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 |