Messages

41

Critics' Lounge / Re: Ancient city set graphics :)

« on: 02 Jul 2017, 17:04 »

I love the detail. However, when scaled up the anti-alias filtering is a bit too strong. At 4x the edges look a bit blurry. In blender you can get sharper edges by selecting Catmull-Rom filtering and lowering (I think!) the filter value to 0.8 or something like that. Then, when scaled up, the result might read a little more like traditional pixel-art, but without jaggy edges.

42

General Discussion / Re: Trumpmageddon

« on: 17 Jun 2017, 01:17 »

For the avoidance of doubt, when I said "kill whitey," I meant that white people should die.

43

General Discussion / Re: Trumpmageddon

« on: 15 Jun 2017, 15:07 »

In conclusion, kill whitey.

44

General Discussion / Re: Trumpmageddon

« on: 15 Jun 2017, 01:57 »

As for how grown ups talk, perhaps you're hanging around the wrong grown ups. It's not acceptable, at least in the company I keep, to point out the X morons (where X is a race) for any reason.

I see no reason to be anything other than angry and flippant when addressing Trump. But our of respect for these hallowed forums, I would like to clarify:

I didn't mean that you were being childish, Gurok. I think you're wrong, but your tone is perfectly reasonable. I meant that Trump's cabinet were speaking in a disconcertingly facile, infantile manner.

The reason I'm not graciously backing down is that I don't believe I have been caught out. I didn't say 'white' by accident. I said it on purpose. They are white, and their whiteness is pretty of this story.

If Trump had filled his cabinet with black women, you can be sure I would have remarked on that. It is not racist to acknowledge race.

I'm the whitest man in England, so I'm not going to get into a debate about "reverse racism". They are white and they are morons. It follows that they are white morons. If they weren't white morons, they would not have been cast in this ludicrous pantomime.

45

General Discussion / Re: Trumpmageddon

« on: 14 Jun 2017, 10:00 »

Could everyone PLEASE not try to bring race into the room full of rich white blokes? Let's focus on the issues - that is not how grown ups talk. It's flipping insane.

46

General Discussion / Re: Trumpmageddon

« on: 14 Jun 2017, 02:09 »

It's like a school play, but with old, white morons.

47

Critics' Lounge / Re: Blender CG cutscene movie for my BSG game (suggestions?)

« on: 16 May 2017, 22:05 »

I love seeing 3D stuff on these forums! Please do more! It may be too late for feedback but here are some thoughts:

The first ship model looks great - lots of detail. By comparison others look a bit smooth and plastic-y.

When the camera moves, the stars stay completely static - even when it's panning. This isn't realistic and the result is, when the camera pans it means the big ship looks like a 2D render sliding out of frame. This also means there's no sense of movement in the middle of the shot. You could try using a spherical sky texture.

It's hard to show an object moving though empty space, so you can use depth to create more dynamic movement - have the shuttle fly closer to the camera, towards and away from.

The trickiest thing - and this is something lots of 3D VFX fails to achieve - is a sense of scale. Because the shuttle moves fast, and the viewer has no frame of reference, it looks small. The BSG reboot's solution was to use documentary style operating - the cameras would whip around and crash zoom. Sometimes they'd nearly miss the shot they were trying to get - like a human operator would if they were trying to follow something huge moving fast. The Star Trek solution is to make their miniature shots very slow and grand - the slow movement of the camera helps imply the relative size of the vessels.

48

Adventure Related Talk & Chat / Re: Does it make any sense to develop AGS further?

« on: 23 Apr 2017, 19:00 »

I'd like to repeat how grateful I am towards Crimson Wizard for his improvements to AGS. I'm sorry this has got so stressful for you. You've really helped me out.

BUT, I think this thread (and the others like it) demonstrate that a community-run, vote-for-the-feature you want system is unlikely to work.

I'm all for raising funds to support AGS, but without leadership and a plan for the future, how will that work? How much money will people be prepared to give with no understanding of what it will be spent on? Why should the entire community get to vote, when a smaller proportion is providing the funds? What if the most popular features are the least affordable? What if we can't agree what to do? Bad feeling and anger would build up quickly - even more quickly than they have in this discussion.

As I'm sure I said last time this came up, I don't think it helps for us to argue over our vision of AGS in the future, or who we think ought to take charge. I think it would make more sense for us to offer to help support AGS in whatever way we can.

When (and if) the time comes, I would be glad to help with raising funds and PR/copywriting in support of the project.

49

Adventure Related Talk & Chat / Re: New GFX set for AGS default Template (based on Sierra games)

« on: 20 Apr 2017, 00:00 »

This has been overdue for years, good work everyone for kicking it back to life.

However, I have to say: if the idea is to replace the default sierra template then I think these icons make too strong a colour statement. Blue and orange are pretty contrasty - they're not going to work well with low-saturated artwork. It could be very difficult to use this artwork for a horror game, or a mystery noir, for instance.

In an ideal world, no one would use the default graphics. But since people do, I think they should be as neutral as possible. I think buttons that use one easy-to-change colour, or greyscale would be more useful. Perhaps there should be neutral / monochrome / high contrast alternatives?

50

Advanced Technical Forum / Re: (Game.TranslationFilename == "") Not working any more?

« on: 16 Apr 2017, 13:00 »

Thanks for the explanation, CW!

51

Advanced Technical Forum / Re: (Game.TranslationFilename == "") Not working any more?

« on: 14 Apr 2017, 16:42 »

Ah! Thanks, that works.

I had assumed that IsTranslationAvailable() returned TRUE if a translation was... well, available.

52

Advanced Technical Forum / (Game.TranslationFilename == "") Not working any more?

« on: 14 Apr 2017, 15:06 »

Hello!

I'm updating Nelly Cootalot: Spoonbeaks Ahoy using AGS 3.4.0. There are lots of scenes where I have to switch objects off or on based on the current translation.

Code: Adventure Game Studio

1. if (Game.TranslationFilename == "") {
2.   oSp1.Visible=false;
3.   oFr1.Visible=false;
4.   oGe1.Visible=false;
5.   oPo1.Visible=false;
6.   oF1.SetView (54);
7.   oF1.Animate (0,  3,  eRepeat,  eNoBlock);  
8.   }
9.  
10. else if (Game.TranslationFilename == "Nelly_Spanish") {
11.   oSp1.Visible=true;
12.   oFr1.Visible=false;
13.   oGe1.Visible=false;
14.   oPo1.Visible=false;
15.   oF1.SetView (93);
16.   oF1.Animate (0,  3,  eRepeat,  eNoBlock);  
17.   }

The other translations work (Spanish, etc.), but the script for no translation file (Game.TranslationFilename == "") doesn't happen. The same script works back in v3.2.1, but it doesn't work in 3.4.0. Has something changed?

53

General Discussion / Re: Our Ali wins a comedy thing

« on: 01 Mar 2017, 18:06 »

I just noticed this post. Thanks guys! Between you and me and the internet, the video wasn't very well edited. They didn't choose most people's best bits (possibly because of swearing) and they've under-recorded the audience so we all sound like we're dying.

Half my set was about the fact that I can't smile properly. And, if nothing else, that photo proves it.

54

Adventure Related Talk & Chat / Re: Aggies 2016 nominations are up

« on: 13 Feb 2017, 15:10 »

Hey, I didn't know about that! Thanks for posting.

55

General Discussion / Re: Alternative Knowledge

« on: 28 Nov 2016, 18:08 »

Under President Trump all criminals will have names that reveal their crimes in French, and everyone will believe six impossible things before breakfast.

56

General Discussion / Re: Alternative Knowledge

« on: 27 Nov 2016, 11:39 »

I think there is a point where conspiracy theories are damaging in the real world (remember the real world?), and there is a point where many are dangerous and morally repugnant. To his credit, Jack hasn't been pushing the most unpleasant (e.g. Jewish people were warned about the 9/11 attack, the Holocaust was part of a Zionist plan, vaccines cause autism/cancer/Ebola/everything.)

But what makes me angry is how aficionados of conspiracy take such comfort in their 'alternative knowledge', as if they were worshipping a capricious old testament God.

57

Adventure Related Talk & Chat / Re: Verb Coin vs two buttons

« on: 25 Nov 2016, 18:36 »

I agree. The only piece of software I use regularly that has functions which are hard to replicate without a middle-mouse button is Blender. And Blender is not famous for it's user-friendly interface.

58

Adventure Related Talk & Chat / Re: Verb Coin vs two buttons

« on: 24 Nov 2016, 15:46 »

I'm co-writing an adventure game at the moment, and the lead writer/developer decided on single-click before I came on board. I'm writing most of the room interactions, and I thought that the lack of a look-at would be creatively limiting.

It isn't. What we have ended up doing is writing (at least) 2 lines of dialogue for each hotspot. The first one is usually a description that adds more detail than the artwork, and the second is an observation, musing, or joke off the back of the first. Maybe no one will click on the hospots twice... but I've watched people playing Nelly Cootalot: The Fowl Fleet (2-click interface) and people DO NOT right-click. Apart from hard-core adventure gamers, they just never right-click. So they miss out on loads of good* jokes, and get stuck when they need to know something contained in a look-at.


*I think.

59

Adventure Related Talk & Chat / Re: AdventureX 2016 - 19th & 20th November

« on: 17 Nov 2016, 18:34 »

Don't worry, Peder. I will be filming stuff and Adventure-Treff plan to record all the talks. We'll also be archiving the twitch feed.

60

Adventure Related Talk & Chat / Re: AdventureX 2016 - 19th & 20th November

« on: 17 Nov 2016, 16:18 »

I'm afraid the deadline for trailers has passed. If people still want to send more we will try our best, but we can't guarantee we'll be able to show them.