Author Topic: AGS 3.0 is now released! (Read 35207 times) Tweet Share

Pumaman · « **Reply #60 on:** 25 Feb 2008, 18:55 »

Thanks for the PM, I'll look into it.

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Does assigning the background graphic of a GUI to a single transparent pixel somehow stop the GUI from later displaying alpha transparency? Because it didn't in 2.72, but seems to do so now...

Does the single transparent pixel image have an alpha channel? Because in AGS 3, the GUI background image is used to determine whether to draw the GUI with an alpha channel or not. I think this was the same in 2.72 but I'm not 100% certain.

Vince Twelve · « **Reply #61 on:** 26 Feb 2008, 02:32 »

I played with my solution a bit. Basically all I had to do was change the line CursorBlip.BackgroundGraphic=0; in game_start() to gCursorBlip.Visible=false; and everything works.

Full (probably unnecessary) explanation:

In the GUI editor I had the background graphic is set to 125 which is one of the alpha-channeled frames used in the animation. Sprite slot 0 is a single transparent pixel (not alpha-channel) that I use occasionally to make things invisible rather than using the .visible property. This is just a preference that I have sometimes when I'm using some function to come up with a frame number to set something to. I'll just pass 0 to make it invisible.

In 2.72 I used this line twice: gCursorBlip.BackgroundGraphic=0;

Once in the game_start() function to make the GUI invisible on startup and once in the repeatedly_execute_always() function to make it invisible at the end of the animation. The only other times that I do anything to gCursorBlip are when I set certain alpha-transparent frames to the background graphic and different x and y values in the rep_ex_always().

In 3.0 this shows all of the partially transparent pixels as a non-transparent white blob. Changing the line gCursorBlip.BackgroundGraphic=0; to gCursorBlip.Visible=false; in the game_start() function (but leaving it as it was in rep_ex_always) fixes the problem.

So it seems that setting the GUI to frame 0 (a single, transparent, no-alpha-channel pixel) in the game_start() function somehow renders the GUI unable to display alpha transparency for the rest of the game. Does that make sense?

Pumaman · « **Reply #62 on:** 26 Feb 2008, 22:17 »

Ah, this is because having a background image sprite of 0 can be treated as "no background image", which would lead alpha transparency not to be enabled. However, it should become enabled when you change the background image to something else.

What's the colour depth of your Sprite 0 reported as? One possibility I can think of is that if Sprite 0 is 16-bit, then the GUI would be created on startup as a 16-bit image, which would then be unable to display an alpha channel. If this is the case I can look into a fix for it.

Vince Twelve · « **Reply #63 on:** 26 Feb 2008, 23:42 »

Indeed. The sprite depth of my Sprite 0 is 8 bit. That's likely the issue. It just through me for a loop because it worked fine before the jump to 3.0

Pumaman · « **Reply #64 on:** 27 Feb 2008, 20:55 »

That's not so surprising, a lot of graphics rendering changes were made to 3.0 to allow the D3D integration. I'll look into a fix for this.

Dualnames · « **Reply #65 on:** 27 Feb 2008, 22:00 »

AGS 3.0 pawns. Really. I finally upgraded to 3.0.. I get a message though when using SCI font. Extended characters something. I can't figure it out. It has nothing to do with the length of the display msg. I created the font using SCi studio. I got the error whilst having the exact msg in two dif hotspots. On the one it was working and on the other no.Other than that the version is way better than 2.72 good job

Iceboty V7000a · « **Reply #66 on:** 28 Feb 2008, 00:56 »

Unless the error was reported incorrectly, that error means that there's a character in the text that's having ASCII code > 127. AGS didn't support characters with codes > 127 when using SCI fonts. Did you add the message after upgrading to 3.00? In that case, chances are it would also happen with older versions and this is not a bug.

Dualnames · « **Reply #67 on:** 28 Feb 2008, 01:23 »

I scripted all the game on 3.0

Iceboty V7000a · « **Reply #68 on:** 28 Feb 2008, 01:39 »

So, check your messages for those characters first.

SSH · « **Reply #69 on:** 28 Feb 2008, 10:15 »

Did you cut-and-paste anything out of a word document? It turns dashes and quotes into funny wierd non-ASCII versions

Ali · « **Reply #70 on:** 28 Feb 2008, 20:42 »

I was thrilled to discover that D3D allows for smooth scaling with alpha transparency. Huzzah!

However, I can't seem to get vertical sync when using D3D. Even if it is set on in game and my graphics card is set to 'force vsync' for all applications, I still get tearing, in a window and full screen. I couldn't find anything mentioning this and wondered if there's something I've missed.

Another point I noticed is, I don't seem to be able to downgrade 32bit games to 16bit. When I check the box and run the game it still runs at 32bit. Then when I run setup again the box has been unchecked.

I hope these points haven't already been dealt with, and that I'm not just being really dim. Thanks again for 3.0!

Pumaman · « **Reply #71 on:** 29 Feb 2008, 21:10 »

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I was thrilled to discover that D3D allows for smooth scaling with alpha transparency. Huzzah!

It does indeed!

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I can't seem to get vertical sync when using D3D.

The problem is that D3D doesn't allow you to change the VSync setting mid-game like you can with DirectDraw. You have to set the vsync on or off at game startup and leave it that way, so currently AGS always turns it off.

Perhaps we need a new option in Setup to control vsync for D3D?

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Another point I noticed is, I don't seem to be able to downgrade 32bit games to 16bit. When I check the box and run the game it still runs at 32bit. Then when I run setup again the box has been unchecked.

Well spotted, thanks -- looks like I broke this while adding the graphics driver option to 3.0. I'll get it fixed.

Dualnames · « **Reply #72 on:** 29 Feb 2008, 21:21 »

Actually Chris and the rest sorry to have mislead you... the actual problem was that copying this ' symbol from word to AGS isn;t compatible and since sci fonts have 127 there's isn;t that extra character that gets his place when an identified symbol comes up. All working good. Best AGS version ever. Really. Really really.

Ali · « **Reply #73 on:** 02 Mar 2008, 11:35 »

Quote from: Pumaman on 29 Feb 2008, 21:10

Well spotted, thanks -- looks like I broke this while adding the graphics driver option to 3.0. I'll get it fixed.

Thanks for the response Mr J, I'm glad all those things can be dealt with! I think a way to set vsync on for D3D would be great, as long as it's possible for the game author to set its default state. I guess that's just a matter of checking a box before distributing though!

Also I noticed a small point which I haven't seen mentioned: Right-clicking in the script when I have text selected rarely offers me the opportunity to 'cut'. I can use Ctr-X, but for some reason the 'cut' option is greyed out.

Thanks again!

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · « **Reply #74 on:** 02 Mar 2008, 23:42 »

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Also I noticed a small point which I haven't seen mentioned: Right-clicking in the script when I have text selected rarely offers me the opportunity to 'cut'. I can use Ctr-X, but for some reason the 'cut' option is greyed out.

This is a problem I mentioned several builds ago that randomly persists. If you go to the AGS main menu and choose cut it will then be available in the script editor. I currently use this as a workaround until it's finally fixed. Note: this happens with copy as well.

Pumaman · « **Reply #75 on:** 03 Mar 2008, 20:12 »

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Actually Chris and the rest sorry to have mislead you... the actual problem was that copying this ' symbol from word to AGS isn;t compatible and since sci fonts have 127 there's isn;t that extra character that gets his place when an identified symbol comes up.

Glad you sorted it

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Also I noticed a small point which I haven't seen mentioned: Right-clicking in the script when I have text selected rarely offers me the opportunity to 'cut'. I can use Ctr-X, but for some reason the 'cut' option is greyed out.

This should be resolved by the new right-click menu in the 3.0.1 beta. Do let me know if it still happens in that version.

Dualnames · « **Reply #76 on:** 04 Mar 2008, 08:33 »

Chris one suggestion for the next version, it's not much that troubles me but it's the last thing that bother me in AGS, all sprites can be have their import resolution changed, which is way useful.. why can't background have so? Everytime I import a background I have to change to 320x200 then import and back to 640x480.

Pumaman · « **Reply #77 on:** 05 Mar 2008, 20:28 »

Why would you need to do that? Are you drawing your backgrounds at a different resolution to the game resolution?

Dualnames · « **Reply #78 on:** 21 Mar 2008, 09:27 »

Nope... but they seem to pixelate when they;re on 320x200. At least did on 2.72 and I have some function based on 640x480 so it would be a pain tranfering the game to 320x200. Anyway , whilst i was working with AGS 3.0 Some things have been bugging me...
1)The way walk behind area is drawn always leaves a stupid pixel or more that I wanted to be in or out of the area so I was wondering can you put some transparency to the areas? about 20%. That would help us guys draw better.

2)I've been having more weird problems around... for example: I forgot to put on a line of dialog the cDent.Say(" in front of it and instead of getting a return msg like unidentified symbol Are (that's the way the sentence started) I got EOF error(not a dialog) that only appeared in the output. It took me half an hour to find my mistake..(it was a long 1200 line room script). I've been getting those weird msgs a lot. I tend to forget to put include the const string msg in my code the appropriate way.. It's not important but bugs me a lot that is.

The Bedminster Incident · « **Reply #79 on:** 21 Mar 2008, 18:15 »

Just one bug I think I've found--I downloaded the BASS Template from http://www.americangirlscouts.org/agsresources/Templates.html, which was created with an old version of AGS (i.e. before 2.7, don't know which, though); hence it's demo game can't be imported properly (it does the backup and everything, but when trying to actually load it it comes up with the genuine AGS.Types.AGSEditorException "This game was saved by an old version of AGS [...]" at load_old_dta_file). When I click on "OK" there and then select "Start New Game", the templates won't show in the template selection screen anymore (i.e. there's just a plain white area). It doesn't affect the "recently edited games" list, and when restarting the editor the templates are visible again, but I can recreate this error. Due to a crash of my hdd, I haven't got any other "old" games to check if this always happens with games created by versions before 2.7, but I'd consider it likely.

Other than that, great work. Kudos!

/Blodvarg