WorldViz User Forum - Avatar walk

I was wondering if you could help me with this problem. I think it's more of a mathematical problem but I think it applies to programming. I need for avatars to appear from all directions instead of just in front of the person participating in the experiment. I can't seem to figure out how to set up my x,y,z to have this occur. We want avatars to appear from all directions and have the user actually have to look around to see where they are coming from.

Here is what I have so far:

Code:

for i in range(NUM_AVATARS):

        newX = -math.cos(-2*i+15) * 2

        newZ = math.sin(45*i) * 10

        male = viz.add('male.cfg')

        male.translate(newX,-10,newZ)

        male.rotate(180,0,0)

        avatars.append(male) #Save avatar in list

The interval that they appear is set by a timer. Here is that portion of the code.

Code:

def mytimer(num):

        global avatars

        if num == ANIMATION:

                

                #Calculate elapsed time since last update

                elapsed = viz.elapsed()

                

                #Update each active ball

                for bullet in bullets:

                        if bullet.active:

                                #Move the ball and check if it has collided with any objects

                                MoveBullet(bullet,elapsed)

                

        elif num == START_AVATAR:

                global nextAvatar

                #Get the next available avatar and start it

                avatar = avatars[nextAvatar]

                #favatar = favatars[nextAvatar]

                walkAvatar(avatar)

                #walkAvatar(favatar)

                nextAvatar = (nextAvatar + 1) % NUM_AVATARS

                viz.starttimer(START_AVATAR,TIME_BETWEEN_AVATARS)





#Restore next available avatar

vizact.onkeydown(' ',RestoreAvatar)



#Shoot a ball whenever left mousebutton is clicked

vizact.onmousedown(viz.MOUSEBUTTON_LEFT,shootBullet)



#Create callbacks for timer events

viz.callback(viz.TIMER_EVENT,mytimer)