This lesson describes the steps for creating multiple stages with unique rules using DART Creator or DART Studio.
Courses of fire in DART can have up to 30 stages. Each stage can have its own targets, rules, and requirements. In this lesson, we’re going to add additional stages to the course we created in Lesson 1 and discuss the importance of stage rules.
Begin by loading “Sample Course” which was created in Lesson 1 by clicking Load from the Courses menu.
In the Load Course dialog, click on “Sample Course” to select it and click the Load button.
NOTE: If you do not have the course from Lesson 1 you can start with the default course.
Notice at the top left corner of the screen the name of the current course and Stage 1 of 1. This lets us know that our course has only one stage.
Let’s add another. Click the menu button at the bottom left of the screen and select Stages.
This brings us to the Stages menu. There are four options in the Info Bar at the top of the screen; Add, Delete, Previous, and Next.
The Delete, Previous, and Next buttons are inactive because there is only one stage and every course must have at least one stage.
Click the Add button.
You’ll see a few changes in the Info Bar. The right side tells us that we are on the second of two stages and shows us the name of the second stage (currently named Stage 2).
The Delete and Previous buttons are now active as well. If you click the Previous button, you’ll go back to the first stage. You can use Previous and Next to move between multiple stages. This is important because any changes you make to targets, rules, etc. will be made to the currently selected stage.
If you have not done so already, click the Previous button to return to the first stage. Now we’re going to add some rules to our first stage.
At the bottom of the screen click the Rules button.
The Rules command panel will appear with various settings. Two of the most important rules are Shots Allowed and Time Allowed. Besides setting limits to the number of bullets and the amount of time a shooter is given in a stage, they are also responsible for ending one stage and moving to the next.
Move the Shots Allowed and Time Allowed sliders all the way to the left. You’ll notice when it gets to 0 the title of the slider will change to Unlimited. With unlimited ammunition and time, there is no event to end one stage and begin the next. What we need is a rule to set the end of Stage 1 so that we can move to Stage 2.
Set the Shots Allowed slider to 4.
This tells DART to advance to Stage 2 once four shots have been fired.
Now set the Shots Allowed slider to 0 (Unlimited Time) and the Time Allowed slider to 4.
In this case, the shooter is given an unlimited amount of ammunition, but the stage will end and move to the next stage after 4 seconds.
Now that those rules are set, let's move to the next stage by clicking the Next button at the top of the screen or pressing the Down Arrow key on your keyboard, which is the keyboard shortcut for Next Stage.
The rules and target image in this stage are different from the first stage. Remember that each stage can have its own targets and rules.
Set the rules to give the shooter 4 shots and unlimited time.
Save this course by clicking the Menu button and selecting Courses.
Click Save and save your course as Sample Course. If you already have a course with that name, you will be asked if you want to overwrite the existing course. Click OK.
The last thing to do is to test our course. To do that, click the Simulate button in the Course menu. This will simulate the course just as it will appear in DART Range.
Your simulation should look something like this:
Did the course behave as you expected? In our first stage, we assigned a travel path for our target of 4 seconds. We also assigned a 4-second time limit to the stage, so that the target’s motion and the stage ended at the same time. In the second stage, we were given unlimited time, but only 4 shots. As soon as 4 shots were fired the stage ended. Since we only had two stages, the course ended as well.
In the next lesson, we’ll cover course scoring.