Troubleshooting Known Issues

Install and run

Alice 3 installer stuck on Ventura MacOS 13

There is a known bug with install4j and 'dark mode' - an appearance setting on MacOS. To get around this, disable dark mode in system preferences and then try installing.

Alice starts but nothing happens?

This is known to happen when Alice does not have the required permissions to create supporting user folders when you start Alice the first time. View the Starting Alice page here for information on allowing permissions for Alice to start.

A known issue on M1 Silicon Macs is that sometimes there is no prompt to install Rosetta 2. Rosetta 2 is an interpreter required for Intel apps running on M1 Macs. The solution is to manually install Rosetta 2. In Terminal, type the following:

/usr/sbin/softwareupdate --install-rosetta (root permission not required)

or

/usr/sbin/softwareupdate --install-rosetta --agree-to-license (root permission required)

Graphics

Alice isn’t displaying as expected?

A frequent cause of problems encountered when attempting to run Alice are out-of-date video drivers. This is recognizable when a red-screen occurs in the scene view or the run-time window when the Run button is clicked. See the following link for instructions on updating the video drivers of your machine. This may also show up as striation in textures in the scene.

Updating your graphics cards drivers. There are many different ways to do this depending on your OS and your type of graphic cards. Too many for us to detail here. You will want to look for help online for your specific OS and hardware.

Rendering issues in Alice 3 can sometimes be resolved by adjusting the hardware acceleration of your graphics card. You will need to look up how to do this on your specific OS. After adding objects to the scene they can't be clicked to access the rotation circles (or the translational arrows).

We have also found issues with graphic cards compatibility with JOGL (the interaction between Nvidia, Windows, and JOGL). If you see colored stripes when running Alice worlds this may be the issue. We found a thread here related to this issue:

http://forum.jogamp.org/SOLVED-Purple-and-Green-Lines-Stripes-on-All-JOGL-Windows-td4040923.html

The last two comments suggest a fix by prioritizing the dedicated card over the integrated. [SOLVED] Purple and Green Lines/Stripes on All JOGL Windows [SOLVED] Purple and Green Lines/Stripes on All JOGL Windows. I have a JOGL project that used to work perfectly. I moved to a new PC and now it doesn't. Not even the old builds that were packaged...

We hope this helps and are working to further improve Alice all the time so hope that other upgrades and updates may alleviate this issue. We know changing settings on the computer is not ideal.

Scene Setup

When clicking on objects the ground is selected?

This may also be seen as an inability to select move and rotate handles for selected objects. This is by far our most commonly reported and most frustrating bug. There are quick fixes that can resolve or allow you to work around this issue:

1. Saving, closing, and restarting Alice will often resolve this issue.
2. We also recommend using the one-shots in the scene editor to continue to work even when this issue is happening. This is also a great way to work on larger projects. Look for the how-tos on using one shots in the resource section of Alice.org:

http://www.alice.org/resources/how-tos/using-one-shots/

Updating the video drivers of your machine may fix this and other rendering issues. We recommend using the drivers from the manufacturer of your video card, not the more generic Windows Update drivers.

Code

Audio files won’t play in Alice?

Alice can play most but not all mp3 and wav files. We haven’t been able to fully figure out what will help indicate what files will or won’t run in Alice. We have had success importing the audio file into audacity and reexporting them as the same file type. You can find Audio 'How to' on the Alice 3 website in the resources section. For MP3 audio files, try up-sampling to stereo 48 or 92 kHz if you have issues with a file.

Alice freezes when using 'say' or 'think' procedures on Windows?

This problem has been reported on Windows machines with generic graphics drivers. If you are seeing this and not in a position to update the driver, there is a fix for this. Get the latest build for Windows from Alice.org. If you are using the Netbeans, you will also need to get an updated plugin build here.

Collision detection doesn't work when using 'isCollidingWith'?

Update: This bug has been fixed in Alice 3.7

This is a known bug where 'isCollidingWith' is not getting the updated position of an object. It was introduced in build 3.6.0.2. A workaround is to add an eventListener (second tab after Scene is the initializeEventListener) to detect and update if objects are colliding.

Button: Add Event Listener >> position/orientation >> addCollisionStartListener. Add any moving objects to the custom array. The code for 'isCollidingWith' should work once that is in.

Error Messages

"Java not found" error message

You should know that the latest versions of Alice no longer require a Java installation. We highly recommend you use the latest and greatest Alice version as we have worked hard to fix bugs and implement new features.

If you are committed to using older versions of Alice, we have received reports from people in which they are receiving a "Java not found" error message when they try to install and / or run Alice, and they have Java installed on their machine. If this happens to you feel free to reach out to us and we will do our best to help troubleshoot the issue.

Crashes

Reserved words used as method names

When naming methods in Alice 3, the following names can cause your project to crash. Until a fix is implemented, avoid using these words as method names: Boolean, class, countUpTo, constant, DecimalNumber, doInOrder, doTogether, each, else, enum, extends, forEach, eachTogether, CompletelyHidden, if, in, loop, models, new, Number, PrimeTime, return, static, super, this, TextString, TuckedAway, void, while, WholeNumber, true, false, null