Building Tips -- Yellow Gazette, Vol.2 No.3 April 2011

Building Tips

Something interesting and useful

One of the newer command sequences that is really powerful is that of timer and at. Byte recently ran a tutorial on these at the AWSChool, and the text of the workshop can be found at http://host.activeworlds.com/awschool/info/byte.txt. More info below.

Timers
The timer sequence comes in two parts: timer and at The first part, the timer works like this: Trigger (create, bump, animate...) timer then the NAME of the timer (whatever you want; generally short and use capital letters, e.g. ABC) then the DURATION of the timer (how long should it last?) which is counted in milliseconds, so 1000 would equal one second. Then comes an optional loop command (loop=3), letting the timer go 3 times. So the full command would be, for example, create timer ABC 10000 loop=3. This sets up the timer which will run for 10 seconds before it loops, and it will loop 3 times. Now, having set up the timer, the at will set the timer in motion at the time you specify. The command looks like this: at tm ABC 10000, color red. This will turn whatever object you have put the at string on red after 10 seconds. It will then turn red 3 times. You can use multiple at sequences, either on the same object, or on multiple objects. To see how this works, go to the AWSchool at 13.04N 160.26W 0.00a 176. The pictures below show the demonstration. The first picture shows the whole demonstration, and the second shows the object properties box for the first yellow square. And a word of warning. Be very sure to make sure that you have all the commas and semi-colons where they are meant to be, or the timer will not work!


If you watch the demo, you will see that the first yellow square changes colors, when the at command kicks in at time 3333, 5555 and 7777. There is a lot you can do with timers; builders are beginning to use them with some very good effects. Timers will also be replacing the old 'animate' command, so if you have been using that command a lot, like with name posts, now is the time to start learning about timers. Timers can only be fired once, though, unless you use a reset command. Without using the reset command, you will have to leave the world and come back again to restart the timer. Byte has details on this in the tutorial mentioned above, so it's worth having a read of that. And finally, you can get the full details about timers at the AW Active Wiki.

Timers

The timer sequence comes in two parts: timer and at

The first part, the timer works like this:
Trigger (create, bump, animate...) timer
then the NAME of the timer (whatever you want; generally short and use capital letters, e.g. ABC)
then the DURATION of the timer (how long should it last?) which is counted in milliseconds, so 1000 would equal one second.
Then comes an optional loop command (loop=3), letting the timer go 3 times.
So the full command would be, for example, create timer ABC 10000 loop=3. This sets up the timer which will run for 10 seconds before it loops, and it will loop 3 times.

Now, having set up the timer, the at will set the timer in motion at the time you specify. The command looks like this:
at tm ABC 10000, color red. This will turn whatever object you have put the at string on red after 10 seconds. It will then turn red 3 times.

You can use multiple at sequences, either on the same object, or on multiple objects. To see how this works, go to the AWSchool at 13.04N 160.26W 0.00a 176. The pictures below show the demonstration. The first picture shows the whole demonstration, and the second shows the object properties box for the first yellow square. And a word of warning. Be very sure to make sure that you have all the commas and semi-colons where they are meant to be, or the timer will not work!

If you watch the demo, you will see that the first yellow square changes colors, when the at command kicks in at time 3333, 5555 and 7777.

There is a lot you can do with timers; builders are beginning to use them with some very good effects. Timers will also be replacing the old 'animate' command, so if you have been using that command a lot, like with name posts, now is the time to start learning about timers.

Timers can only be fired once, though, unless you use a reset command. Without using the reset command, you will have to leave the world and come back again to restart the timer. Byte has details on this in the tutorial mentioned above, so it's worth having a read of that.

And finally, you can get the full details about timers at the AW Active Wiki.

Do you have any questions on building?

Does anyone have any building questions they want answered or do you have some tips you want to share? Please contact Ozman and also to give feedback on this article, particularly if there are any mistakes. He is doing this from experience. And as always, be sure to check the AW Help page and the related AW wiki pages for further help.

For new builders, be sure to visit AWNewbie, and AWSchool worlds for very good tutorials, on-line help from qualified teachers, and lots of very good objects.

The Yellow Gazette, Vol.2 No.3 April 2011

Building Tips

Links

Timers

Do you have any questions on building?