@charles-m

This works fine. When would it crash?

@charles-m

Can you please share the project link? We will look into why it crashes.

@charles-m

Please use the draw and clear blocks in the “Pen” category for now.

@dreamsmp_luck

Thank you. We’ll look into this.

@dreamsmp_luck

You can right click on any sprite and select share. Please make sure the code in that sprite is serving one purpose so it is reusable by others.

@drankwarrior4490-gmail

This project can be loaded properly now.

@白刃の亡霊

Thank you for the example.

Image Formats: Vector vs Bitmap

 
In Scratch, a costume image can be a “bitmap” or a “vector” format:

• Bitmap images are stored as a matrix of small square boxes called “pixels”
• Vector images are stored as a few shapes, where each shape is represented by its outline and fill colors.

You can easily tell the difference when you zoom in an image:

 

There are several important benefits when we use a vector image:

First, vector images will always look the same when you scale them up, but bitmap images look worse due to lower resolution when you switch to full screen mode.

Second, a vector image’s file size is usually much smaller than a bitmap for the same content. For example, imagine we need to draw a big square. In bitmap format, we need to specify every pixel’s color, but in vector format we only need to specify the edge length and one color. Therefore, if your project would run faster and smoother when you use vector images

Third, vector images are much easier to modify. Since it is composed of individual shapes, you can move/resize/recolor each shape without affecting other parts of the image.

 
Note that the vector format is not always better. If the image has a lot of details, then the bitmap format should used. For example, if almost every pixel in the image has different colors, then there is no easy way to describe it using simple shapes in the vector format, and we should just store each pixel’s information using the bitmap format.

In summary, choose the vector format if the image is made of a few simple shapes in uniform or gradient colors.

 
 

How to Generate a Vector Image Using AI

 

On MIT Scratch, there are only a limited number of vector images from the library. On CreatiCode, you can use AI to generate new vector images based on your project. The basic idea is to generate a bitmap image using AI, then convert it to a vector format using another AI tool.

Below are the steps:

 
 

Step 1 - Generate a bitmap image

 
As shown, you can start by selecting the “AI” tool for adding a sprite.

 

In the input box, describe the object, specify it is a vector image, and then click “generate”. For example:

 

Important notes:

• This AI tool can only generate images in the bitmap format, even if our prompt says “vector image”. It will try to generate an image that looks like a typical vector image (a few shapes of simple colors)

• The prompt must contain the keyword “vector” to ensure the AI generates an image in this style. You can add additional instructions to further emphasize this, such as “with simple shapes”, “flat vector illustration”, “for costumes in MIT Scratch”, etc.

• You might need to refine the description or regenerate the image.

 
Once you have the image you like, click on it to add it as a new costume.

 
 

Step 2 - Clean up the costume image (optional)

 

The costume will be in bitmap format. Before converting it to a vector image, you might need to clean it up.

For example, the image may contain a shadow. You can use the erazer tool to remove it manually, or use the new magic wand tool to select and delete it.

 
For another example, sometimes the AI generated image has some transparent parts. You can use the “fill” tool to fill some colors in there.

 
 

Step 3 - Convert the bitmap costume to a vector image

 

You can click the “Vectorize” button to convert any bitmap costume to a new vector costume:

 
 
A new vector format costume will be added, and the original bitmap costume is not changed. This is a true vector image, as you can select individual parts and change them:

 
 
Note that the original MIT Scratch provides a button to convert a bitmap image to vector, but it is not really a true vector image. It only represents the entire image as one big shape, and you still can’t edit individual parts.

 
 

Create Vector Images from Drawings

 

Since you can convert any bitmap costume to a vector costume, you can also draw a costume of your own, then convert it.

For example, suppose we use a few simple shapes to create a small house, and then use the “variations” tool to convert it to a cartoon:

 
 
Next, we can convert this cartoon house to a vector image. Note that it needs to be in the “bitmap” mode first, since the “vectorize” button is only available in the bitmap mode:

 
 
 

Search for Vector Images

 

The vector images generated by any user is shared with the community. You can open the AI image tool for sprites (not backdrops), and select the “Vector” type to search for them:

@白刃の亡霊

This seems to be caused by the new buttons we added at the bottom of the costume editor, which takes too much space. We will fix this ASAP.

@dreamsmp_luck

Sorry this issue has been resolved.

@dido_the_dino

This button is also available in the My Stuff page now

---

Also, it will automatically quote the original project for credits.

@白刃の亡霊

This issue is resolved now.

@ddavi0244-35276ab2

You can look for this button in your profile page:

@白刃の亡霊

Thank you. We’ll fix this ASAP

@drankwarrior4490-gmail

We will look into why.

@arthur-schirrmann-df523929

Please reload the playground. Now the moderation is more accurate.

@arthur-schirrmann-df523929

Thank you for the examples. We will check what’s happening.

@sirbots

OK. All clones come with a copy of the scripts. It is not clear what you are referring to. Can you make a simple example to illustrate like what I did? Thank you

@sirbots

Not sure if we are talking about the same thing. This is an example of clones responding to messages even though there is no code for “when I start as a clone”:

It is shared here:
play.creaticode.com/projects/68c44068f8e2996ebfb5e1d0

@sirbots

That’s not entirely true. When you broadcast a message, all clones would respond to that message.

@sirbots

Thanks for the link. This is a fairly large project, and it is hard to say if the issue is in the system or in your code.

As you should already know, when you make a clone, its script is copied, so that’s expected. Are you seeing more than 2 clones when it should only generate 2 clones? For example, if you add a “print” block whenever a new clone is created, do you see many such print logs or just 2?

@sirbots

Can you share the project URL?

And to clarify, is this the bug: When a new clone is created, more than 1 clone is created?

@sirbots

Can you please try to confirm the issue? You can add some “print to console” blocks to confirm if there are indeed many copies of the sprites that are running.

If that’s confirmed, can you share the project link and a method to reproduce the issue? We will fix that ASAP.

@dreamsmp_luck

We made some improvements in organizing the comments and alternating background colors.

@theanxiouskirby

Thank you. Noted.

@wollowtaff

Thank you for the suggestion. We will be adding a few new languages over the next few months. We will consider Japanese as one of the candidates.

@白刃の亡霊

The broadcast block should be working fine. You can try this simple test:

play.creaticode.com/projects/68b650671f1f6c01bf5cf461?version=1

When the green flag is clicked, it will broadcast the message. And when it is received, the variable will increase by 1. If there is an issue like what you described, you should see the variable increase by more than 1 each time, right?

 
To find out the real issue, I suggest you simplify your program to bear minimum, and also try to debug it using the “print” block in the “control” group.

@白刃の亡霊

Have you tried to hold down the SHIFT key and select multiple items?

@notjaldolfyt
See this: https://www.forum.creaticode.com/topic/1997/newly-enhanced-cloud-variables

@dreamsmp_luck

Great

@dreamsmp_luck

Have you tried to use our AI assistant?

https://www.forum.creaticode.com/topic/1093/creaticode-xo-ai-assistant-explain-to-me

@jeffreyrb03-gmail

How about this?

@sirbots

Very likely that’s the reason.

@sirbots

The image generation tool is working fine, but it has a strict safetey check, so it might be your requests are failing the test.

@jeffreyrb03-gmail

Maybe you can split each item in the list by SPACE, then the first part will be the emoji? And the rest of the item will be the name?

@jeffreyrb03-gmail

We will look into it.

@jeffreyrb03-gmail

We will look into this.

@jeffreyrb03-gmail

We gave it some more testing and it does not always produce appropriate responses for school use. Sorry.

@jeffreyrb03-gmail

That block is meant to do math calculations only.

@jeffreyrb03-gmail

Thanks for the reminder. Yes, we do have this on our queue, but it is still lower priority compared to other tasks we are working on.

Please understand we have a small team, and we rank tasks based on the potential number of users who would likely use these features, and this POST request block is too advanced for most of our users.

@jeffreyrb03-gmail

Thanks for the suggestion. There are 2 issues to consider:

1. It relies on GPU in the device and a large memory, so it is not clear how many school devices can support it.
2. More importantly, it does not have any moderation, so the model may output inappropriate content.

So what would this block look like? What parameters should it take? Where would the results be stored?

@notjaldolfyt

There is already a block for “fetch web page as markdown” in the cloud extension. Can you give some specific examples for how to use this new POST block?

@jeffreyrb03-gmail

Got it. We will implement a better way to ban this user.

@jeffreyrb03-gmail

OK done. thank you.

@jeffreyrb03-gmail

Thank you. These accounts have been deleted.

@jeffreyrb03-gmail

Sure. We can adjust the language.

@jeffreyrb03-gmail

Yes, it is offered for free now.