Manual Control of a Bell

There are two ways to ring one of the bells yourself...

Tapping the Space Bar

The easiest way is simply to silence the bell you want to ring and use the space bar on the keyboard to make it sound. Visually the bell is still under program control, so the clapper hits the bell at the correct instant (and the rope in the Ropes Window rises and falls in time with the others), but the timing of the sound is under your control.

Using the "Manual Control" Window

The other way allows you to take physical control of a bell, using the mouse to pull an imaginary rope (but see the disclaimer below).

After you have chosen which bell you want to ring, a Manual Control window is displayed in which your mouse movements are translated into pull forces to make the bell move. You can check and pull, set the bell at either stroke, bounce it off the stay, lower it to the bottom, raise it again, and attempt to ring in time with others.

You cannot break a stay in Virtual Belfry!

Disclaimer

While manually ringing a single bell using the Manual Control Window can be fun, and rounds (after a fashion!) is achievable with practice, trying to ring changes with a manually controlled bell is probably impossible. The mouse is the only means of control currently supported, and the lack of physical feedback (being unable to sense motion and inertia through the mouse) makes the necessary fine control extremely difficult. The manual control window (in its present form) is for play; it is not a serious learning tool!

Also, be aware that bells that have been lowered appear jerky. This is a consequence of the need to keep the number of images to a minimum: bells travel at their fastest at the bottom of the swing so fewer images were needed in that area to provide good animation of a bell swinging through its full range.