Newbie: Don't understand how to use an emulator

[+steve4nlanguage]

Hi, as stated, I'm a newbie to building a Wherigo cartridge. I read through Groundspeak's tutorial, which is great, but it's a bit too intensive for me at this point, so I tried the Wherigo//kit and it was much easier for me to create a simple cartridge. However, I don't understand how to make an emulator work. As I understand it, the emulator will test the cartridge, I'm guessing from your PC without actually going out in the field. Yes?

 

I tried using the Webwigo emulator listed at the Wherigo//kit site, but I can't really get it to do anything. Below is a screenshot of what I have, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do from here.

 

 

Also, is it possible to test the cartridge in the field with an emulator? Do I download an app or just access Webwigo from my iPhone browser?

 

Sorry if these are stupid questions, but I really need a push in the right direction. Thanks for any help you can point me to.

[+ZenGuru]

Hi, as stated, I'm a newbie to building a Wherigo cartridge. I read through Groundspeak's tutorial, which is great, but it's a bit too intensive for me at this point, so I tried the Wherigo//kit and it was much easier for me to create a simple cartridge. However, I don't understand how to make an emulator work. As I understand it, the emulator will test the cartridge, I'm guessing from your PC without actually going out in the field. Yes?

 

I tried using the Webwigo emulator listed at the Wherigo//kit site, but I can't really get it to do anything. Below is a screenshot of what I have, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do from here.

 

 

Also, is it possible to test the cartridge in the field with an emulator? Do I download an app or just access Webwigo from my iPhone browser?

 

Sorry if these are stupid questions, but I really need a push in the right direction. Thanks for any help you can point me to.

 

You can run through the playing of your cartridge using the emulator while sitting at your computer. You can't really use it in the field -- you will use your compiled cartridge on your smart phone or garmin for that function. The idea is to run through the logic while sitting at your desk. I would suggest you might want to download a cartridge from the "The Great List of Open Source Cartridges" topic above and run it through the emulator. The emulator doesn't do anything but respond to the events in the zones you have defined just as your smart phone would as you test it in the field. You just drag the little guy in the bubble you see in your screen shot around to the various zones and respond to the programmed events.

 

Hope this has been at least a little help.

[+steve4nlanguage]

You just drag the little guy in the bubble you see in your screen shot around to the various zones and respond to the programmed events.

This was the key piece of information I needed; I'm now able to run through the emulator. Thank you so much!

[Ranger Fox]

Oh, and while proximity events are great in the field for supporting all player apps, they're a little more challenging in the emulator. If an event is set on enter, you can just drag the marker on the map into the zone. But for proximity events, you need to drag the marker close to the edge of the zone.

 

Also, some cartridges are set up so they won't play in an emulator. I like to encourage authors to allow people to play partway through a cartridge in the emulator. If the cartridge has a good story or is entertaining in some way, I'd hope being able to play a short demonstration in the emulator would encourage people to go out into the field and play the rest of the game. But when or if to restrict access is all up to the cartridge's author.