Start: Begins the simulation. Its Initially greyed out and isn't made active until a Thing is added to the world.
Pause: Pauses the simulation. Gives you a chance to explore the world at rest. Press start to continue the simulation.
Reset: Stops the simulation (if running) and removes all Things from the world. Gives you a clean slate to play with. NOTE: If a balloon was marked for rebirth before reset, it will still appear after reset.
The menu bar gives access to these additional commands:
World->Default Camera: Resets camera view back to default.
Add: Create a new Thing and add it to the world.
Add->Invasion! preset: Creates a pre-determined number of things to demonstrate the simulation with. Expect, 5 UFO's, 5 Gumby's and 10 Smileys.
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Round Thing is the most basic Thing type in our World. Like all Things, it's created at a random position within the world. X, Y and Z velocities are randomly decided. The Round Things boundary collision property is to wrap-around. Once started, the Round Thing never alters course, it keeps on travelling at its birth velocity. Round Things are known predators of Smileys. |
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Balloon Thing is created at a random position below the half way mark of our (cube) world on the Y-axis. As the Balloons only velocity is +Y, this gives it a chance to rise to the ceiling from the bottom half of the cube. The Balloons boundary collision property is set to collide. Once it hits the ceiling, it stays there. On impact with the ceiling, the Balloon marks itself for death in 5 seconds and then rebirth in a further 5 seconds. |
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Anchor Thing is created at a random location with -ve Y velocity only. Boundary collision property is set to collide. The anchor sinks to the bottom on the world and stays there. While originally designed to provide Oval Thing an object to jump over, the anchor has no interaction with other Things in this World. |
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UFO Thing is created at a random location with a random velocity. Boundary collision is set to wrap-around. At each frame, the UFO creates a new velocity and changes to it only if it is randomly chooses to. This creates the effect of a darting UFO. The UFO is an enemy to Smiley Things and a friend to Gumby Things. |
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Smiley Thing is created in a random position in a placid state. The picture to the left shows all the states of Smiley. Green is placid, yellow is happy and red is frowning. Smileys are stationary things. Smiley's become happy when they see another Smiley in their personal space. Smiley's frown when they see their enemy UFO Thing. Smiley's get scared and hide (turn invisible) when they see the predator, Round Thing. Smiley's state precedence is in order of fright. eg, they would turn invisible rather frown or smile. |
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Oval Thing is created in a random position with a -ve Y velocity. Once the Oval falls to the ground and collides, it generates X and Z velocities and starts walking. Boundary collision when walking is set to wrap-around. Oval Things were initially designed to jump over any Anchor Things in its path, but this has not been completed. |
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Ball Things are created in a random location with a random velocity. Boundary collision for the Ball is bounce, which lets it bounce from wall to wall. When in motion, the ball rotates giving the impression that it is rolling around. Ball Thing does not interact with any other Things. |
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Gumby Things are created in a random location with no velocity assigned. They are stationary Things. Gumby Things are friendly towards UFO's and wave wildy at them when ever one is in its personal space. |