HS AtmoRecorder 1.0 : Instructions
(c) H.S.Software 2004
INTRODUCTION:
AtmoRecorder makes it easy to create complex interactive animation sequences for your worlds without having to write any HTML or javascript yourself. 

You can create an interaction path in a few minutes and then save all you need to run it with your world e.g. for guided tours, action sequences or bots. 

Many thanks to Erik Champion for all his suggestions and ideas for features, and Erny for his inspiration!
 
All you have to do is click Record, then move your player along a path and the program will record his position at every step. 

When you've finished recording, for each step you can:

  • 'fine tune' the position
  • trigger an animation
  • chat.print a message
  • perform a script function - at the moment there are only two: Wait (for a player to catch up with the avatar guide) and Facing (this attempts to turn your guide towards the player not that well yet still working on it!

You can then click Play Back and your guide will follow the player's original route and carry out any animation/function/speaking you have added!

NB because of the restrictions on the amount of data that can be easily stored on our server:

  • the maximum number of steps that can be recorded in one sequence is 64 (the recording will automatically stop after this to ensure that you will be able to save a path when you have created and edited it)
  • you must have cookies enabled in your browser if you want to save any paths to our database (AtmoRecorder only uses these to temporarily store part of the sequence)


Latest additions for version 1.0:

  • adjust the height of the overall path to suit your guide and the world
  • save your guide's details to our database so it's easier to load
  • selection of sample worlds to work with
  • see an example world created using AtmoRecorder

1:LOADING AND SAVING CONTROLS
These are located in the left hand panel:

See Sample: This shows you a sample world created with AtmoRecorder.

Reload Default World: This reloads the default world that you see when you start the program. You will need use this if you have already a guide in the world and want to load a different one, or you had problems with loading you own guide.

Load your world
NB Very Important - for your world to interact with AtmoRecorder you MUST first:

  • download our script atmorec.js here
  • save it in the same folder as your world on your hard drive
  • open your world in the builder
  • import the script
  • republish the world
  • then upload to your site with the atmorec.js script

Now click on Load Your World in  AtmoRecorder, and in the window that pops up type in the full URL address of your word's .aer file (e.g. http://www.mysite/myworld.aer) then click Load World.

Load Sample World: This pops up a window with a selection of worlds to choose from - just click on a world to load it!
 
NB If you have a world that you would like to make available for others to use with the program please post it in our forum

Load Your Guide
NB Very Important - for your guide to interact properly with AtmoRecorder please follow the following guidelines:
You can create guides  with e.g.Avatar Labs or Poser, Avatar Labs is easier to use and it also creates lower resolution avatars (the lower the resolution and the less animation actions the better otherwise they may be too complex to load and/or slow down the world).

If you're using Avatar Labs we suggest that you:

  • use a static Stand action (eg Male Stand 1)
  • then only use a Walk action and Action_1 ( of your choice!)

Once you've published the avatar with Avatar Labs (preferably clicking the Viewpoint Compression option)

  • load the aer file into the builder
  • in the Scene Hirearchy click on  the <Viewpoint Object> which represents the avatar
  • give it the same name as the Avatar Labs file ( without the .avt on the end)
  • in the Scripting tab of the Inspector Window delete the reference to the javascript file (e.g.robot.js)
  • publish the world

Now upload the .aer, mts and mtz (or mtx) files to your website.

Once you've uploaded your guide to your website, click on Load Your Guide, fill in the relevant details then click Load Guide

The program will then try and load your guide into the world on screen. If it is successful you will get a 'Guide Loaded!'.  

A screen will then pop up asking you whether or not you also want to save your guide's details to our database. 

It's a good idea to do this if you will be using the same guide again, as you will be able to load it from the Load Sample Guide button without having to type in all the details every time.

If the program doesn't load your guide (this can take some time especially with a dial up connection) you will need to reload the world and try again, making sure that you have typed in all the correct details.

Load Sample Guide: This pops up a window with a selection of guides to choose from - just click on a guide's name to load him/her/it!
NB you can only add one guide into a world after the world has loaded. If there's one in there already you'll have to reload the world then add the guide - sorry about this (atmo should let you "unload" a model that's already there but seems to be very fussy about it so we've had to put this restriction on at the moment).

Save Path: Click here, then fill in the relevant details in the popup window and then click:

  • Save Both to create a loading script and page for your world and save the script to the database (recommended if you want to recall it and work on it again).
  • Save Script Only if you only want to create the loading script and page.

if you click Save Both the file will be saved to our database so you (or others) can recall it and edit it again - if there's already a file with the same name in the database you will be prompted to enter a different name.

You'll now see two windows:

The top one contains the text for you script - just 
Cut and paste the contents of this box into eg Notepad and save it as a file with the name given into the same folder as your world.

The next one contains the text for you web page - just 
Cut and paste the contents of this box into eg Notepad and save it as the main html file for loading your world e.g. 'index.htm'.

NB

If you haven't done so already (e.g. before loading your world into this page) you also need to download the file atmorec.js  and attach it to your world (see Load Your World above  for details)

You can easily attach several script to your worlds and a button will be automatically created by the web page for each one.

To do this:

  • Load the main world file you've just saved (e.g.index.html) into e.g. Notepad
  • Look for the line just above <!-- end of animation scripts -->
  • Copy and paste this line for each script, and then just change the name after src=" to the name of  that script

NB The page takes the guide and world details from the last script it loads (the one at the bottom) so make sure this is the one that contains the guide and world you want to use. You'll see these near the beginning of the script file you just saved e.g.:

world="desert1.aer";//world name
wname="http://www.hsworlds.com/sample/girl2.aer";//URL of guide
mname="girl2";//name of guide's mtx/mtz file (before the .)

Load Path: This pops up a window with a selection of scripts to choose from - just click on a script's name to load it.
NB you can only add one guide into a world after the world has loaded. If there's one in there already you'll have to reload the world (using Reload Default World in the side bar) then add the guide - sorry about this (atmo should let you "unload" a model that's already there but seems to be very fussy about it so we've had to put this restriction on at the moment).

 

2:THE RECORDER/PLAYBACK CONTROLS
  Position your player at the start position then click this button to prepare for recording a sequence. Now click in the atmo widow and move your player along the required path. NB the recording doesn't start until you move your player.
 
Click here to stop the recording.
 
Click here to Play Back the recording. NB The program attempts to move the player out of the path at the end of the recording (so there's no collision with the guide. We also suggest you turn your player towards the starting position so you can see the guide coming towards you.
 
Click here to stop the Play Back at any point.
 
This moves you one step backwards in the animation sequence.
 
This moves you one step forwards in the animation sequence.
 
  This moves you to the first step in the animation sequence.
 
This moves you to the last step in the animation sequence.
  
Recording Interval: This drop down box lets you set the interval between each recording - we suggest you use the default of .2 seconds as a default - the lower the figure the finer the animation steps, but the more memory and processing time taken up - you need to experiment!
 
Step: This shows you the number of the current Step in the animation sequence

3: THE EDITOR BOXES
These boxes allow you to change the player's position at each step and also to trigger an animation, chat.print a comment or perform a function (coded into the main script).

Animation: This drop down box lets you trigger an animation at a particular step. This uses the standard Stand, Walk and Action_1 that you will usually have (eg in AvLab avatars). Some animations (usually Walk) keep on going once you have triggered them. You'll probably want to trigger this one in Step 0 of your sequence. You need to remember to "switch this off" at the end of your path e.g. by triggering a Stand action on the last Step.
NB the drop down list also has the options for Action_2, Action_3, Action_4, Action_5 and Action_6 and if your guide  has these actions you can use them. If your script is used with guides that don't have these actions then any command that uses these extra ones will be ignored (we suggest you limit the number of animations as far as possible to help prevent loading errors).
 
f(): This lets you perform a function that's coded into the main script. At the moment there are only two: 

  • Wait (for a player to catch up with the avatar guide). If you include this in a Step then if the player is not near to the guide at this point, the guide  will chat.print a message and wait until the player comes near before moving on.
  • Facing - this attempts to turn your guide towards the player not that well yet still working on it!

Height: This lets you adjust the height of the whole animation path to suit the World and Guide you are using. 
 
If the guide is above the ground when following a path, then type a minus figure in this box e.g -3 = drop guide down by 3 feet.
NB When you use Save Path the height adjustment is not saved to the path database but it is saved to the script you create to make sure that the path is in the right place in your world

Say: If you type something in this box the guide will chat.print this as a message when reaching this Step.
 
Pos: This one is the most scary! This stores all the information about the player's position and orientation at this Step in the following order:
X position, Y position, Z position, X rotation, Y rotation, Z rotation. B careful when altering these as it's easy to make a mistake (although you can always See it first and the choose not to Save - it see below)

  This button only shows if you have clicked in one of the edit boxes. Clicking this lets you see the effect of any changes for this Step in your atmo world.
 
This button also only shows if you have clicked in one of the edit boxes. You must click this button if you want to save any of the alterations you have made for a Step.

 

WHAT'S NEXT......?
We are working hard on AtmoRecorder and hope to include more features soon, in particular:

  • more script functions
  • more sample worlds, guides and paths
  • script interactivity so you can trigger the animation paths and functions from other scripts in your world

We hope you find this utility useful -  if you need help or have ideas for changes/or new features please visit our on line Conference Room ( list of available times is available in the Events Calendar) or post in our forums

Cheers!

The HS Team