Algodoo

I suggest you move the aliens more to the right, start, loop, stop Algodoo near the beginning of the loop, and save with the snapshot only showing aliens. This way when the user starts the scene it will already be in loop mode and they don't have to read or see any controls until they zoom out. Either that, or put a "Press L for Demo" sign next to an alien. The reason for the suggestion is that most users don't look at this web page. At this point, I see 51 downloads and 2 views. Those two views are probably just from you and me.

Good points! Thanks....

When I first added the "Press L key..." text, I used keys.isDown to set the density of the text box to zero to blank it out when L key is pressed. But the L key is also used for one of the Algodoo tools, and therefore keys.isDown does not activate the first time it is used with a tools key! So, I changed the script to using seen.my.loop. Since the Loop function L key is triggered via a laser, it does not have the same annoying "ignore the first keypress" as keys.isDown suffers from.

Also, I changed the thumbnail picture by zooming in on the two Aliens, but it takes Algobox a while to update the thumbnail picture. It should show correctly some time later today.


**** some time later today **** Okay, the thumbnail looks correct now.

So I'm thinking, 95 steps times maybe 5 adjustments per step results in almost 500 adjustments, plus the time you spent modifying the software. My guess is that you put some serious time into this. You could enable ratings to get some feedback. No need to give me any credit.

I'm still looking into modifying the Gumby scene based on some of your suggestions. I have single stepping working, but I am not able to modify any of the steps yet. I had tried using keypress instead of lasers but also ran into the "ignore the first keypress" problem. The latest version (not posted yet) uses clickable "buttons".

I made another mod (not uploaded yet) which seems to be very handy. Instead of using the < and > arrow keys to change positions of the axles, I used the left and right mouse buttons. BUT I found that I had to click the "Toggle Play Mode" button (in the upper left corner next to the "Open Options" button) to disable the tools. If I did not do that, then when I click the mouse buttons, the Move tool or the Rotate tool will become active and will sometimes mess up the position of the axle that I'm trying to adjust. But I find that using the mouse is much more convenient than using the arrow keys, mainly because you do not need both hands to do the action! Let me know what you think about this.

Oh, and the change from arrow keys to mouse buttons was simple and straightforward by editing the scene with Notepad++.

It works for me except the drag tool is still active. I could just lower the drag tool strength or always point to the center of rotation or am I missing something.

Yes, unfortunately, the drag tool is still active. There may be a way to disable all tool functions (maybe in the console?) but I don't know how to do that. If one is careful not to accidentally drag stuff, I find that this method is faster and more convenient than using the arrow keys. I even slightly increased the angular velocity of the axles which makes setting the dance moves even quicker.

I'm currently developing another feature which may or may not be useful. Currently, if a person wanted to share his/her dance routine with others, they have to upload the entire Dancing Aliens scene to Algobox. But I am developing a way to save and recall only the dance routine with just a single box geometry as the memory (sort of like a USB "thumb drive"). The box can be labeled with text to indicate what the dance routine is (for example: "Steve's Awesome Break Dance"). It can be then shared and downloaded and brought into an existing Dancing Aliens scene as a Component (I think they were called "phunlets" or something like that). Once loaded into the scene, you press F3 to load the dance routine into the scene. Of course, the current Dancing Aliens scene would need some added script to make that happen.

I tend to be a little verbose. Sorry about that!

yeah, I like it