Algodoo

Happy Birthday!

Here is a nice Algodoo feature that you may not know about. Try this: First select either the Move Tool or the Grab Tool. Then right click on the Glados robot, which will select it. Then scroll down and hover on "Appearance". At the bottom of the Appearance panel you will see a blue banner with the text "Generate geometry from texture". Click on that blue banner and watch what happens! Try the same thing on the birthday cake and you will see that it does not look so good. That's because it does not work the same with every image. I think you will like it!

If you don't like how the geometry turned out (maybe it's too rough or ugly), you can reverse the transformation with Ctrl-Z.

mlgdash -- At the top of the page you will see a tab labeled "Learn it". Click on that tab and you will learn the basics!

This scene is rather unusual, but interesting. What is its purpose? Does it show some special feature of Algodoo that other users like myself might be interested in using in our own scenes? Please explain.

Thanks!

@JakubKubo -- No, I'm not suggesting that you post long, complicated descriptions of your scenes. It would be helpful, though, in many cases to give a short description, especially for scenes that are not intuitive (self-explanatory). Maybe just give a short list in the scene description, such as: 1. What the scene is or does. 2. How to use it. 3. Any personal requests or conditions, such as: Is it Okay for others to copy and upload your Thyme code (script) or scene geometries.

I see that you have added those things to THIS scene. GREAT!

You have come a long way over the past few months. Your scenes are becoming more interesting and clever, which makes you a valuable asset here on Algobox! Keep up the great work!

Some people smoke cigarettes, but no one (that I know of) smokes kids.

Nicely done and easy to use. Clever coding!

abdo -- Your scenes are amazing too! I really like your excavators and loaders. You do such a great job on them!

Even babies!

ken3344 -- Of course he cannot TM a color here on Algobox, just as no one can. But in his little kid brain he thinks he is doing something cool or exciting even though you and I know that it's just a waste of time and space here. If I were going to delete this scene simply due to the fact that it has no value at all, then I would have to delete at least 50 percent of the scenes that are currently posted on Algobox. But that would take me many months of my time to do that, and so, no, I'm not going to do that.

Thanks anyways.

In case you didn't know this, all Algodoo geometries already have angular velocity damping, as well as X and Y axes motion damping. In any geometry, look for the parameter labeled "velocityDamping". The values are: X,Y,Rotation and the range is from zero to 1.0 on each, where 1.0 is maximum damping.

Nice job on the balancing mechanism!

The great thing about Thyme scripting is the fact that it gives you lots of different ways to accomplish the same task. And that is what makes it so much fun!

Jacub -- You said: "Are you happy with description X-ray?"

You don't need to make me happy. And it doesn't matter if I am happy with anything that you do. The important question is, are YOU happy with your description? If you are happy with it, then congratulations!

Okay, this is a very interesting subject, and I look forward to an improved version of this scene. Good job so far!

Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention that you should disable the Algodoo CLOUDS in technical scenes like this one. It doesn't make sense to have clouds floating by for a scene like this one because the clouds are very distracting. This is just a suggestion, and therefore you do not have to do this if you don't want to. Thanks

None of your PC scenes work as described. Maybe it's because I'm not doing it correctly? Your instructions are rather vague and not detailed enough. Maybe it would help if you were to create a video which shows exactly how to load a disc, and how to read/write text. It's really not clear at all how to insert and remove the disc. Should we use the grab tool or the move tool? Which end of the disc goes in first?

And here are a couple of suggestions:
1. Disable the Algodoo clouds. It doesn't make sense to show clouds rolling by in a technical scene. They are very distracting.
2. It is difficult to read your text because you display the text over the windows background which makes it hard to read.

That's all!

You said: "The points you made were mostly wrong." Oh? Well, let's take them one at a time...

Point 1. "Sadly, nearly all of the kids who use Algobox have no need for timers because they never run Algodoo!" This point is TRUE, and the scenes speak for themselves.

Point 2. "Their scenes are static images of cartoon boys and girls that do nothing but pose." Considering only a few exceptions, this point is mostly TRUE. Again, the scenes speak for themselves.

Point 3. "Algobox was a lot different a few years ago when people used their creative minds to make interesting and dynamic scenes." I know for a fact that this is TRUE because I was here during many of those early years when Algodoo was first distributed for public use. The first version, which was basically an upgrade to the earlier simulation program called "Phun" came out some time in 2009, before some of its current users were born.

Point 4. "They actually had to THINK, PLAN, BUILD, and MAKE THINGS WORK. Now, all they do is draw (and copy) cute little cartoon people. " Okay, I'll partially give you this one. Even the simple scenes we see being posted now required some degree of thinking, planning, and building. The exception here is, they do not need to "Make things work" because the scenes are static drawings which do not move unless they are marble races.

I'm sorry that my comments made you feel bad. That was not my intention. It's just that some of my comments come from frustration and sadness about what happened to this web site since the early days when nearly all scenes were physics simulations. That's what Algodoo is all about. Then around 2012 to 2014 time frame, some younger kids started using Algodoo to draw simple cartoons, and they started holding "Camps" and "Algocathlons" (whatever they are). As the young children started filling up Algobox with simple scenes, the adults and older teens who used to post mostly dynamic simulations, started leaving Algobox. After all, what adult wants to play in the same sandbox in which children are playing? And now, 2019, there are fewer adults and older teens besides myself who are still here than you can count on one hand. That's where my frustration comes from. I did not intend to say anything that upset you, and for that I apologize.

Thank you, gentlemen!

s_noonan -- I wanted the values to show so that a player could keep track of certain "sweet spots" for each basket. They could choose to make use of them or not.

Any other suggestions would be much appreciated.

How to select the other images in the scene?

Just why I make dis comment? Just... why?

matto -- Your video still doesn't show. When I click the link in your comment, it takes me to a YouTube page that says: "Your video is unavailable". There is something wrong with the link to your video.

@JakubKubo -- You said, "...what was your inspiration?"

Well, nearly all of the thousands of scenes stored here on Algobox that have a moving ball, show the ball moving only in the X and Y directions (right/left and up/down). I wanted to create some scenes that show a ball moving in 3D (that is, X, Y, and Z, where Z direction is in/out of the screen. In order to do that and to make it look natural, I had to figure out how to change the size of the ball as it moves closer to and farther from the viewer. I uploaded a few other scenes which show a moving 3D ball. They are not "perfect" but they look cooler than a 2D ball simply moving in the X and Y directions.

Thanks for your comments! I'm sure that your games will be awesome!

WOW! This game is excellent! Very nicely done. It functions perfectly, and it looks great. Your programming skills have improved dramatically!

Xr got bored, Algodoo comment pack.
Finally I thought of a comment to post.

Harris - Sure! You can do whatever you want to on YouTube because that's a different web site. But the owners of Algodoo do not want people advertising or promoting other web sites on this (Algodoo) web site. That's all!

Short for "Xray". Just like FM is short for Fun masters.

Yes, it works now.

Wow, how did you do such a professional job on the video? It's AWESOME! It looks like it was produced by a professional company that has been making videos for many years. Please explain....

Works well, with one exception: When switching to a different slider, it will only function on the second press of the mouse button. I recall that this was an issue on one of your earlier scenes, but I don't recall what was done (if anything) about it. Other than that, the scene works very well and it looks great. Good job!

Works perfectly now.

This game is impossible, even for a pro gamer like me!

Why do you want credit for these characters? I'm sure that you did not create them yourself. You stole, er... borrowed, er.... took them from someone else, just like all the other cartoon characters that people post here on Algobox. Right? C'mon, admit it. You really DID steal them from someone else or from some other website. C'mon now, be honest. Don't be like all those other kids who try to make people think that the characters they post actually BELONG to them! HA HA HA HA.... what a joke.

Pretty cool! But I think it needs a bit more resolution to be useful (like about 3 orders of magnitude more resolution). Yes, there are other functional cameras on Algobox, but I'm not sure if they are the kind that you are referring to. Do a search on the word "camera" to find out if there are others.

Nice job, so far. I'm looking forward to your super epic "top secret" whatever it is!

It works, but you have to use the "Enter" key which is located on the numeric keypad (also known as a "num-pad". Unfortunately, not all computers, especially some older laptops, have a numeric number pad. He should have used the "Enter" key (labeled "Return" on some computers) that's located on the regular keyboard.

@Adamist -- You can fix that by changing your text word from "Enter" to "Return". Then the regular Enter key will function instead of the numpad Enter key.