
number=1729847696
name=DigiGardener
password=xxxxx
[upgrade]
host=www.worlds.net
[layout]
main_height=400
main_width=480
main_x=168
main_y=168
[show]
position=1
Figure 7.114: Sample aworld.ini file
Reimmigrating
If you need to immigrate again (for instance to change your password
and/or AlphaWorld name), follow the same procedure...but if your
name and password are now working, the immigration dialogue won't
stay on the screen long enough to fill it out. If you want to
change your password, just use the notepad or a similar text editor
(not a word processor!) to find the following lines in the aworld.ini
file in your AlphaWorld directory:
name=myname
password=mypassword
Put a semicolon in front of these lines to make them "remarks,"
that is, lines that will be ignored (Should you forget
something, you'll always be able to go back and find it). These
lines should look something like this:
;name=myname
;password=mypassword
Now start up Active Worlds Explorer. Because it can't find your
name and password, the client will stop at the immigration dialogue
again. If you're just changing your password and/or AlphaWorld
name, and you have your old immigration number, you can start
at the previous step; if not just do both steps.
Questions and Answers about Linking Active Worlds to web pages
How do I link Active Worlds to web pages so
that when I click on a link designed as a "web teleport"
into Active Worlds, it is launched and I am dropped into the right
place in the world?
Configuring Netscape to use AlphaWorld
as a helper application
- Open Netscape. From the Options menu, select General Preferences.
- A dialogue box appears. Click on the Helpers tab near the top of the dialogue box.
- Click the Create New Type button.
- In the Configure New MIME Type dialogue box, enter "application" in the MIME type field. Enter "x-alphaworld" in the MIME Subtype field, and click OK. The configure box will close.
- Select the Launch the Application radio button near the bottom of the dialogue box.
- Either click the Browse button to find your aworld.exe program (it should be in the \aworld directory), and click Open; or enter the exact path in the very bottom text box.
- The AlphaWorld globe icon should now appear next to the text box. Press the OK button on the lower left-hand side of the dialogue box to save your changes.
Configuring Internet Explorer to use AlphaWorld
as a helper application
- Open Internet Explorer. Select Options from the View menu.
- Click on the File Types tab.
- Click the New File Type button. The Add New File Type dialogue box appears.
- In the Description of Type field, type “Alphaworld."
- In the Content Type (MIME) field, type "application/x-alphaworld."
- In the Default Extension field, type "aw, AW." Deselect the Confirm Open After Download checkbox.
- Click the New button on the bottom left-hand side of the current dialogue box. The New Action dialogue box appears.
- In the Action field, type "run" (or "open"). In the Application field, browse for or enter the path for aworld.exe. Then click the top OK button.
- Click on Close, then click on the second Close button, to save your changes.
The next time you click on a teleport link, Netscape will know
to launch AlphaWorld as a helper application. AlphaWorld in turn
receives a parameter that will automatically parachute you into
a desired location instead of Ground Zero.
If you get the message, Started to download a file of type application/x-alphaworld,
here is what to do:
Creating a Web Teleport Link
You can write a link in any HTML page that will let you launch
AlphaWorld via Netscape, and this link will teleport you to a
desired location even if you are already in AlphaWorld. You must
have your browser configured to use AlphaWorld as a helper application
in order to use a teleport link. The link uses standard HTML formatting
and points to a CGI processing site on the Avatar book???
Web page. This CGI program sends a message back to your aworld.exe
program, and then AlphaWorld teleports you to the right spot.
Here is an example of a teleport link:Link
title here
The whole first part of this string tells your browser what location
to open, and the rest is input for the CGI script located on our???
Web pages. You must have the question mark after the word "teleport,"
and all the parameters have to be separated by underscores.
- The first set ZZZZ.ZN is the north/south parameter, and you can either specify N (North) or S (South) to one-tenth of a meter accuracy.
- The second set XXXX.XW is the same idea except now you are specifying E (East) or W (West).
- The third set YYY.YA (optional) is for altitude, and can be set at either positive or negative. Zero will place you right on the surface.
- The fourth set SSS is also optional, and specifies skew or the direction you face when you come down. By default you will face north, but you can enter any number up to 360 here to rotate yourself counterclockwise by that number of degrees. For instance, a skew of 90 will face you west and a skew of 270 will face you east.
Questions and Answers about Action Commands
Q: What are Active World actions?
A: The Action field of an object allows you to attach behaviors to your objects. For example, you can play a sound, link an object to a hypertext page, or make objects appear or disappear in certain ways. An object can even have more than one action. The text you enter in the Action field is much like writing a very brief program or command line. It has the following three distinct parts:
- the trigger that starts the action
- the command that describes what action will occur
- the arguments for the command, which further specify what action will take place; for instance the file name of a sound to be played. If you were to break apart a typical action message, it would look something like this:
Action Message
| Example action | BUMP | VISIBLE | OFF |
| Syntax type | (Trigger) | (Command) | (Argument) |
Table 7.5
The previous table shows how an action will take place when your
object collides with another object. First, it makes the object
visible (the default) and then modifies the VISIBLE command to
make the object invisible, instead.
You can enter either upper- or lower-case letters in the Action
fields; actions are not case sensitive. You can also include more
than one action in a single Action field.
Triggers
Whatever you want your object to do, the action needs to be set off by some event—for instance, when other people left-click on your object. The trigger you choose determines what needs to happen in order for your object to execute the rest of the action. There are three types of triggers:
- Activate starts the command when the object is left-clicked.
- Bump starts the command when you bump into a solid object or pass through a non-solid object. (You can't trigger objects if you pass through them using the Shift key.)
- Create usually starts the command when the object is first drawn on your screen. In other situations, Create starts the command when the object is first created or subsequently changed.
Commands
The command is listed here in ALL CAPS. Arguments that are required
for the command to work are listed
The following is a list of all the current commands:
The NAME command
The NAME command lets you place a trigger in one object that will
affect the behavior of another object. Once you give an object
a name, another object you create can refer to the first object.
Then you can give the second object an action that declares the
first named object as the ultimate target of that action. For
example, you could first establish one object's name like this:
CREATE NAME thing1.
Then you could enter an action for a second object so that if
someone's avatar bumped into the second object, it would hide
the first object that you just named "thing1."
BUMP VISIBLE thing1 OFF
Setting thing1 to VISIBLE OFF would make it disappear until the
next time that area is redrawn. The important thing to remember
when referring to named objects is that the trigger applies to
the object in which you write the action, but the command will
be applied to the object named as an argument for the command.
The following list contains several commands that deal specifically
with animations.
Animation Commands
A full description of how to work with animations can be found
in the Animations topic???. Or you can click on the headings below
to get more specific information on how to use that command. For
the best results, use the supplied animation screens Anim4x2.rwx,
Animate8.rwx, etc. These will display only the animation on
one side???. For more information on animations click here.
Multiple Actions
You can attach more than one command to a single trigger. The
trigger comes first, and then any commands you want to set off
with that trigger follow with each command, (with arguments) separated
by a comma.
CREATE VISIBLE OFF, NAME thing2: In this case, the two commands
share the same CREATE trigger—the second command assumes
that the same initial trigger begins its actions. Note that multiple
arguments to the same command are not separated by either a comma
or semicolon. For example: CREATE VISIBLE OTHEROBJECT OFF (where
the name Otherobject and the argument Off are both arguments
to the command VISIBLE).
You can also combine two different triggers in an action by separating
them with a semicolon.
CREATE NAME thing2; BUMP SOUND polka.mid. In this way, your object
can have different behaviors depending on how people trigger it.
How can I add music and sound to an object?
Music and sound add a whole new dimension to the AlphaWorld experience.
The music pieces are MIDI files that use the built-in synthesizer
of your sound card. The sound effects are standard WAV files that
play through your sound card too. Music and sound are placed into
AlphaWorld by writing the WAV and MIDI file names in the
Action field of an object, so those sounds and MIDI files have
to exist locally on your computer (not streaming over the Internet).
The volumes for both music and sound are controlled by proximity
to that object. The sound card and program can play only
one sound file plus one MIDI file at any one time. If there is
more than one object around that has an attached sound/music
file, then you will hear will the sound effect produced by
the closest object. That's why sound appears to shift as you walk
around in AlphaWorld.
MIDI files play only once (although they might repeat if you move
out of range and then back in, click on, or bump into an object
again). WAV files can either loop continuously or play just once,
depending on how you set them up in the Action field. You can
turn off the sound effects and/or the music by going to the Options
menu, and clicking on Performance, then deselecting the appropriate
checkbox.
When you add sound to an object, you have several choices regarding
how and in what situations the sound will play. You can start
the sound/music when the object first comes into view with the
CREATE trigger. You can start the sound/music when someone collides
with your object using the BUMP trigger. You can start the sound/music
when someone left-clicks your object using the ACTIVATE trigger.
You can play the WAV sound continuously while the object is within
range with the SOUND command. You can play the sound only once
using the NOISE command.
These triggers and commands are then followed by the file name
of either the WAV file or MIDI file. For example, to make a sound
named wumpus.wav play continuously when someone left-clicks on
an object, that object's Action field should look like this: ACTIVATE
SOUND wumpus.wav.