Halloween venue

Building Tips

The Object Properties Box -- A review

This month, we will take you through the elements in the Object Properties box as a sort of review, to reinforce the information that it contains. The more you can understand what all the features contained in this box are, the better you can manipulate objects to your liking.


Object Properties Box

Let's start from the top. The icons on the top of the Box tell you directions you can move the object in. For a full explanation of these, go to AWSchool or AWNewbie. In the "Type" line, you can select the sort of object you want to work with: Object, Mover, Zone, or Particle Emitter. The Box is set as a default to Object; if you select any of the other options, the contents of the box will change dramatically. Again, see the tutorials in AWSchool for these.

The Object section has three parts: Model, Description, and Action. The first part -- Model -- is the name of the object you are using. If you are using an Object, in Yellow at least, the name has to have the suffix .rwx or .cob; for example: pole1m.rwx. The second part -- description -- is a text box in which you can type in information about the object. However, unless you are creating a sign, or want people to have details about something relating to the object, leave this blank, as the more text you have, the fewer objects you can place in any cell. The third part is the text box, in which you put in all the actions or alterations on the object. Here is where you use the trigger commands (Create, Bump, Teleport, etc.). You can develop quite complex programs in here. As an example, one of the items that was used in the Halloween build in Yellow had "create visible no, solid no;bump astart coff,animate me . 1 1 1000,astart;adone noise ghost1.wav global" This was a trigger object for a head to appear out of a coffin with a ghostly noise.

The Location section tells you where your object is in relation to the world. It uses what is called a Cartesian grid, which puts the object within 3 dimensions: X, Y and Z. X is East-West; Y is up and down, and Z is North-South. The numbers are the distance in metres from 0 in any of the directions. You can get very precise measurements with these and it's worth noting them if you are trying to place an object exactly, or using it as a bump or a teleport trigger.

The bar in the centre of the Box -- Load Object Group -- allows you to select a group of objects that you may have previously saved and want to use again. It's is very useful for repetitive builds, when you need the same set of objects time after time. One such in Yellow is one that Ozman uses, called "tardis.awg" which is a whole tardis (for Dr Who fans...). The tardis appears all over Yellow, and in fact even in AWReunion.

The next section down is the Rotation part. These numbers tell you the alignment of the object, and are Tilt, Yaw, and Roll. Tilt tells you the number of degrees the object leans on the X axis, that is, forward or back. 0 is straight; 45 would be half leaning, and so forth. Yaw shows the degrees from 0 on the Y axis, that is, how much the object is turned left or right. Finally, the Roll shows the degrees the object leans left or right. These correspond to the icons on top of the Box; try clicking on the Tilt, Turn, or Roll icons and see what happens to your object. Make a note of the change of degrees that happen.

The Owner, Name and Built items show you the citizen number of the person who used the object, the Name is the AW name of the person, and Built tells you when the object was used.

The final line -- Cell Limit -- is a very important indicator. If you pay attention to this you will save yourself a visit from the Building Inspector telling you to build somewhere else because this space is full. This number will tell you how much space is left in the cell the object is in. In Yellow, which is a "Mega" world, you have 5500 bytes that you can use in any 10 X 10 metre square. These bytes consist of text and include all the stuff you type in the Object Box,including spaces. If you are using a lot of text, then you will have less room for objects.

This is a quick run-through of one of the main tools in AW that you use for building. For more details and training, go to AWSchool or AWNewbie. Also, keep a look-out for tutorials run by a number of master builders, like Bach Zhaa, or Keshie, and many others.

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.