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For a tutorial about all the parts of a Challenge Maze, and how 'ChalkBoard' fits in with all the other parts, please visit the Quick Start Maze Section.
The 'ChalkBoard' is the black area underneath the Image Stack:
There are a few similarities between a regular chalkboard (or whiteboard) and the 'ChalkBoard' used in the Challenge Maze Software. Just as on a regular chalkboard...
...letters and number figures can be written.
...questions and answers can be written.
...whatever is written will stay there until it is erased.
...the background is black and the most common color for writing is white.
...the color of the writing can be changed.
This may be where the similarities end. Unlike a regular chalkboard, the 'ChalkBoard' will wait until the right moment in between the showing of visual and audio media to deliver questions. The 'ChalkBoard' will also then erase itself and Move on to delivering other written content at the right moment.
Perhaps more importantly, the 'ChalkBoard' has it's own ability take something written only once and have that writing be used over and over again without having to be re-written. This characteristic of the 'ChalkBoard' can work rather well for simple questions and answers. While it may take a little longer to write content on the 'ChalkBoard' the first time, much time can be saved because the 'ChalkBoard' will do the writing on it's own (hundreds or thousands of times) after that.
If it is a person's purpose is to deliver mathematical content to viewers of the 'ChalkBoard', this characteristic of being able to have whatever is written be used over and over again becomes even be further improved. A math problem or challenge can be written in a way that each time the content is presented to a player, the content will be slightly different. The numbers in the mathematical challenges will change themselves. Not only will they change themselves, they will change themselves only within limits predefined by the writer of the challenge.
To find out how to view the assessment information that the Challenge Maze Software generates about players involved in solving challenges, please visit the Logs & Errors Page.
The Challenge Maze Software will often write content to the 'ChalkBoard' based on text entered into textfiles. This text will be written in places called 'entries' in textfiles.
To see how writing to and erasing from the 'ChalkBoard' fits into challenges, please visit the Stuff That Happens When Facing A Challenge Section.
The Challenge Maze Software will automatically erase the content of the 'ChalkBoard' on just a two occassions. It will automatically erase the content when it is told to write new content and when a player moves to a different room within a maze. There is also a way to direct the Challenge Maze Software to just erase content without writing new content to the 'ChalkBoard'. This is done using a CHALKBOARD-ERASE instruction in a CutScene entry. There will be more information about these types of scenes further down on this page.
If the Challenge Maze Software is told to write some content to the 'ChalkBoard' and then is told to immediately write some more content (or erase the content), it is nearly impossible to read the content because computers are so fast at writing and erasing. Whatever had been written first would be erased before a player had a chance to read it and only the second piece of content would be visible. Since the 'ChalkBoard' behaves this way, the Challenge Maze Software has ways of telling a computer to wait some number of seconds. Depending on where the Challenge Maze Software gets the content, there will be a certain place to tell the computer to wait. That place will usually be in the 'entry' where the content is written, or near the 'entry' where the content is written.
To change the color of content written on the 'Chalkboard' the are two option 'entries'. When looking in the Single Maze Defaults.txt File there can be found a ChalkBoard General Layout Entry and a ChalkBoard Points and Math Operations Layout Entry.
Most 'ChalkBoard' content, with reuse facilitated by the Challenge Maze Software, is related to Challenges. To see how the 'ChalkBoard' fits into challenges, please visit the Stuff That Happens When Facing A Challenge Section.
Challenges can be presented to a player in almost any room in a maze. The solving of challenges by a player can permit the player to gain things like Chests or open things like Passages. At the core of each challenge is the 'challenge text'. The 'challenge text' has its own 'entry'. That entry is called the Challenge Text Entry. The Challenge Maze Software will use the Challenge Text Entry immediately after it looks at the Challenge Type Entry when a player enters a room. It looks at the challenge type entry so that it knows if there is a challenge in the room and how to reuse the 'challenge text' if there is a challenge. If the 'challenge type' is a 'word' type, the Challenge Maze Software will simply write the challenge text as it is on the 'ChalkBoard'. If the challenge is a 'number' type, the Challenge Maze Software will do some work to figure out which numbers to put in the 'challenge text'. As was partly explained above, the Challenge Maze Software does this work to to allow mathematical challenges to automatically write different numbers while keeping the same type of calculations.
Sometimes a challenge can be greatly augmented by the presentation of visual information, audio information, or a more prolonged textual information. The following links have information about how to present this information during challenges.
CutScene - Challenge Intro CutScene - Challenge Wrong CutScene - Challenge Solved CutScene - Less Than ThatFurther instructions about challenges can be found on the Challenges Page. Also, to see information about how all the parts of a maze fit together, the Quick Start Maze Tutorial is available
When beginning to write entries it will become possible to write pieces of text so long that the text will be wider than the 'ChalkBoard'. A Challenge Text Entry that looks like this...
... will make the 'ChalkBoard' text look like this during one part of a challenge.
However, with the use of the word NEWLINE like this...
the 'entry' will be split into 2 lines.
Generally a maximum of 3 lines is possible before the text will conflict with the white input box seen in the image.
