So much clipping [yes I have the requirements]

I'm new to the whole posting thing so if I mess up, I apologize. My Alice 'movie', if you will, is having some very major problems with the graphics clipping and background music dropping out.

The programming is quite intensive [I think], as far as including detailed movements like fingers and a background 'score' with a lot of sound effect.

I tried using Hypercam and programs like that to capture it the one time it might run smoothly, but capturing was giving all sorts of issues anyway.

Please help in letting me know what I can do to improve the performance. Thank you.

Sounds like you are getting fairly frustrated - unfortunately I'm afraid you're pushing Alice beyond it's limits. Here are a few suggestions:

1. First, see what happens with "slow and steady" Alice. This will do software rendering and may highlight a video card problem (it will also give you less contol over transparency and lighting effects - but this may be a necessary tradeoff).

2. Try and run your sound compressed, i.e. MP3, instead of .wav. At least one user has reported this cleared up some of his problems.

3. I can only report experience with BSR for screen capture, but it worked pretty well. However it can only capture what Alice (or any other program) actually puts on the screen and out the speakers. If it's input isn't any good, the output won't be either.

Finally, think of just using Alice as a frame server, i.e., disable the audio, run at 10% of real time and use a screen capture program. Then speed up the result and add the audio track in a movie editor - even Microsoft Movie Maker is capable of this. Not a great solution - but it would save what sounds like a lot of work if you can't get a good result any other way.

Originally Posted by DrJim

Sounds like you are getting fairly frustrated - unfortunately I'm afraid you're pushing Alice beyond it's limits. Here are a few suggestions:

1. First, see what happens with "slow and steady" Alice. This will do software rendering and may highlight a video card problem (it will also give you less contol over transparency and lighting effects - but this may be a necessary tradeoff).

Oh, the pain Lighting effects happen to be pertinent in the movie! Thank you so much for replying though.

As far as Alice's limits are concerned, is there a link or spot on this site's map that might give examples of some of the best work presented? The student who won the 'Alice Award' for best picture at my Uni. presented his movie. It was good. Fortunately for me, it made me think, 'Why are his men walking like matchstick men when you can get down to the detail where you can curl the characters' fingers?'

So I've spent over 400 hours detailing what is almost a completed movie, that lasts only 3 and a half minutes! But I'm proud [rare ] of what I've done so far.

And that's why the question about Alice's limits and any prime examples comes to mind. So if you know of any, please point me in their direction.

If only there was a smilies for 'I'm so very stupid.'

I found the area including works. You may feel free to send me all sorts of viruses.

Originally Posted by Fulkrum

If only there was a smilies for 'I'm so very stupid.'

It would get lots of use - that's for sure.

Originally Posted by DrJim

It would get lots of use - that's for sure.

I would probably be responsible for using it 90% of the time!

Since you are, by the looks of it, responding to much of the Alice world population, I have, and this time a true problem.


Visualize the following if you would please:

1. I have Ninja1 run into and 'through' Ninja2.
2. Ninja2 falls flat on his face.
3. I then spend many hours trying to get Ninja2 to slowly push himself up with his arms/hands, shake his head a few times, and then get up onto his knees.


Here's the problem:

I run through my movie numerous times, looking for improvements I can make etc. Once out of every five or six times, Ninja2 WILL fall flat on his face but NOT aligned to the ground i.e. not truly horizontal as intended. This then affects all future positioning etc., in which case I have to restart yet again, which has led me to therapy.

This can happen at various points, to different movements and to different characters in the movie; frequency being variant.

Please, oh please...why?

Originally Posted by Fulkrum

Since you are, by the looks of it, responding to much of the Alice world population ...

Usually othe people pipe in, but it seems to be a pretty dull time in the forum, especially for your type of questions. I suspect most people are on summer break and not making movies (at least with Alice).

Re your question - I'm assuming the problem doesn't occur when you just rerun the movie several times. If it does, that's another issue. Most likely you are moving something slightly, most likely the ground, without realizing it. When you run the world, it will alsways start from whatever the current setup for the world happens to be.

Two things that will help. First, set "SeldomUsedProperties/isFirstClass" to false after you have positioned an object (especially the ground) where you want it. This will make the object not selectable with the mouse. (If you can't select an imported object, by the way, this is also a good thing to check.)

Second, create a dedicated method that is called at the start each time the world is run and use it to set the position of the camera, any movable lights and all key objects. This way you will always start from the same configuration when you run the world.

By the way, this is not just a problem with running Alice worlds but is a problem for almost all control software. Much of it and of the software development effort is dedicated to initial and periodic calibration functions. (Pilots hate it when you tell them the landing gear is down before landing - and it isn't!)

Thank you very much for helping out.

The only one option from your reply that I have not tried is in the 'seldom-properties' section. So hopefully that'll work.

2 years ago I was in WA, U.S. and Spring Break was discovering every inch of downtown Seattle for the 100th time! Now I'm in another continent, and the highlight of my Spring Break is realizing that I'm not quite 32 yet

Enter: my music, poetry and Alice. That's why I ask all these questions. Thank you for everything though. You've helped me in my other 'posts', I think the community calls it, or 'threads'.

ref: Quip about landing gear.....second highlight of this Spring Break I'll bother you later.

Originally Posted by Fulkrum

ref: Quip about landing gear...

Really not a quip - do a search for a crash landing in Souix City, IA in the late '90's. Also a big problem for Navy pilots landing on carriers - one of the leading causes of crashes is the landing gear not being down right - and the Navy pilots are usually armed. (Fortunately they're usually also a long ways away from the programmer.)