Position shown in Actor Attributes Pane

gyroscope

In the Support wiki reference for the Actor Attribute Pane, referring to Position, it says:

< Position - the position of the actor in the scene. Don't set this attribute in the prototype.

X - The x position of the actor using scene coordinates
Y - The y position of the actor using scene coordinates >

Sorry to be a bit slow here: I assume that you DO set this attribute within the Rules section, but I don't understand the bit about not setting the attribute in the prototype. Um, what's the prototype? Is it referring to a GS beta as oppossed to an official "proper" release, or is it meaning the Actor Attributes Pane itself; or, maybe something else... any answers appreciated, thanks!

:-)

PS I know this question sounds like I'm picky about inconsequential details, but hey, that's me...

RH

A prototype is just an actor in column on the left hand side that displays your actors and where you create new ones. The ones shown in the column are the prototype actors. I assume that what it is telling you not to do is set the position by double clicking the actor in the bar on the left because when you place the actor in the scene the position that you have placed it will overwrite the position you have told it in the prototype. If you want to plug in the X and Y coordinates double click on the actor in the scene and set them in that actor.

Hope that makes sense

iPhoneDevForMe

To further elaborate RH's post, basically you have 2 parts of an actor. You have the prototype and the instance.

A prototype is, simply put, a blue print. You create a new actor called Enemy. You can add a rule that makes the Enemy destroy itself after 5 seconds. This is your prototype, or blue print. You always want to leave the position attributes set to 0.

You can now drag this actor to ANY scene ANYWHERE in your game, and it will ALWAYS do the same thing, which in this case is destroy itself after 5 seconds. These actors are the instances of the Enemy actor and the position will be where you have placed the actor in the scene.

Now lets say you have a scene with 3 enemy actors, but you want 1 to destroy itself after only 2 seconds. If you edit the actor prototype, that will change EVERY enemy, but you only want it to happen to one of the 3 actors.

What you can do is double click the actual actor in the scene that you want to be different. You will see the typical actor editor, only the area where you drag behaviors it dimmed out and there is a lock in the middle of the screen.

On the left you will also see the typical attributes editor, and you can access the position attributes. Changing this, you can position that instance of the actor at an exact location anywhere on the scene.

Click the lock on the screen, and you can now edit the rules for this instance as well, and it will ONLY effect this instance and not any of the others.

That is a difference between a prototype and an instance! And this question doesnt make you sound picky haha! Its a good thing to ask! Sorry for the long and redundant post! Hope it helps!

-Kyle

gyroscope

Thanks RH and Kyle for your comprehensive explanations; appreciated!

;-)