Making a downloaded object register with the Gallery?

[Mr Nemo]

How can I force a downloaded object to register with the gallery so I don't have to import the object every time I wish to use it. I want to make it show up in the appropriate folder in the add objects mode.:)

[gabe]

You can manually add it to the local gallery.

1) Open Alice > Required > gallery

2) Drag and drop the object into the appropriate subdirectory

3) Restart Alice

[Mr Nemo]

Thanks

[DrJim]

This is really convienent vs. having to import every time you want to use something new. I tried it both with the rocks folder, which was downloaded to the forum a few days ago, and with a couple of objects I created or converted from other formats.

One question - how do you add the thumbnail of the object. Right now with mine all I see is a picture frame and a question mark.

[Mr Nemo]

I appreciate the advice guys, but it's not working!:confused:

[Mr Nemo]

Update:
I still can't get Alice to register objects in the gallery, but SlowAndSteady Alice does it with out breaking a sweat! What is the latest version of Alice? I'm not just talking about 2.0, what is the latest build? And if I'm using the latest build, could this be a bug?

[DrJim]

A couple of guesses/things to try.

1. Do the objects that you register with Slow and Steady Alice then show up when you run the regular version. If so, I'm guessing it's a problem with the version of the Java environment and your hardware. You might check that you are the most current version.

2. Did the rocks objects that were posted recently register OK? If so, it may be a quirk in the file you are trying to register - don't have any idea what to do about that but I haven't have 100% succes trying to import stuff.

Jim

[Mr Nemo]

No, items that register in Slow&Steady do not register in the regular alice. Is everybody else having any problem like this? It might just be my machine, I'm running this on 1.0Ghz processor. And my memory isn't anything like I want it to be. If I could register objects, it would save me a lot of time.
BTW, DrJim did you find out how to get a picture of the object to show in the gallery? Because I think I know how you can do it.

[DrJim]

I'm really puzzled that a file is recognized by one version of Alice but not the other using the same hardware. I've had trouble going from machine to machine with files from Takeo Igarashi's web page (Smooth Teddy, etc.,
http://www-ui.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~takeo/java/smoothteddy/index.html)
but those are experimental and from different time frames, different original programs and possibly different versions of Java. Even so, the results were consistant on one machine. Since they are fun programs anyway, (and for me, Smooth Teddy seems to import into Alice fine) you might spend a bit of time with them and see if you have problems.

Also, if you want, send me the files (both .ase and .a2c) for one of the objects you're trying to add and I'll give it a try on a couple of my machines, one of which does have various problems with Java.

Re trying to show a thumbnail, I haven't gotten a response yet. Really don't think it's too hard but I was hoping for an "official" answer. Not an immediate problem - only have one or two files that I've created that are worth importing - but if and when I need to, I can't figure it out, I'll repost the question.

Jim

[Mr Nemo]

I haven't gotten into making objects yet, don't have the time or the need, I guess. I'm just downloading objects off of the internet that are already in
.a2c form. That is what has me big time confused.

As far as the thumbnails are concerned, all .a2c's are zip files. Use image capture software to take a picture of your object in Alice( I forget what picture format) and stuff it into the zip and alice should recognize it.

[ckutay]

Dr Jim said "and for me, Smooth Teddy seems to import into Alice fine" so i was wondering how.
Teddy outputs and asg file which seems to be one xml file. How do i generate the files for the .a2c format

Thanks

[DrJim]

Alice will actually import .asg files directly using the file menu and "import". This is even documented somewhere, I think, but I can't find the reference right now. I've attached a world and both the .asg and .a2c object files.

A couple of cautions:

Believe the warning on the Smooth Teddy web page - it was an experimental project and it crashes often and unexpectedly. SAVE YOUR WORK immediately if you get to a point you like the result!

Drawing is a bit tricky - I find it easiest on a tablet and recommend that if you have one (don't rush and get one just for this, however).

It's hard, for me at least, to predict exactly where the program will put joints - expect surprises.

Mr. Nemo - thanks for the tip on zipping the thumbnail. I forget how easy it is to work with .zip files in XP - still try everything the hard way.

Re any other objects - I've done several but nothing I really want to post right now. The only ones I'd consider robust are the same shapes as are in the galleries except done in 4DBlue and exported and imported as .ase files.
These look about the same as those in the galleries - the difference is that you have more control of the dimensions, number of surfaces, etc. in 4DBlue.

You can try 4DBlue if you have time and like to mess with that kind of stuff (I do on both counts) but I can't really see any advantage for most Alice users.

Jim

[DrJim]

Message timed out and dropped the files. Here they are.

[Star wars fan]

I've been having the same trouble but alice is mainly the first thing ever done with computers other than games and my parents aren't exactly computer geinses either I'll just get them of the internet for now (and I have dail up unfortunetly) please will some1 find a way that can't mess up.

[DrJim]

I'm answering this because my posts were the last before yours - but I've looked through the full thread and it's not obvious what you are referring to as "trouble". Afraid most of this is just the normal learning experience in developing a new program in a new environment. If you do figure out a method to do this without "messing up", don't tell anyone but me - I'm sure I can find financing that will make both of us nearly as rich as Bill Gates.

Actually Alice is about as good at keeping you from messing up as anything I've ever seen. Both what Mr.Nemo and I are trying to do are really outside of it's mainstream focus. If you haven't done it already, I'd recommend getting one of the textbooks - both the one by Dann, et al, and the one by Herbert are about the best beginner's texts I've ever seen. If there is a local school that you have access to that is teaching Alice, I'd get whichever they are using.

If there was something specific you had in mind, please post it and I'll try to help.

Jim

[gabe]

Mr. Nemo - thanks for the tip on zipping the thumbnail. I forget how easy it is to work with .zip files in XP - still try everything the hard way.

Yeah, just capture the thumbnail you want to display, save it as a 128x128 png file called thumbnail.png and stick it in the top level of the .a2c file (which can be opened with any zip program).

[gabe]

I've been having the same trouble but alice is mainly the first thing ever done with computers other than games and my parents aren't exactly computer geinses either I'll just get them of the internet for now (and I have dail up unfortunetly) please will some1 find a way that can't mess up.

Star wars fan,

Please elaborate on what it is that is messing up. If you are relatively new to computing and want to learn Alice, as Jim said, there are a couple Alice textbooks on the market which can help guide you. Also, you might consider taking a class or getting a book on computing fundamentals.

[Star wars fan]

I would go look in a textbook but I'm not taking lessons or anything but I was thinking about asking about making a proggraming club and reccommending alice.What I've been trying to do is not have to go online to get some objects ex I'm making a moon cities world and it's gonna have a space dock and a fighter and a dropship but by the time it's loaded the gallery have to wait awhile for the objects to go in my world in my world because like I said i have dail up so I treid putting it on the gallery in my comp but I just made a copy of the alice folder. I think it's the same but I'm new might have misunderstood.

[DrJim]

Just did a test re the original subject of this thread - results shown in the attached world (didn't zip it - that doesn't change the size much since a world file is zipped anyway). One fire I both downloaded from the Web Gallery and saved locally within the regular version of Alice. The second I downloaded from the web - didn't unzip it but just changed the file type to .a2c.

Put both in a folder and put the folder in the Alice Gallery folder. Both showed up and loaded fine - the only difference is that the one didn't show a thumbnail.

This was with the oldest and slowest computer I have that's running XP. If you're using a different version of Windows or some other OS and having problems, Alice may be expecting some compression/decompression support that your OS doesn't provide - otherwise I can't think of any reason this wouldn't work for you.

Question - Both object files also added an event to start the fire animation. How do I get this to happen with my own objects?

[Mr Nemo]

I took a look at the world you attached, DrJim, and you remember those event folders I was wanting...? That's kinda what I was thinking. As for your question, I would like to see that myself...

[Mr Nemo]

Okay, as far as the events folders... Drag and drop the object tile from the world menu over to the event area. It will ask you what kind of event you want, answer accordingly, and Alice gives you an object based event folder.
As for DrJim's question, I think that once you do the above, if you save the object, it will also save the event... I'll get back to you on that.

[Mr Nemo]

Yup, I was right. Refer to above posts to see what I was right about. Here's a standard penguin with a jump event.

[DrJim]

Were you also able to save objects downloaded from the web? The more I think about it, one difference between Slow and Steady Alice and regular Alice may be in the way they handle compressed files. If you weren't using the standard XP zip method (though it sounds like you were), that might have been the problem. Since it is open code, I guess one could go and look, but I really am not that interested, at least right now.

Jim