Conversation between me and I (Well more like an argument)

So I’ve just come back after having a cheese and tomato sandwich and a cup of strong instant foreign Nescafe coffee (It’s cheaper but I’m sure stronger) after writing the last post. To save time and wastage of worry time, I’ve tried to put into words or thoughts what I’m worried about and tried to resolve them.

So what’s your first worry?
The structuring of the flash document. Up until now I wasn’t quite sure how this worked. As it is Tom’s job to put together the final programme on the IPAQ’s I’ve kind of left this thought behind however it keeps coming back usually late at night. The reason it came back this time was after writing about the hourglass animation.

So how does it work?
Well to begin with I assumed that there would be one long continuous flash document which would work like a normal one with buttons and a navigation system, using Action Script etc. However it came to me while getting the components of the sandwich together on the chopping board – Bread, cheese, Tomato, Pepper that this is not the case. Each hotspot that you walk into will obviously call up a separate SWF, JPEG, WAV, file. There is no need to panic about the programme navigation or coding as it is actually very simple.

So what’s the problem then?
This got me thinking about the remembering part of the game. The toolkit does have simple programming, whether we use this or HTML I am not sure, however the programme does need to remember certain parts. For example did you get all the clues right, did you even try them all, were have you been, etc. It then needs to store the information obviously now in a database. I am not a database kind of person. Especially not making flash work with a database system…… And if this is the case I will also have to make some of the SWF’s have multiple versions. If you have solved this this and this then you get this if not you get this etc.

And what else?
My original idea of the drag and drop for the clues might have to be abandoned also. When you make text an object you are essentially making the text a picture. A picture can no longer have words read out of it. To explain: In Photoshop when you flatten or rasterised text you are essentially flattening it. When you put the text cursor over it you can no longer edit the text; it is now a picture. It works on the same principle as Flash. To allow the letters to be dragged and dropped into the right position you have to make it an object. Therefore Flash will no longer be able to read what it says. IE we won’t be able to put it into a database because there won’t be anything there. Or can it?????

Right…. Well you need to think about that then.
Yes….

So what’s this about the hourglass then?
Well, as I have previously mentioned the hourglass will be on the screen when ever there is nothing else. Originally I wanted it to be true to time at the beginning of the game the sand is all in the top and as the game goes on the sand falls down. As I said there are already problems with the coding, in that I can only do it using JAVA. No idea how this all works on the IPAQ’a, I should but I don’t… However while congratulating myself on the realisation that there will be separate SWF files it dawned on me that to have a consistent time lapse ie one hour, the hourglass would have to be running constantly. Now I might be able to allow the SWF to know when it has being turned off, and therefore re-start at the same point however I do not know how to make the SWF think it has being running the whole time.

Oh dear….
Yes. However this got me thinking that maybe Mobile Bristol can be playing a file the whole time, yet does not display it on the screen the whole time???? I DON’T KNOW………………………………………………..
Ah ha! Tom has just come back and informed me that you can be playing files constantly without them showing. Now I just have to work out how to make the Java work……………………….

Right well what else?
The map. While thinking this through and pondering how to show it on screen I started thinking about how it shows you where you have being. This will all have to be done using multiple flash files. The Mobile toolkit will then have to do all the leg work in knowing where you have been and directing the right SWF to the screen. So I started to think how many SWF files this will entail and I worked out about 25. This does not cause problems in itself; however I’m beginning to worry about the Toolkit that is going to be directing them. Will we be able to do this? Basically without being able to work out Databases and Flash, and the programming on the toolkit were screwed.