Preston FAQ

Date: November 8, 2001
  1. To run preston, do i have to be registered ?
    Yes. Any AW SDK bot must run using a citizen number, which you get when you register. You can find out what your citizen number is under Help/About
  2. My password seems not to be working with the bot. Why ?
    Any SDK bot requires your privilege password to work. Your regular password will not work. You have to set your privilege password under Options/Citizen.
  3. When i click <Start Bot> i get an odd error number, looking like 110xx. The bot fails to start.
    To run your bot in the ActiveWorlds Universe, you must leave the universe field blank. For other universes (such as outerworlds) you have to input a proper host name and port number into the universe field. The proper format is hostname.domain:portno, e.g. auth.activeworlds.com:5670.
  4. When I start Preston i see the error message "Unable to start this build", and I cannot run the program
    Preston talks to the version server on startup to see if a newer version is available and if the current version should be allowed to run. It displayes this error message along with the Version Server reply, which usually reads something like "Please upgrade". For upgrading see the next question.
  5. I want to upgrade Preston, but i don't want to reenter all the data.
    In order to upgrade Preston, you have to download the newest version from this web page. The recommended upgrade procedure is as follows:
    - Download the new preston.zip from this site
    - back up your current preston directory containing your current preston.exe and preston.ini
    - unzip the new preston.zip into your current preston directory. The zip file does not contain a preston.ini, your current one is preserved.
    - Start the new Preston from that directory. Preston will detect what version wrote the current preston.ini, and will adapt if any changes to the data are required.
  6. My bot won't follow me. Everytime i use the follow command, it responds with " is not here".
    The proper settings for a follow command are:



    When defined like this, assuming your bot is named [Preston], your bot should follow as soon as you say "Preston follow me".
    The settings for a goto command are the same except for the action, which should be set to <goto>.
  7. How do i set the bot up for midi playing ?
    Preston plays midis by putting the appropiate action line on an object. To set up midi playing, you have to tell preston what object to modify. Here are the steps required for midi playing:
    a) gather a list of MIDI urls, and enter them into the midi file list on the midi page.
    b) in AW; put up a speaker object, somewhere nearby to the bot (less than 120m)
    c) decorate that object to be unique by putting in a special description, like "This midi speaker is maintained by Preston".
    d) now copy the content of the object and description field of the speaker object into the model and description fields on the midi page. Make sure that the fields match exactly the objects properties.
    e) make sure that the action line edit field on prestons midi page reads "create sound %s".
    f) hit apply. Preston will ask you wether to immediately start looking for the object. Click "ok" and see the status line on the midi playing saying "Looking for midi object"
    g) after a while (on modem lines up to 4-5 minutes) the line should change to "Last midi file played was <name>. Next change in <seconds>" At this point the music should start to load and play for all people near your speaker.

    you're done :)
  8. Can I use the midi playing feature to change the content of signs or to change objects in other ways ?
    Yes. The default action "create sound %s" can be replaced by "create picture %s" or "create sign "%s"" to achive other effects. the midi file list then holds the possible values for the %s placeholder, for example picture URLs or Sign texts. You can even just use %s as the midi action, and use complete action strings in the file list.
    The advanced timing feature of course makes sense only for midi playing.
  9. What is the <log> action good for ?
    The <log> action can be used to have your preston take messages for you from visitors to your world, or to take orders, requests or anything. Preston logs the complete chat line, so if you have several log commands, say a "%b message" and a "%b order", you can tell from the log which command was invoked (i.e. if it was an order or just a message). You can find the log on the "User Log" page of the GUI and in the preston.log file
  10. Why is <ps only> protection not working when I whisper to the bot ?
    The <ps only> protection lets you protect commands to work for PS only. PS speech is decorated with bold text, whisper, however, can not be bold. Every line of chat can only be PS chat (bold) OR whisper (blue italics), but not both at the same time. According to the bot, your whispered message has no PS bold style attached to it, and there is no way for the bot to determine if the command was whispered by a PS.