Sprite Libraries
In addition to MetaCard, I work with REALbasic. REALbasic has a sprite library built in. It's a third party software package, but bolted in for ease of use. Are there any cross-platform (obviously all three platforms would be best, but I'd still be interested in just about anything that got the job done on even one platform) animation toolkits that could be bolted into MetaCard. The level of access provided in RB is fairly simple: you have the ability to create and destroy sprites, give them a direction to travel in, and tell them to drop you a message when they collide with something. I don't think you have the ability to give them a sequence of images to cycle through automatically as they move, but obviously that would be a great feature. On the other hand, how far away is the move command from being able to a reasonable number (from an arcade standpoint--maybe ten to thirty) of objects moving around at the same time? Would it take a 1000 mhz processor, or a 100, mhz processor? :-) I'm curious if anyone has given it a try. gc Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm Please send bug reports to [EMAIL PROTECTED], not this list.
Re: Sprite Libraries
In addition to MetaCard, I work with REALbasic. REALbasic has a sprite library built in. It's a third party software package, but bolted in for ease of use. Are there any cross-platform (obviously all three platforms would be best, but I'd still be interested in just about anything that got the job done on even one platform) animation toolkits that could be bolted into MetaCard. The level of access provided in RB is fairly simple: you have the ability to create and destroy sprites, give them a direction to travel in, and tell them to drop you a message when they collide with something. I don't think you have the ability to give them a sequence of images to cycle through automatically as they move, but obviously that would be a great feature. On the other hand, how far away is the move command from being able to a reasonable number (from an arcade standpoint--maybe ten to thirty) of objects moving around at the same time? Would it take a 1000 mhz processor, or a 100, mhz processor? :-) I'm curious if anyone has given it a try. I haven't tried it myself, but overall I've been very impressed with MetaCard's unprecedented interpreter speed. Given the mix of animated GIFs, the move command, and timers, I wouldn't be surprised if you got the same results using native MetaTalk that RB provides in this third-party package, and possibly even more given RB's lack of support for animation loops for sprites. -- Richard Gaskin Fourth World Multimedia Design and Development for Mac, Windows, UNIX, and the Web _ [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.FourthWorld.com Tel: 323-225-3717 ICQ#60248349Fax: 323-225-0716 Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm Please send bug reports to [EMAIL PROTECTED], not this list.
pasting
Here's a rather strange request... When someone pastes text into a field, is there any way to get the beginning char and ending char of the text they pasted? I've played around with pasteKey, but can't seem to get anything to work. In other words, if I paste "Just a test" into an empty field 1, I'd like MetaCard to somehow return to me "chars 1 to 11 of field 1". If this is possible, I'd love to know how. If not, oh well. Why? I'm trying to create a spell check engine that does spell checking "on the fly", the same way that Microsoft Word 98 does. I've gotten pretty darned far with it, but I need a way of checking the spelling words that the user pastes. If I HAVE to, I can check every word in the whole entire field each time the pasteKey message occurs, but my preference would be to find a better solution. :) Richard MacLemale Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm Please send bug reports to [EMAIL PROTECTED], not this list.
Re: Sprite Libraries
On the other hand, how far away is the move command from being able to a reasonable number (from an arcade standpoint--maybe ten to thirty) of objects moving around at the same time? Would it take a 1000 mhz processor, or a 100, mhz processor? :-) I'm curious if anyone has given it a try. I have. On one game I'm working on (visiting my site would pretty much tell you, but I want to kinda keep it quiet for right now :) , where ten sprites are moving around the screen (they're small, only 48 x 48 pixels I think) , it works fast 'n fine on my 333 MHz G3. I've tried it someon an old 60MHz PPC sitting beside me, and even there, toning the people down to, say, one or two, it still works speedy. Of course, I'm not even using the move command with this. I just realized from this post that I could be using "send "move image theSprite to 200,300 in 5 seconds" to this card in 2 ticks" would get the same result, mostly, as what I'm currently doing, which is getting the sprite's location, adding an x,y slope, checking if it's hit anything, and then manually setting the person's loc sending this whole function every three ticks to get it to look smooth. It's quite proc intensive with many people on the screen, and the one thing that slows it down is when you create a new image and set the fileName to a file on the disk. Using a move command to start the person moving, then just checking every five ticks or so to see if the sprite's loc is within a group of noop-inked graphics I call "collisionGroup" , that could be much easier. I think that last paragraph was really confusing... you can probably just ignore it, or e-mail to explain it better. :) I haven't tried it myself, but overall I've been very impressed with MetaCard's unprecedented interpreter speed. Given the mix of animated GIFs, the move command, and timers, I wouldn't be surprised if you got the same results using native MetaTalk that RB provides in this third-party package, and possibly even more given RB's lack of support for animation loops for sprites. Yes, very much so. -- Karl Becker, KB Productions | Featuring Tiger's Eye Casino, http://www.karlbecker.com | The Fishin' Hole, One Boring Month... | | Also featuring un-cut writings of Karl! Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm Please send bug reports to [EMAIL PROTECTED], not this list.
Re: pasting
Here's a rather strange request... When someone pastes text into a field, is there any way to get the beginning char and ending char of the text they pasted? I've played around with pasteKey, but can't seem to get anything to work. In other words, if I paste "Just a test" into an empty field 1, I'd like MetaCard to somehow return to me "chars 1 to 11 of field 1". If this is possible, I'd love to know how. If not, oh well. Tough job. I think your best bet is to use a hidden field where you can paste the same text, find fld 2 in the main field and get the "foundChunk". Trouble is that at least on MacOS the pasteKey message is generated on command + c also, probably a bug to be reported. Why? I'm trying to create a spell check engine that does spell checking "on the fly", the same way that Microsoft Word 98 does. I've gotten pretty darned far with it, but I need a way of checking the spelling words that the user pastes. If I HAVE to, I can check every word in the whole entire field each time the pasteKey message occurs, but my preference would be to find a better solution. I think your best bet is to use a hidden field where you can paste the same text, find fld 2 in the main field and take it from there. Trouble is that at least on MacOS pasteKey message is generated on command + c also, probably a bug to be reported. :) Richard MacLemale Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm Please send bug reports to [EMAIL PROTECTED], not this list. Regards, Andu Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm Please send bug reports to [EMAIL PROTECTED], not this list.
Re: Sprite Libraries
On the other hand, how far away is the move command from being able to a reasonable number (from an arcade standpoint--maybe ten to thirty) of objects moving around at the same time? Would it take a 1000 mhz processor, or a 100, mhz processor? :-) I'm curious if anyone has given it a try. I did a sample MetaCard game a while ago which demonstrated the async move command. Basically it's like handball with multiple balls, and it's scripted so multiple balls can be handled at the same time. You can find it at the games section of the MetaCard site. regards, Tuviah Snyder Diskotek Custom Application Development SuperCard/HyperCard Conversion at a low price Web: http://members.aol.com/diskotek1/ ICQ:66810408 Fax: (505) 218-2902 Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm Please send bug reports to [EMAIL PROTECTED], not this list.
Re: Required use of word the
snip The following are the only legal ways to write the following: put the time put time() put the rect of image 1 or: put rect(image 1) I remember many discussions on the SC list over the years about the ambiguous use of the work "the," and I wonder if Sivakatirswami isn't asking whether MC isn't more consistent in its use of that word? Craig /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ Craig Spooner Office of Instructional Services Colorado State University 970-491-2516 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm Please send bug reports to [EMAIL PROTECTED], not this list.
Re: pasting
A little off topic, however related. The external collection includes functions which can get and set text in the clipboard. You can trap for pasting (pastekey) then query the clipboard. regards, Tuviah Snyder Diskotek Custom Application Development SuperCard/HyperCard Conversion at a low price Web: http://members.aol.com/diskotek1/ ICQ:66810408 Fax: (505) 218-2902 Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/metacard%40lists.best.com/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm Please send bug reports to [EMAIL PROTECTED], not this list.
