Minor Bugs and/or Annoyances

[Old Guy]

I have a few minor bugs and/or annoyances that I would like to submit for consideration. First off, I would like to give my kudos and admiration for the new editor, and for all the effort that Chris puts towards making it better.

I am using:
AGS 3.0.2.43
Game built using default game template
Windows 2000 SP4


1) This one happens only rarely, and I have been unable to discern a pattern that might shed light on things. Here’s what happens . . .
-   I open up a room script, and make a couple of changes
-   I open up the room itself, and do something like adding a room interaction
-   I switch to the room script, and find that the changes I had typed are gone


2) Sometime in the past I created a Room Template (MyTemplate) using Room 10 as the model, and then used the template to create a different room. Recently I was cleaning things up on my hard drive, and in the AGS program directory I deleted MyTemplate.art. Subsequently, when I tried to compile the game, I received the following message:

    Unexpected error: Unable to find file 'room10.crm' for compilation. Do not
    remove files during the compilation process.

When I restore MyTemplate.art to the directory, the compile completes successfully. I rebuilt from scratch (without using the template), both Room 10, and the additional room that was originally based on the template, but the result was the same. Not a big deal, I’ll just leave MyTemplate.art where it is.


3) Let’s say I am working in the properties/interactions window for an object. I click on the StartX field to change the X value, and hit tab hoping that it would take me to the StartY field. Instead, the focus first moves to the space between windows, then off into the main window, eventually to the project tree, and then back down to the StartX field. Seems more logical that hitting tab should first move through the fields in the properties/interactions window before it moves elsewhere.


4) There have been various comments in other threads about implementing a global search compatibility that could search/replace strings across all scripts. I would certainly vote for this, but it’s only a tepid vote. It’s easy enough to use Windows Explorer to search the game directory for the files that contain the string in question. But having said that, this enhancement would be nice!

[Pumaman]

Thanks for your feedback.

1) This one happens only rarely, and I have been unable to discern a pattern that might shed light on things. Here’s what happens . . .
-   I open up a room script, and make a couple of changes
-   I open up the room itself, and do something like adding a room interaction
-   I switch to the room script, and find that the changes I had typed are gone

Hmm I can't replicate this, has anyone else had this problem?

2) Sometime in the past I created a Room Template (MyTemplate) using Room 10 as the model, and then used the template to create a different room. Recently I was cleaning things up on my hard drive, and in the AGS program directory I deleted MyTemplate.art. Subsequently, when I tried to compile the game, I received the following message:
Unexpected error: Unable to find file 'room10.crm' for compilation. Do not remove files during the compilation process.

That's very strange, I can't replicate that either. Does Room 10 still exist in your game or did you delete it after making a template out of it?

3) Let’s say I am working in the properties/interactions window for an object. I click on the StartX field to change the X value, and hit tab hoping that it would take me to the StartY field. Instead, the focus first moves to the space between windows, then off into the main window, eventually to the project tree, and then back down to the StartX field. Seems more logical that hitting tab should first move through the fields in the properties/interactions window before it moves elsewhere.

I see your point, but this is standard Windows functionality with the Property Grid, and the same thing happens in other applications like Visual Studio. So in this case I think it's probably best to leave it as-is and be consistent.

4) There have been various comments in other threads about implementing a global search compatibility that could search/replace strings across all scripts. I would certainly vote for this, but it’s only a tepid vote. It’s easy enough to use Windows Explorer to search the game directory for the files that contain the string in question. But having said that, this enhancement would be nice!

Aye, I can appreciate that this would be a useful feature to add.

[TwinMoon]

1) This one happens only rarely, and I have been unable to discern a pattern that might shed light on things. Here’s what happens . . .
-   I open up a room script, and make a couple of changes
-   I open up the room itself, and do something like adding a room interaction
-   I switch to the room script, and find that the changes I had typed are gone

Hmm I can't replicate this, has anyone else had this problem?

Yes, I did notice this a couple of times, but it almost seems to be happening at random, which is why I didn't report it.

I usually get it when: room A is selected (the node in the editor is coloured), and then I open roomscript B, make some changes and then I open room B itself.
I've never had it in a script that's not a room script.

[Pumaman]

Ah thanks, I've now been able to reproduce it and will get it fixed.

[Dualnames]

1) This one happens only rarely, and I have been unable to discern a pattern that might shed light on things. Here’s what happens . . .
-   I open up a room script, and make a couple of changes
-   I open up the room itself, and do something like adding a room interaction
-   I switch to the room script, and find that the changes I had typed are gone

I actually do open many scripts then rooms ecc, but never noticed this..

Now to ask a favor from Chris, it's actually been bugging me a lot. Well concerning the colours pane, I totally dig it. However there's something a little bit troubling when I'm creating a region that i want it to tint characters and objects.

The colours in the Colours pane are place this way:
R
G
B

while the colours in the region are placed this way:
B
G
R

So either reverse them..or allow to use 30185 instead of RGB or even better add a button that says copy from colour pane.
Just a suggestion.

[Pumaman]

Heh, yeah the properties list is in alphabetical order which means you get B, G, R. Unfortunately that's not an easy thing to change. I'll have a think about it.

[RickJ]

4) There have been various comments in other threads about implementing a global search compatibilit ...

I think the discussions to which Old Guy refers also included non-script portions as well.   This would be is useful in tracking down hard to find bugs. In a recent Beginners Forum thread someone was trying to create a global variable named "money" and kept getting unresolved import errors.  I had the guy change all of his "money" references to "xmoney" but the compiler still complained about "money".  There didn't seem to be any references to "money" in any script but something it was still being used somewhere.   I wasn't able to help other than to tell the guy that he had a  reference to "money" lurking about and to look in all the property panel of all the game entities.  A global search thingy would have been a great help here. 

A global search would also be useful in locating and removing unused entities.   In one such discussion I suggested that having a BuildAll option to generate a cross reference listing file of some sort would perhaps be a better alternative, especially for cleanup type tasks.  Also I don't think a global replace function is necessary or even desirable.

Anyway CJ, if you are thinking about doing something in this area p[lease consider including non-script entities in the search results. 

[Old Guy]

2) Sometime in the past I created a Room Template (MyTemplate) using Room 10 as the model, and then used the template to create a different room. Recently I was cleaning things up on my hard drive, and in the AGS program directory I deleted MyTemplate.art. Subsequently, when I tried to compile the game, I received the following message:
Unexpected error: Unable to find file 'room10.crm' for compilation. Do not remove files during the compilation process.

That's very strange, I can't replicate that either. Does Room 10 still exist in your game or did you delete it after making a template out of it?

---------------------------------------------------

Yes, Room 10 still exists, and was never deleted.

Here’s a bit more information about this issue.

Two days ago, in an attempt to flush out more information about this problem, I did several iterations where I a) deleted MyTemplate.art, b) attempted the compile, c) received the “unable to find Room 10” error message, d) restored MyTemplate.art, e) compiled successfully.

But when I ran the game, I found that Room 10 had mysteriously reverted to a state that was 2-3 weeks old. It’s very possible that 2-3 weeks ago was the last time that I had compiled the game.

I brought the room back up to date, compiled again, and verified that things ran correctly. Then I went through the above iteration (a-e) once again. Sure enough, Room 10 reverted once again.

It was at this point that I posted this issue in the technical forum. I left MyTemplate.art where it was, went on with life, and continued making changes to the game, including Room 10. The game was compiled and tested several times just to be sure everything was as it should be.

Today, in preparation for posting this extra information, I went through the iteration once again, just to get my story straight. Lo and behold, after deleting MyTemplate.art, the game compiled successfully!

But when I ran the game, I found that Room 10 had once again reverted to a previous version, but this time to the state it was 2 days ago, not to the state it was 2-3 weeks ago.

I brought the room back up to date, compiled the game again (still without the presence of MyTemplate.art), and tested. Now all well, and working as it should be, including Room 10.

Pretty strange.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Seems more logical that hitting tab should first move through the fields in the properties/interactions window before it moves elsewhere.

As CJ mentioned, this isn't standard application behavior so it really isn't logical for it to work this way.  Tabs switch focus, arrow keys parse through fields in each specific area.  This is standard behavior.


As for annoyances, why not have the speech numbering utility allow it to continue from where it left off instead of re-numbering them all when you add more lines?  That created an awful lot of extra work for me that shouldn't have been needed.

[SSH]

Personally, I'd prefer the Interactions to all be lumped in with the Properties, and I know a lot of people don't even realise the interactions section is there... (maybe a tip of the day required here...?)

[Pumaman]

Yes, Room 10 still exists, and was never deleted.

Here’s a bit more information about this issue.

Two days ago, in an attempt to flush out more information about this problem, I did several iterations where I a) deleted MyTemplate.art, b) attempted the compile, c) received the “unable to find Room 10” error message, d) restored MyTemplate.art, e) compiled successfully.

But when I ran the game, I found that Room 10 had mysteriously reverted to a state that was 2-3 weeks old. It’s very possible that 2-3 weeks ago was the last time that I had compiled the game.

I brought the room back up to date, compiled again, and verified that things ran correctly. Then I went through the above iteration (a-e) once again. Sure enough, Room 10 reverted once again.

It was at this point that I posted this issue in the technical forum. I left MyTemplate.art where it was, went on with life, and continued making changes to the game, including Room 10. The game was compiled and tested several times just to be sure everything was as it should be.

Today, in preparation for posting this extra information, I went through the iteration once again, just to get my story straight. Lo and behold, after deleting MyTemplate.art, the game compiled successfully!

But when I ran the game, I found that Room 10 had once again reverted to a previous version, but this time to the state it was 2 days ago, not to the state it was 2-3 weeks ago.

I brought the room back up to date, compiled the game again (still without the presence of MyTemplate.art), and tested. Now all well, and working as it should be, including Room 10.

This tale does sound very strange indeed. When the room was reverting back to an old copy, was it just the room itself or the script too? Was the version that it was reverting to the version that you made the template out of?

I haven't managed to replicate this problem yet, but I've made a change to mitigate a potential issue if you opened the New Room dialog then cancelled it, but I can't see how the situation would be triggered.

[Old Guy]

Here’s a bit more information about this issue.

But when I ran the game, I found that Room 10 had mysteriously reverted to a state that was 2-3 weeks old. It’s very possible that 2-3 weeks ago was the last time that I had compiled the game.

. . .

But when I ran the game, I found that Room 10 had once again reverted to a previous version, but this time to the state it was 2 days ago, not to the state it was 2-3 weeks ago.

This tale does sound very strange indeed. When the room was reverting back to an old copy, was it just the room itself or the script too? Was the version that it was reverting to the version that you made the template out of?

Strange indeed.

It was only the room itself that was affected. The script was unchanged.

In the case of the 2-3 week occurrence, there were two room interactions that I had previously deleted, that were now present. This of course caused an error when I tried to run the game, because there were no corresponding code in the script.

In the case of the 2 day occurrence, there were two objects that I had previously deleted from the room, that were now back again.

In any case, I am guessing that you have plenty of other things to attend to, and for me this is no longer an issue, so I guess we should chalk things up to some weird anomaly in the space/time continuum, and get on with things.

Thank you for your help and attention! I appreciate it.

[Pumaman]

Ok, well please do let me know if it happens again.