As a reminder to anyone who has not yet completed their definitions on their respective Wiki, you will need to get this completed by tomorrow night. Use the websites listed on the vocabulary page to help you find a definition. NOTE: if you have the "Internet filter" definition you may need to use the term "web filter" when looking for a definition. They are the same thing, but I have found that finding a definition for web filter is easier than finding one for Internet filter.
ALICE!
Opening window: Tutorial, Recent Worlds, Templates, Examples, Open a World
To start - select a template (for today, select grass). Then select open.
Saving: Click on the File menu in the top-left, then click on Save World. Save to your documents folder for now, but I highly recommend you bring your flash drive from now on to save it to. Also, notice the extension for Alice files is .a2w.
Alice Interface: you will see 5 distinct areas in Alice. They are the Object tree, World window, Events area, Details area, and Editor area. These areas are what you use to create your world, with each area having a specific "responsibility" in helping you create that world.
Object tree: this area shows all of the current objects in your world. The plus sign next to an object shows that it has sub-parts (click on the plus sign to see an object's sub-parts). World, camera, light, and ground appear in every Alice world.
World window: this area contains a view of the virtual world you are creating. Below the area there is a set of 3 arrows that allow you to manipulate the Alice camera. Next to the arrows you will see a green ADD OBJECTS button. If you click on this button you will see a big change in the Alice world - at this point you will have switched to the scene editor mode.
In the scene editor mode you are able to add objects to your world and position them where you want them. You have a gallery of objects listed by category - click on the category to see all of the available objects within each category (some categories have sub-folders with other sub-categories...the animals category would be one example). If you click on an object you can find out how many parts the object has (we'll come back to this in a little bit). Once you find what you want, click on the object then click on "Add instance to world". You can add as many objects as needed for your world. When you are done inserting objects, click on DONE.
Additionally there are 7 buttons on the top right of the screen that are important to your positioning objects in the world. The cursor allows you to move the object parallel to the ground. The vertical tool allows you to move the object up and down. The turn tool is used to rotate an object parallel to the ground. The rotate tool allows a user to rotate the object forward or backward. The tumble tool allows the user to freely turn and rotate the object in any direction. The resize tool allows the user to change the size of the object (click on the object and hold down your mouse, then move your mouse up or down to change the object to be bigger or smaller). The duplicate tool makes a copy of your object.
Below these 7 buttons you will see a rectangular button that says "more controls". This button is what you use to change your camera. In Alice you "drop" cameras at points in your world...later you have the ability to move from one camera spot to another.
Events area: this part of the interface shows existing events and is used to create new events. An event consists of and event trigger (a condition) and an event handler (a method). For example, if the skater were to fall through the ice you might hear a splash. Falling through the ice would be the event trigger (or condition), and the method that makes the splash sound would be the event handler.
Some events allow the user to interact with the world. For example, you can fly a plane by using the arrow keys, or you could have a character make a statement every time you click on a particular key on the keyboard.
Details area: the details area is located below the object tree (bottom left of the interface). It has 3 tabs - properties, methods, and functions. The properties tab contains information about an object, such as its color and position in the world. Methods are programs that manipulate objects, such as the method to make a bird fly from point A to point B. A function is a method that returns a value, such as the distance between two objects.
You select an object by either clicking that object in the world or by clicking its tile in the Object tree. To manipulate the different parts of an object you will need to either click the plus sign next to the part of the object you want to manipulate or click it in the World view.
Editor area: this is the largest area on the interface. The methods are assembled here and edited by clicking and dragging tiles from other parts of the interface. The bottom of the editor area has a row of logic and control tiles that can be used to loop (do a certain number of times), do together, if/else statements (if object A goes then left object B goes right, etc.), etc.
Undo, Redo, trash can: these should be self-explanatory. I highly recommend using the undo button as often as possible. Many times you will attempt to create certain movement or motion within your world and it won't work the way you want. No problem! Just use the undo button to get back to where you began.
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