Alice Visual Programming Environment – virtual reality world – 3D

 

  • Upper left window shows the objects in the world including the defaults
    • camera
    • light source
    • ground
  • Lower left window  has 3 tabs
    • methods tab shows methods available for object selected in upper left window
    • properties tab
    • general functions tab
  • Lower right window has method details and control structures
    • do in order
    • do together
    • loop
    • if else
  • Upper right window has events which react to
    • key presses
    • mouse clicks
  • Upper center window is the World
    • The world has 6 different possible backgrounds
    • you choose 1
    • World starts out with nothing other than the default objects in it
    • then you click on Add objects
      • this brings up gallery of objects
      • You can’t create your own objects but they have lots (over 800)
      • there are 7 different things you can do with an added object before clicking done (which establish the object’s state).  Going from left to right
        • position the object
        • move the object up or down
        • rotate the object from left to right
        • rotate the object from top to bottom
        • “tumble” the object – rotate from left to right and top to bottom simultaneously
        • resize the object
        • duplicate the object
      • you can choose to have what you do affect the subparts or not
      • there are two different views:  single and quad
    • you click done when you are finished adding and placing objects (when the initial state of your world is complete.

 

  • Example worlds and tutorials are available from Help
    • You should definitely go through tutorial #1
    • There’s a lot to learn in the example worlds, particularly
      • Lake Skater
      • Flight Simulator

 

 

 

  • To create an animation AFTER you have created your world
    • highlight an object in top left window
    • possible methods appear in lower left window
    • drag and drop selected method(s) to Edit area
      • push the play button after each addition to see your animation
    • combine your methods using any of the control structures desired (if needed)
  • Note that if you click on an object with a plus sign to its left, you see its subparts and if you highline one of them you see its associated methods.
  • You can save your animation easily using File, Save As, and you will be remineded to do so if you don’t do it every 15 minutes or so.