I need better tuts.

[coder1]

Ok, so im trying to self teach my self Alice. So far so easy. I've learned how to move objects, make sound, manipulate objects and set boundaries. I've made a simulation of a plane dropping a missile on a boat and exploding it. I've also made a version of crazy taxi. But I need to know more. Id like to learn:

-What the purpose of parameters and functions are.
-How to track time and make it do something after a certain period of time or distance.
-If possible, how to place objects using cartesian coordinates system. Draging and dropping is far too messy.
-How to find out the dimensions of an object.

Also, is there a way to make it so one object will not pass through another? I've achieved the illusion of this in my crazy taxi game by making an:

"when 'object' is with in 'blank' of 'object' do 'blank' "
and filling it with
"When taxi is with in .3meters of cube do restart"
in the events area
Then the restart would bring the taxi to the beginning. This worked find but very crudely. I didn't know the dimension of my box so it was all guess and check...

[x2495iiii]

Unfortunately there's no quick way to find the dimensions of an object (that'd be a good idea, though, some kind of stat window for each object that tells its dimensions...) but it can be done fairly easily by making a print method (put any value in as the default value) and dragging the object's length, width or height functions from the functions tab into the argument for the print method (click the object, then click the functions tab and scroll down a bit to see the object's dimesion functions). This will have the world tell you very precisely (down to several decimal places) what the object's dimensions are.

Time can be kept using a method which waits one second and increments a variable to keep track of how many seconds has passed. This variable can be set as a string and put into a 3d text to make a timer display as well.

Functions are used to keep track of many things, from an object's size to it's position relative to other objects in the world. Most of them are self explanatory, and the ones that aren't can be experimented with to discover new possibilities in Alice (that's what I did when I was teaching myself Alice).

[coder1]

I meant to ask what variables and parameters are. Functions i'm good to go with. I've figured out how to use time and parameters. I'll also play around with the print feature.

BTW, what does capture pose do? I thought it was capturing the exact placement of an object. But when I tried dragging the pose into a 'move to' command, it did nothing.

[x2495iiii]

Capture poses records the potitions and orientations of an object's subparts relative to the main object. With this feature, you can simulate actions such as walking and jumping quickly and easily.

For example, the characters made in the character builder come with poses for the upper and lower body which simulate the actions of walking, waving, and the expression of several different emotions.

Variables and parameters are data values which are used by methods to do various things. Honestly, if you're trying to teach yourself, you should just experiemtn with each type and see what each one does and which methods each one can apply to.