Code Documentation --THIS IS OUTDATED ljd 8-23-95 general concepts still apply.
This text field will hold code documentation/ explanations for the various code area such navigation between rooms, navigation within rooms, animation bhaviour control and standards. As the program develops this area will constantly be updated and cleaned up.
General Object Architecture
Node Object
The node object contains all the properties and behaviors associated with a given room. Most properties are initialized in the birth statement.
Screen Objects
Each node (room) is populated by 'screen objects' which are birthed each time a particular node is entered (for now). Each child retains it's unique properties which describe it's particular behavior (how it reponds to clickons, it's ambient nature, etc.)
Each screen object child is created from a text castmember which describes the nature of the object and a series of bitmapped or QuickDraw castmembers through which the child manifests itself on the stage.
There are 6 types of objects:
1- Scripted Interactive animation sprites (can also have Ambient behavior).
2- Ambient animation sprites.
3- User Controlled animation sprites.
4- Exit room sprites for navigation between rooms.
5- Furniture sprites, stationary PICTs that belong in room.
6- QuickTime movie sprites.
Point of View navigation within a Room
Each room can be considered a single long panel of backgrounds placed end to end. The left hand side of the first background is considered the origin with horizontal coordinate = 0. The extreme right hand side has a horizontal coordinate of = x where x= (the number of full screen panels) * 640 pixels. In a room consisting of 4 panels the right hand horizontal coordinate would be 2560. We could consider the room to be 2560 pixels wide.
When we navigate our POV left or right we use two sprites to make sure the current view is correct. The loch's of the sprites is shifted untill one sprite cast is entirely off the stage, at which point we switch in a new approriate cast and locH for that sprite to continue the illusion of navigating through the room.
Objects within a room (animations, exit hot spots, QT movies, other hotspots) are all considered 'screen objects' and are given an absolute position in the room relative to the left hand and right hand locH's. In the example above an oject sitting in the middle of the room would have an absolute locH of 1280. Using this value and knowing the position of our background relative to the upper left hand corner of the monitor screen allows us to determine and constantly update the monitor screen position of each screen object. We consider this the objects relative position.
Animations are created with a fixed registration point whose relative position is constantly updated, so always perform correctly.
The 'screen objects' are created as parent/child objects, each child maintains it's unique absolute room position as a property. This value is also held in a text field along with other object specific data. This text field is associated with the corresponding animation picts in the linked cast.
Navigation Between Rooms
Navigation from one room to another is initiated when the user clicks on an exit hot spot (a Rect or QD sprite). The hot spot is a Screen Object and has knows it's transition cast (the exiting room transitions and screens) and it's destination movie. Transitions are contained and executed from the movie the user is leaving.
Sprite Allocation
1 - 2 reserved for emergencies
3 - 4 backgrounds
5- free
6- free
7 - 8 deleted 6-1-95, proximity navigation only ljd -- room navigation (within a given room)
9- free
10 - 30 screen objects including animations,ambients, node navigation Exit hot spots
