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Visual timer


CatchTheSummer

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I was wondering if anyone has succeeded in creating a visual timer.

 

If someone enters a zone a question about the location is being asked, but I want to prevent people from looking things up in wikipedia etc. For that reason I am adding a timer, but it would be much nicer if it would be a visible one.

 

An animated gif would be ideal, but gif-files aren't allowed.

 

Has anyone already come up with a work around? Or does someone have suggestions on how to create the same effect?

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A simple way to avoide that everything could be solved in the emulator is to ask about something on a sign, a number or something that not is possible to check. I take a picture of the sign (could be any sign) and use a paintprogram and add some paint (paintshop) and say that some kids made graffitti over some numbers and the task is to check it and this number I use as part of the coordinates for the final cache. In other cartridges I have used things in the nature, the length of a rock ,number of rock on a clearly defined spot.

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=ea6ed692-ab78-4db8-aff6-ba3d9f97cfe8

or

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=be5d45a3-6565-418b-b5bf-4c51f6c0f2b7

j-annie

Sweden

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Hello J-annie,

 

I am not using the timer to prevent people to use the emulator. I am using the timer to avoid that people look up difficult answers using mobile internet (people can score points with answers, and the team with the highest score wins).

 

I would like to have a visual count-down to put some stress on the players and make sure they aware the clock is ticking...

Edited by Summerscape
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I was wondering if anyone has succeeded in creating a visual timer.

 

If someone enters a zone a question about the location is being asked, but I want to prevent people from looking things up in wikipedia etc. For that reason I am adding a timer, but it would be much nicer if it would be a visible one.

Animations are hard enough on their own, but trying to do it at the same time that you're prompting for user input is almost certainly impossible given the state of the art of Wherigo players. I think a better idea is to measure how long the user took to give the correct answer and award your points based on that. (Even this will require custom LUA coding if you're using the official builder... Earwigo or Urwigo might have something built in)

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I used a visual timer in one of our caches.

 

I wanted it to be done by bicycle so I enforced a time limit between leaving the first zone and reaching next making it impossible to walk or even run.

 

I have series of images each with a number on and swapped the media on a timer click. This sort of thing should be possible in an inputbox.

 

If I have time tonight I'll create an example....

 

 

Mark

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I've just tried to create an example and failed!

My original cartridge swaps the media on a zone and it works fine

I've just tried to do it swapping the media on an 'input' and it doesn't work :(

The debug messages (in the emulator) says that it's updating the media attribute but it just not changing the display... :mad:

 

Sorry!

 

Mark

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I doubt the media switching solution will work. The reason being, you're currently displaying the box that's using the media. The same solution* used to provide pseudo-animation with message boxes is strongly advised against here.** Since the input is still being displayed, I don't know a way to change its media on the fly. There really isn't a way to cancel an input on all players--and you wouldn't want to cancel the input, anyway, if the player is trying to answer the question. Also, animated GIFs are not supported on ANY player, to my knowledge.

 

* People make pseudo-animation by displaying message boxes with a static image in a certain order after a certain period of time. Thus, message boxes displayed one second apart (this is on a timer) with images just a little different from the other will produce the illusion of animation. However, I do not know for certain if the displayed message boxes remain in memory behind the main window. The third-party Player developers can, at least, shed some light on how their Players handle this.

 

** The Garmin Players contain a known bug that will turn the unit off. If the player has an input's text entry screen open and another input is displayed, the unit will crash and power off. Thus, if you try any way to animate the message box, you need to be VERY careful.

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Thanks Ranger Fox and Delta68 for shining your light on the issue

 

Making pseudo animations is not an option for me. Whereyougo does put different input screens open on top of eachother. Moreover it is not a good idea to program inputs that are stay unclosed. It eats memory and is vularable for crahes.

This might be different if you use a message screen as these cannot be put on top of eachother (they close eachother) and they make no use of variables.

 

BTW whereyougo is capable of showing gif-files, just not animated ones.

 

Thanks again, I think the solution realy lies in making an audible countdown instead of a visual one. The problem there is the volume. Out in the city it can hardly be loud enough.

Edited by CatchTheSummer
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Thanks Ranger Fox and Delta68 for shining your light on the issue

 

Making pseudo animations is not an option for me. Whereyougo does put different input screens open on top of eachother. Moreover it is not a good idea to program inputs that are stay unclosed. It eats memory and is vularable for crahes.

This might be different if you use a message screen as these cannot be put on top of eachother (they close eachother) and they make no use of variables.

 

BTW whereyougo is capable of showing gif-files, just not animated ones.

 

Thanks again, I think the solution realy lies in making an audible countdown instead of a visual one. The problem there is the volume. Out in the city it can hardly be loud enough.

I use two timers for this issue: one is the "really" one, which counts donw. A second timer is set to interval and 1 second (you can increase this) and in the onelapsed-event, I change the name-property of a zone or a visible item with the remaining time of the main timer. So the user can see in the main screen the remaining time.

this works on all devices and is used in this cartridge.

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