1. Introduction

In this lesson, you begin to learn how to connect scenes together to make a world.

IDEAS: An ExploreNet world consists of scenes which are connected together by exits. The exits in a scene are described by a file called an ".XIT" file, because the file name ends in .XIT. In this lesson, you will learn how to modify exits and make new ones.

OUTCOMES: At the end of this lesson, you will have changed Dino2 (the second version of Dino World) by adding a scene and by connecting that scene to the other scenes in the world.

WHAT YOU NEED: It would be good to have a picture of an outdoor scene, in a book or magazine. If you don't have a scene to inspire you, you can dream one up. Also, please get a piece of paper and a pencil.

Getting Started. When you open up Explore.Net and look in the UNIVERSE folder, you should find a file named DINO2.WLD. If it is not there, we'll go get it. In the directory named WORKMAS, you should find a folder named DINO2. Copy this into your UNIVERSE folder. If you don't know how to copy a file, ask the person next to you, or (if all else fails), ask your teacher.

2. Mapping the world

On your piece of paper, draw a big "tic-tac-toe" symbol, like this. It should take up most of the paper.

In the center square of your paper, draw a simple picture of the MOUNTAIN scene. Label this scene MOUNTAIN.

Now you should explore with your mouse and find a footprint, which is a path leading to another scene. In the MOUNTAIN scene, there is a path leading to the right.

Go through that exit and see where you are. You will find yourself in a scene named Prairie. Add it to your map, and label it too. Use arrows to show where the exits are.

By now your map should look something like this.

Now - go ahead and explore the world and draw your map. There are four scenes in Dino2.

3. How Exits Work

The ExploreNet screen has a coordinate system that looks like the following figure.

                                 

A box is needed to describe an exit - because that's the (invisible) region you have to walk into, to go to the other scene. (We COULD make exits visible , if we decided to paint them into the scenes.) We have to say how wide and tall a box is. The example box is 100 units wide and 300 units high.

Mountain.xit
:Exit rightward (to the East) - leads to Prairie

:When can we use this exit?

ALWAYS

Prairie : which scene do you go to

200 500 : where do you emerge in Prairie?

850 500 150 500 : describe the shape of the exit

NONE: results of passing thru the exit

Look at the map below. It shows how this exit works.

An Exit from Mountain to Prairie

For now you don't have to worry about the ALWAYS condition; it just means that every time somebody comes to this exit, they go through. You also don't have to worry about the NONE, because it means that nothing happens to them when they go through.

4. Let's Work on an Exit

Hold down CTRL and press ESC. This allows you to step outside ExploreNet. Now open your Windows Explorer or File Manager.

Open the file named Explore.Net/UNIVERSE/DINO2/Dino2.wld. To do this, double click on the Dino2.wld file name.

If Explorer or File Manager doesn't know how to do this, you will see a window asking for help. In Win95 the window's title is "OPEN WITH". Select the program called WORDPAD. Click the box that says "Always use this program to open this type of file."

The Dino2.wld file will look like this, except that the first line will be different because you are using a different version of ExploreNet than when we wrote this manual.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
#V3.4-2.20.96
:Dino2 World is for Lesson 2 of the ExploreNet
:Tutorials. It teaches about Exits.
:
:scenes
mountain prairie hills desert
:characters
IceT (Raptor) 7 200 700 700 mountain
Bigfoot (Bronto) 7 500 700 700 prairie
:Arrow 1 500 500 500 mountain------------------------------------------------------------------------

Several things should be noticed:

1. Anytime you see a colon (":") that means "ignore the rest of this line." In computer jargon this is called a comment.

2. The first non-commented line in the Dino2.wld file lists the four scenes in the world. You knew that already, from your mapping expedition.

3. The characters (dinosaurs) you've met so far are named IceT the Raptor, and Bigfoot the Bronto. IceT has 7 poses (different shapes, used for walking), and starts out at location 200 700 700 in the mountain scene. Bigfoot is similar but starts out in the prairie scene.

4. There is a "character" named Arrow that is "commented out" of the world right now. This means we put a colon (":") in front of its line so that it wasn't around to distract you when you were mapping the world.

Remove the colon before the word "Arrow". Now ExploreNet can see the Arrow and will include it in the world. Use the FILE menu to Save the file back onto the disk.

Use CTRL-ESC to return to ExploreNet. Press the RESTART button in the upper left corner, then select "Reload World." The changed world will be reloaded into ExploreNet, and you will find the Mountain scene on your screen.

This time the world contains IceT, Bigfoot and Arrow.

Click on Arrow's button, and move it around. It moves just like a dino except that it has only one pose, so it doesn't "walk".

Click right on Arrow to see what it can do. The menu will say "Tell Where' and "Turn Around." Select "Tell Where".

You will see a display called Position that says "Current Position" and two numbers, like 244 @ 502. These are the X and Y positions of the tip of the arrow.

Write down the Current Position numbers, then click on OK. Then move the arrow down and right a little bit. Open up its "Tell Where" menu item again, and notice the second numbers. They might look like this:

Extent from Old = 100 @ 50

Your actual numbers will be different, but they will tell you how far you moved to the right (X) and downward (Y) since the last place you asked for the Current Position.

Got it? It's a virtual world measuring device.

Fixing the Exit from the Desert.

Fly the arrow to the Desert scene. Use your map if you don't remember how to get ther.

Now fly it to a nice place for the exit to the Prairie scene. We don't like the exit that's now in the middle of the river, right?

When we tried this, we selected the little hill at 570 @ 389. Your exit can be wherever you want it. Write down the Current Position numbers; this will be the location of the upper left corner of your exit.

Now fly to the place you want the lower right corner of the exit. Open the Tell Where menu again and note the Extent from Old. In our case it was 71 @ 48.

Editing the Desert.xit File. Now we have the information we need. We need to go to the Windows Explorer or File Manager again, to use it.

Press CTRL-ESC and select the Explorer or File Manager. Open the file named Explore.Net/Universe/Dino2/Scenes/Desert.xit.

If your system doesn't already know how to open an .XIT file, you will again get the OPEN WITH menu item, and tell the system to use WordPad or NoetPad to edit .XIT files. We use WordPad for everything except pictures, which you already learned to edit with Paint Shop Pro.

Here's Desert.XIT as it stands before you correct it with WordPad or NotePad.
:-----------------------------------------------------------
:Desert.xit - for Dino2
: --- Exit left
ALWAYS
hills : Go to what scene?
800 500 : What location in that scene?

0 250 250 300: What doorway in this scene?

NONE: No consequences

: --- Exit upward
ALWAYS
prairie
500 900
540 430 80 100
NON E
:-----------------------------------------------------------

Look at the Exit upward. Change the current window from 500 430 80 100, to use the new numbers you captured. Our numbers were as follows: 570 389 71 48, but you should use YOUR numbers.

Now use the FILE menu to Save this file. Then use CTRL-ESC to return to ExploreNet. Use RESTART and then Reload Scripts. Test your new exit. Isn't that nicer than the old one?

Challenge Problem 1. Now, to prove that you are a Wizard of Dino World, it's up to YOU to figure out how to do this problem. (You can ask you class-mates for hints if you need to.)

Add an exit that goes from the Hills scene to the Mountain scene.

HINT 1: You will need to add something to the Hills.xit file. Study Desert.xit for inspiration, and go try it! HINT 2: If you go into the file called Hills.drp and remove the colon in front of the line that says "graph 500 1000 0", you will turn on some "graph paper" in front of the Hills scene that will make it easier to plan your exit. You can still use the Arrow to get your locations.

Challenge Problem 2. Actually, some of these exits arrive in scenes in pretty dumb places. Fix 'em up to come out in nicer places. You know enough now to figure out how.

Challenge Problem 3. Now for serious world building. ADD SCENES TO THIS WORLD. You know what you need to know by now. See lesson 1 for art-work.

Thought Question: Once your exit from Hills to Mountain works: why is there no way to get back from Mountain directly to Hills? How would you solve this problem?

Student Name:_____________________ Date:____________

1. Please list any problems you had with our lesson worksheets? Did we ask you to do anything that didn't work out as planned? (What page number? What action?)

2. Did the ExploreNet software work correctly? If not, tell us as exactly as possible what you were doing when things went wrong.

3. What did you like best about this lesson?

4. What did you like least about this lesson?

5. What should we add to this lesson to make it better?