Behaviours are your building blocks. They allow you to create simple and complex interactions that govern the world of your show.
Your behaviours work on a very simple principle which we call "When This, Do That" (similar to If This, Then That - IFTTT).
We recommend you watch The Basics series of tutorial videos to see how to make & use behaviours in simple examples.
The When part is used to record conditions that need to happen. These conditions will be made up of 'states' - which are recorded positions of inputs, outputs, time or Variables or a combination of many. These conditions can also be show events, such as scenes starting, audio playing, and more.
The Do part is the consequence of the When events - the actions that you have chosen to happen. These can be locks opening, sound playing, lights changing, motors moving or servos turning. You can add delays, send hints, manipulate the timer or activate other scenes or behaviours. These actions can also be used as conditions in the When part. Ultimately they move the show forward.
Crucially, these ‘When This Do That’ behaviours can occur in any order and at any time (if and when the inputs are available to the "actors"). This is the core of how COGS can create non-linear interactive experiences.
They can be used at the Show level - where they are available throughout the entire show, or at the Scene level, where they are only available when a Scene is active. They can also be used as Dashboard functions.
COGS only works when behaviours are complete. i.e when they have both a When & a Do function. COGS will tell you if a behaviour is incomplete by highlighting it with a YELLOW bar on the to the right of the behaviour name, the wand in the Scene or Show settings and a dot will appear on the Setup icon on the top bar. It will go RED if the behaviour is broken (e.g if an audio file has been deleted) and needs attention.