Alice 2.4.3 (June 1, 2015)
Bug Fixes
- Set dummy at camera bug - The dummy object added to one world will now be deleted from the "move camera to dummy" list when loading a different world or creating a new world.
- Multiple Linux bug.
- 64 bit libraries are available for the Linux version.
- Sound was not playing in Linux, getting null pointer exception on sound object. Other miscellaneous sound-related bugs, due to wrong version of jar, jmf, or sound libraries. Updated all the files to fix the problem
- Unicode characters were not displaying correctly. Changed the encoding file.
- Fixed the "Restart" feature in the Alice Update window that was not causing Alice to relaunch correctly.
- Display now resizes correctly for tutorial mode.
- OS X bug - Fixed a drag and drop bug that was throwing a NullPointerException when dragging items from the tree.
- Multiple Sound bugs
- Sound duration is displayed correctly when dragging an object from the tree or the details methods panel to the editor and setting the model to play an Alice sound (no longer ?:??)
- Imported sounds are now cleared from the list after starting a new world.
- Multiple Movie Maker bugs
- Movie Maker now working on OS X.
- Alice can now export movie when sound is in event.
- Alice removes the "frames" folder.
- Extended character set problems
- Alice can now create input stream from filename with extended characters.
- Alice Print statement can now print unicode characters.
- Print statements in scripts now print unicode characters correctly.
Gallery Update
- New models have been added to the Middle East gallery which has also been reorganized
- New Galleries and Objects
- Arctic
- FantasyNature sub-gallery added to the Fantasy gallery
- MarsBaseConstructionSet sub-gallery added to the Space gallery
- 5 cactii and 2 tumbleweed objects have been added to the Nature gallery
- The TwoButtonSwitch object in the Controls gallery has been updated
Alice 2.4.2 (June 13, 2014)
Gallery Update
- Core Gallery: Due to the growth of the Alice model set over the last several years, and to reduce the size of the initial Alice software download, Alice 2.4.2 is now distributed with a Core Gallery. A complete English Gallery is now available to be automatically installed into the Alice system using the Help Menu: Update Software option.
- Spanish versions of Alice models: Complete set of Alice models available in Spanish. Now available to be automatically installed into the Alice system using the Help Menu: Update Software option.
- Middle East Models added to the Core Gallery. These are models made by the Alice Middle East team, based in Qatar.
- Walking Garfield: All the models in the Garfield model set have been given methods to support walking animation.
- Some Alice 3 models now in Alice 2: Some models from Alice 3, primarily props and scenery have been converted and are now available in Alice 2, in the complete English Gallery.
Feature Modifications
- Update Software menu option in the Help Menu
- For better distribution of Alice software and Gallery updates
- Provides options for
- Software Update - when bug fixes and minor adjustments are made to the Alice 2 software, to reduce need for complete download and re-installation of the complete Alice package
- Download English - creates a gallery that contains the complete set of Alice models. This does not remove the Core Gallery, but creates a separate English Gallery, found after download by clicking on the Home link in the Gallery of the Scene Editor of Alice
- Download Spanish - creates a gallery that contains the complete set of Alice models in Spanish. This does not remove the Core Gallery, but creates a separate Spanish Gallery, found after download by clicking on the Home link in the Gallery of the Scene Editor of Alice
- Update English - updates the English gallery when new / updated Alice models are made available.
- Update Spanish - updates the Spanish gallery when new / updated Alice models in Spanish are made available.
- Update MiddleEast - updates the Core gallery when new / updated Alice models from our partners in Qatar are made available.
- Alice now has a Portuguese (Brazil) language option
- Preference setting to select Portuguese for the programming environment.
- There is no Portuguese Gallery at this time
- Alice 2 now supports extended character sets
- This update solves problems when importing and exporting Alice models (.a2c files), audio files, and image files files using extended characters as identifiers
- Alice models now support part names, subpart names, and file names with extended characters.
- JOGL model shading
- Model shading is now available property for Alice when using the JOGL renderer setting.
- Lighting bug seen in a world with a say or think bubble is also fixed.
Bug Fixes
- While <condition> is true
- Fixed the While <condition> is true event which was not working correctly as a side-effect of a previous key-pressed bug.
- If <condition> bug
- Now able to drag a function to the <condition> of an If statement
- Alice previously did not allow non-boolean variables to be dropped into the condition of an If statement. Now Alice will prompt the user to select the correct expression to make the variable the correct input for the statement.
- Macintosh OS X updates and bug fixes
- Include a background for the .dmg download / installation file, including an icon for the app file,
- Allow double-click on an .a2w file to open Alice with the file loaded
- Allows multiple instances of Alice to be opened.
- Tutorial Bug
- Tutorial 4 was broken due to a change in the structure of the Gallery. This has now been fixed.
- Transparency Bug
- Repaired instances in which transparent objects were not transparent when playing the world or were not transparent when using the take picture feature.
- Also, the thumbnail for a saved file also does displays the transparent object correctly.
- List and array bugs (part 1)
- List now displays correctly when using Print <list>.
- Last item in the list displayed as the actual last item in the list rather than as None.
- Can now drop a non-number array onto a loop condition, which will provide a drop down menu to allow user to select "size of array".
- Alice will now prompt "size of array" for any Array type and allow the drop into the loop condition.
- Other list bugs will be fixed in the next release.
- Color bug
- no color in Alice Style preference is now changed to White. Although it looks like changing the color to white is showing the original texture rather than applying a white color to the models, in reality it is because we are used to seeing the models in white color and have not compared it with transparent color. If we color models with transparent color, then all models will appear much darker. So, white color is really making the models white (or brighter).
- Set pose bug
- Set pose was causing the models to cross reference each other causing multiple models to perform the set pose when it is called for one of the models.
- The set pose bug is related to the list. If you have multiple copies of the same object (let's say Garfield) in a list, and you want them to perform an action (maybe a dance move), when you call set pose to get them back to their neutral position, this is what has been fixed:
- First one Performs set pose. Everything is fine here.
- On next iteration of the loop, the next item on the list is selected. This item performs set pose. At this point, Garfield1 and Garfield2 will perform the set pose motion. (By the way, set pose is actually a series of steps to get the model back from the current pose to the set pose.)
- On the next iteration of the loop, all three Garfield will perform the set pose.
- Set pose caused the shoes of the models created with the shebuilder to grow in size.
Alice 2.4 Release (Dec 6, 2013)
Gallery Update
- Added set of Garfield© characters: Garfield, Odie, Arlene, John, Liz, Nermal, Pooky. There are two different object models for all characters but Odie and Pooky, with either different facial expressions or different postures.
- Created a checkbox in Preferences menu to allow users to show/hide He/She builder in Gallery. Recreated some of the He/She builder's textures.
- Reorganization of Gallery - removal of duplicates - if you cannot find a model where you expect it, do a Search
- Walking People models have been moved into the People gallery, removing the corresponding People objects that did not have the walking built-in methods
- ScienceObjects gallery has been renamed to Science
- Models in the Spooky gallery have been moved to Objects, People, and Buildings galleries
- number cube, bar chart, spinner, calculator have been moved into a new Math gallery
- Redid some Gallery thumbnails
Feature Modifications
- Double-click to open an .a2w file
Added a file listener to allow users to double click a file to open it in Alice. Modified plist to register file type with OSX. Added icon to Alice file.
- Movie Maker update
Alice will now check the filename before saving/exporting the movie to make sure that it is a valid file. If user does not have permission to save the file at the current location, Alice will issue a warning and request for the user to choose a new directory to save the file.
- Saving Thumbnails
When saving a file, Alice will now save a preview of the world.
- Added more keys selection to "when <key> is typed, do <method>" event
- Saving Preferences file at a relative path
Users can now specify relative path. The working directory is the Required folder, so all paths must be relative to this location. This new feature will allow users to run Alice from a removable drive and still have the preferences file save correctly on the drive -- considering that the removable drive will have a different drive letter when running on other computers.
- Created a smaller file for Mac OS X download
Bug Fixes
- Int <a> function evaluation error
An Int <a> function in an if/else statement is not evaluated correctly when written as "if Int <a> == <a>". This statement for all whole numbers was always false, but has now been fixed.
- pointOfView bug
Alice could not load a world containing an object that uses the pointOfView property in the editor window. Alice throws a "No such class - Javax.vecmath.Matrix4d" when encountering this error. This bug has been fixed.
- Variable/Parameter bug
The Other... parameter/variable did not update correctly causing Alice to insert a wrong type for the parameter/variable. This bug has been fixed.
- Stuck Event key
This bug covers multiple events:
- <When a key is pressed>
- <While the mouse is pressed on something>
- <Let the arrow keys move subject>
- <Let the mouse move the camera>
- <Let the mouse orient the camera>
In all these cases, if the key or mouse button is held down and a Question box pops up requesting for a user's action, then after the action, Alice will not notice that the key or mouse button was released during the popup request. This bug has been fixed.
- "Say" bubble causing lighting problem
When playing a world containing the "Say" bubble, the world will appear as if the light was turned off right when Alice displays the "Say" bubble.
- Tabs on the Editor window
Previously the tabs on the editor window were glitching, often causing the non tabbed area to the right to be filled with the same color as the tab. Now, the tabs stand out and have the proper blue (default) color as the background.
- Camera view bug
Camera could not get a good look at some models because the point of view was returning NaN value. Saturn and Uranus are 2 examples of such models. This bug has been fixed.
- Fixed StackOverflowError when copying recursion statement
- Gallery Drag and Drop (Mac OS X only)
When dragging an object from the gallery to the render window, the object was placed in the middle of the window rather than where it was dropped.
- Backwards compatible (Mac OS X only)
Has been recompiled Alice with jdk1.5.0_22 to allow Alice to run on some older MAC OS.
- Auto restart for Linux
Updating or changing some preferences in Alice required the user to restart Alice and there was not a restart button in Alice to allow a quick restart in the Linux version. This button was added to this version so users do not need to launch Alice from the executing program on the terminal.
Alice 2.3.5 Release (Aug 2, 2013)
Feature modifications
- After changing the atmosphere and / or ambient light colors of a scene, the user is now able to reset these values to the original default settings (the will appear in the history section of the popup list when changing the color value)
- Methods can now be copied on to the clipboard
Bug Fixes
- Alice 2.3.5 will now execute for MAC OS 10.7 using Parental Control support.
- Fixed a null pointer exception error when user clicks on more... in a method tile.
- Made the Other... combo box non-editable in the Create New Parameter dialog box.
- Fixed List contains <value> statement, where the value was not evaluated correctly.
- Gallery Problems
- Fix the Fridge model (Model throwing error)
- Redo thumbnail for Planets and ScienceObjects (Remove background to make it look like the other thumbnails in the gallery)
- ClipBoard
- clipboard will no longer indicate you can drag a model into it. Models cannot be copied using clipboard)
- Object Visualization bugs
- User may now undo a Set Object command.
- Fixed a bug that was causing multiple undos for setting an object in Object Visualization.
- System fixes
- Alice can now use non-ascii characters, including in file, folder, method and objects names.
- Fix a heap memory error on MAC.
- Update Alice libraries (dll) so it does not depend on any visual studio libraries. (This was causing Alice to now work on some computers)
- The new dll also fixed a bug in say and think bubbles not displaying non-ascii characters properly.
Alice 2.3.4 Release (May 7, 2013)
Feature modifications
- Restored Take Picture feature.
- Restored Screen Capture tab from Preferences menu.
- When saving an object, and adding it to the Alice Gallery, a thumbnail of the saved object correctly displays in the Gallery
Bug Fixes
- Saving objects now works correctly
- Export Code for Printing menu item now prints any lists in a world
- The print control tile now correctly prints user input text to console (not "none")
- The Mac version correctly handles graphics with transparent elements in the images (for example, the wings of the faeries no longer have a black box around them)
Alice 2.3.3 Release (March 4, 2013)
Feature modifications
- Replaced function "int(a) as String" with "int(a)".
- Removed Take Picture feature.
- Removed Screen Capture tab from Preferences menu.
- Added a menu item to view Alice license.
- Change the output text of "Print" statements.
- Removed "Export As A Web Page" feature.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed loading world or models with Spanish characters
- Fixed layout of start up window.
- Fixed the start up "CastExceptionError".
- Fixed "Null pointer exception" error thrown by the Color class.
- Alice creates model's thumbnail when saving model
- Fixed a bug that was caused while using keyboard keys to move an object that is passed in as variable
- Fixed a bug that was preventing Alice from loading the Spanish default world
- Fixed a bug that was preventing Alice from saving the preferences.xml file
Alice 2.3 Release (August 5, 2012)
Spanish Language
Alice 2.3 has been released with a Spanish language option! To select a Spanish display, open the Edit/Preferences menu and on the General tab, select Spanish as the Display Language.
Then, restart Alice. After restarting, Alice menu items, methods, functions, and property names will be displayed in Spanish.
The original installation files for Alice 2.3 contain only the English language gallery. (See instructions below on how to install the Spanish gallery.)
Once the Spanish gallery is installed, the Alice objects and subparts will be displayed in Spanish.
Worlds created and saved under one language setting may be opened and will run under the other language setting. However, the object names and subparts will remain in the language in which the world was originally created.
Alice Updates and Gallery Installation now from within Alice.
Alice 2.3 now allows users to update to new releases of Alice 2.x, and to install another language gallery from within Alice. Users no longer have to do a compete download and re-installation of Alice 2 with every new bug fix and / or system update.
From the Help menu, select the Update Software menu item.
A dialog box will appear. If there are new updates for the Alice software available, the option to download will be checked. This is also where download for automatic installation of the English and / or the Spanish gallery is available. There are new models for Alice 2 being developed, and when they become available, download the appropriate gallery.
Alice will not automatically send a notification when updates are available. You may wish to check the Software Updates menu periodically, watch the Alice website (www.alice.org), or watch for notifications from the Alice Educators Mailing List and the Alice Facebook page.
When the Update button is clicked, Alice will connect to the download servers to begin the download and installation. The computer must be connected to the internet for automatic updates.
When the update is complete, Alice should be restarted.
Note: It may be good practice after a complete download and installation of Alice 2.3 and subsequent versions, to run the Update Software option to make sure that you have the most current version of the Alice .jar file.
Bug Fixes
The following bugs were fixed in this release.
- Added a Spanish gallery which is available for download from within Alice 2.3 through the Help/Update menu.
- Created new Splash screen and About Alice screen images.
- Change the encoding method for Alice to allow Alice to correctly display an extended character set.
- Fixed a missing function tag.
- Changed the name-checking method to allow for accents and other characters used in Spanish and other languages.
- Created a language pack (All the required files for translating Alice to other natural languages).
As always, please let us know of any bugs or problems you encounter. You may contact us at alice-help.
Go to Alice.org home page