Too many zones?

[+ThePharmGirl]

Please help!

 

I have created a cartridge that works flawlessly in the emulator.

 

When I tested it out in the real world on my Oregon, it froze up after completing my second task and the message "12 New Locations have been added" appears. It won't let me click on anything.

 

So.... is there a problem with my code somewhere.... OR... Are 12 locations too many visible at one time? I'd really like the user to have the option to go to any of the 12 locations at any time (they have to find 5 items that are hidden somewhere in those 12 zones).

 

Thanks,

ThePharmGirl

[Ranger Fox]

Yeah, too many zones will slow an Oregon. The GPSr doesn't have much in the way of computational resources. I've heard a general consensus that ten active zones seem to be its limit.

 

As a workaround, you could have the player find the five items in sequence within one of six to eight active zones (I'm being conservative). Whenever the player finds the item, set the next one as visible in a zone and activate, say, zones 9 and 11 and set zones 3 and 7 as inactive. Not an ideal workaround, I know. The benefit to doing this, though, is it's simple and can be done with no technical knowledge.

 

Does anyone else have any suggestions?

 

On a related note, cantuland created an author script that gets around this problem. As your player walks around, this script will show only the nearest zones to him or her. I don't know how tech-savvy you are, but this script may provide what you're looking for.

 

When you find something that works for you, let us know, ThePharmGirl. Also, welcome to the Wherigo forums! Feel free to ask for all the help you need!

[+ThePharmGirl]

Thanks for the info. I'm definitely NOT tech-savvy. I've already spent close to 100 hours on this thing and I already had to "dumb down" my original concept.

 

So... It's not ideal, but I guess I'll have them find each of the 5 items in sequence. So the potential zones for item 1 will open up.... and then when they find that item, the zones for item 2 will appear and the zones for 1 disappear, etc etc.

 

That should be the easiest way because I can just add that code pretty quickly without altering too many of my If-then statements.

 

Thanks again.

[Ranger Fox]

You're welcome. If you ever need some advice, questions answered, or just some good hands-on help, don't be a stranger here!

[+ThePharmGirl]

It worked! I rewrote it having no more than 7 zones visible at once. I got through the game to the final cache... although I REALLY wish I had made my actions "on proximity of zone" rather than "entering" zone. What a pain.

[Ranger Fox]

Yeah, I keep saying that in the forum: "For Garmin Players, use OnProximity instead of OnEnter so your players don't have to zero out."

 

It's all the fun little things you pick up as time goes on. For instance, to power off a Garmin GPSr, display an input and then make another display. Poof! Instant power off. To get around that little issue, I've been suggesting people deactivate the zone that triggers it or make a character ask the question. Also, don't use the OnClick event for tasks and stuff because the Garmin Players don't recognize it, so nothing will happen.

 

See? All sorts of odds and ends. (But I do hope what I just mentioned will come in handy.) Perhaps I should make and pin a thread to the top of this forum, titled "The Garmin No-Nos"! Ha, ha!

 

---------

 

Well, I definitely am happy you have your first problem sorted out. It does get easier with time, once you get up the steep section of the learning curve.

 

If you want me to switch all your zones to using OnProximity, you can send me the cartridge via email and I'll edit the lua for you. It'll take all of a few seconds and save you several minutes.

[+ThePharmGirl]

Thanks so much for your help. I published my cartridge on Wherigo (Regner Wherighost). Now... how do I add the code so that people can't just play it online?

[Ranger Fox]

In the Groundspeak Builder, that's custom work. You should be able to do it from the UI in Urwigo.

 

I'm at the Houston airport at the moment, posting from my cell phone, so I'll have to wait if I want to provide instructions. Can someone else please chime in?

 

From your cartridge's name, it sounds like it deals with ghosts. Is that true? I have a personal interest in such matters because I photograph haunted attractions during the Halloween season.

[+ThePharmGirl]

Yup, it's a ghost hunting-themed cartridge with some Ghost Buster stuff thrown in.

[+sTeamTraen]

Now... how do I add the code so that people can't just play it online?

If you mean making the cartridge hard to play in the Emulator, here's how Earwigo does it (approximately):

 

1. Create some Author Script code like this:

function NoEmul (cart, message)
 if (	 ((string.byte(Env.DeviceID, 2) + 1) == 102)	-- 'e'
   and ((string.byte(Env.DeviceID, 4) - 2) == 105)	-- 'k'
   and ((string.byte(Env.DeviceID, 6) + 4) == 115)	-- 'o'
 ) then
local terminate

local function cbfunc ()
  local x
  x = x .. os.exit()
end

terminate = Wherigo.ZTimer(cart)
terminate.Type = "Countdown"
terminate.Duration = 3
terminate:Start()
Wherigo.MessageBox{Text=message, Callback=cbfunc}

function terminate:OnTick()
  cbfunc()
end
 end
end

 

2. In your cartridge's onStart event, call the function NoEmul with the cartridge identifier (cartMyCart) and a suitable text message ("Dude, I'm disappointed in you!") as parameters.

[+Zorkan_Heneron]

I too am having a problem with the Oregon being very slow when moving around the menu, possible because of too many zones open. It works perfectly on my iphone but takes about 30 seconds when I click on any button in the garmin device. I am working on a D&D type cartridge that is "free range" in which the player has the option of going anywhere in the room which means 9-10 active zones. I'm thinking of lowering the number of zones per room but don't want to scale it down too much. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

The premiss of my new project will be an interactive adventure with 4 characters (fighter, Archer, Thief, Magic user/cleric) and 4 cartridges, where the players will need to cooperate to get through the adventure. For instance, in the "fighter cartridge" the fighter has "moved" a bookcase and he "tells" the thief he has done that by giving him a code. The thief enters that code into their cartridge and the thief can now "search" behind the bookcase for any hidden doors.

 

Anyways I digress. Is there a "breaking point" in the number of active zones? Does it reach a point where it just doesn't work or does it just get progressively slower? I hate to have to dummy down the adventure just because of the garmin.

Also I saw the coding for the Earwigo to stop emulator playing. Is there something similar with the Groundspeak builder?

Thanks in advance

[+St.Matthew]

Zorkan,

Your catridge sounds very fun, but a lot of work. Are you sure you cannot get all 4 characters to exist in the same cartridge? As for your question, it is generally accepted that only 6-7 zones should be active at any given time.