Open Serendipity

I got back to Wonderland today and had some small success, need to make notes so I don’t forget.  The behavior is so flaky, I decided what I really should do is figure out how to run tests and then compare my results with what others get.  But first (since that sounds like work) I decided to skip ahead to what I really want to do: load collada models.  Hopefully collada models created by my in-house (literally!) 3D art expert, but before taking that step I decided to just find a model on the web in the collada format and see if I could load it into Wonderland.  I chose this ivy pot, shown here as a mere 2D picture, but the model I loaded was actually 3D.

So here is what I got working:

• Apparently loaded the model, but could not find it in the world!  I figured (correctly) it was too small or badly placed or something.
• So I loaded it again, or maybe the tool was showing me the info for the one I had already loaded, hope so but I’m not sure, and I decided to put in the precise location info as shown in the example, in hopes that it would place my ivy pot somewhere that I could see.  As I clicked (held down) the arrow to change the z coordinate, some new motion caught my eye in the world.  Sure enough, my little ivy pot (but not in color, just b&w) was scooching along in the world as I changed its coordinates!
• I quit the client and did it again, this time placing the object where I could see it well, from all sides, and I scaled it larger.
• I tried to save as a module and also as a jar, and that seems to have worked but I’m not sure how to test it yet.
• I deployed it to the server and verified that I could quit the client and then start a new client and my ivy pot was still there.
• I saved a snapshot of the server and then later restored it and made it current.  Interestingly, the rest of the world was gone, only the avatar and my ivy pot were visible when I started a new client.
• I loaded it into two different worlds.  In the second one, I noticed that the model is not entirely black and white.  Two stems and one leaf are bright green, as in the original.  How very odd.

That’s it for now.  I’m going to try to figure out how to run tests next, and then how to create tests so that I can script my actions and not have to redo them manually all the time.  If I read the wiki right, there are some basics in place for testing and scripting.

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Tech by marla