AGS Development > Engine Development
Gathering feature suggestions for the Engine
Crimson Wizard:
LATER EDIT: THE NOW OFFICIAL ENGINE ISSUE TRACKER:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?project=3
Thanks for Khris for pushing me towards it (although he probably did not know about it ;))
Let's gather useful suggestions and problems that could be solved by adding features to the engine. Some were mentioned on forums already.
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EDIT: I have to do this ;) :
Let me elaborate why I started this thread. We all have some things in mind for sure. However, there are things being mentioned around forums, that could miss our attention. I suggest to gather them, if you find something interesting just give a link and some commentary.
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My first contribution to this:
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http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=46344.0
Basically the guy wants his character's walking animation to have extra frames that play only once at start and never repeat (unless animation is reset).
I am thinking about "repeat from here" frame flag (or loop property). But there should also be a way to tell engine since it is walking anim, he should jump from one repeatable sequence to another if character turns into different direction without stopping.
Any thoughts on how to better design this? I mark "design" word, since it is question of one at the moment, rather than coding.
Alan v.Drake:
The most viable choice that comes to mind would be giving the possibility to set an EaseInWalk and EaseOutWalk view to each character. The same could be done for a turning specific animation.
- Alan
Joseph DiPerla:
Are we doing this one feature at a time or just popping in here and giving a list? If so, here is my list of suggestions that I have mentioned over the years that would make game development for *me* easy and *Possible*.
Editor:
*Point plotting for walkable area's, regions and hotspots. - Basically clicking a point on the screen at one location, then another and the editor would draw a line from that point to the next and continue doing so until the last point connects to the first and there you have your hotspot/region/walkable area, etc...
*A somewhat simple interaction editor. It doesn't need to be elaborate, but I would love to see this return even in minimum form to increase production time. Its a great little tool for those of us who can do AGS Script, but would rather do some minor stuff without scripting. Perhaps it can convert the interactions into AGS Script as a way to integrate this.
*Cross Packaging/Compilation. As I mentioned in another thread, AGS Seems to be just an EXE that loads up the AGS Data files, And single EXE's just seem to have the data appended to them at the end of the executable. If this is the case, The editor can be used to create cross platform packages to Linux and Mac. All that would be left to do is also include a way to compress it. The same would apply for Android (Maybe IOS? Do not have experience with IOS development). All a user would need to do is download the SDK/NDK and install it, tell The editor where the directories are that contain the compilers, put a couple of settings into the Editor and then let the editor do something to compile AGS, package the game with AGS in an APK with your own package name and key and you are set to go. Of course, this sounds simple in theory, but possibly not easy to do. However, when people see that AGS can be used not only to make games for other platforms, but also easily compile them, this would attract them more to it.
Engine:
*Particle effects. The Rain/Snow plugin is a great example of a particle engine, but something a bit more complete would be nice, particularly for fire and explosions and even things like Tornado's. This would simplify the process of drawing more graphics and coding the function into the game manually. A Particle engine could really spice up what AGS can do.
*Limits. Although I have no intention of using up the limits currently, I do want to see others that are using other engines also use AGS. I would like to see a big game developer use AGS for a commercial game (Think Runaway). I think that people do not realize that the limits are not unreasonable. They just see "What if I need more than that?" and they shy away from AGS. Its a shame because I really see AGS as the best Adventure Game Engine and the easiest to use. If others would look past some limitations, more would use it.
*Unlimited and Custom Resolutions. This has plagued AGS for a while. Its not a big deal as most developers would prefer to use the Resolutions that are already supported. But I have seen many complain about this and seen even some leave AGS for a different engine or custom engine (The Journey Down, is an example) so they can use a higher resolution. Anyone is free to do so, but it would be nice if AGS had gotten rid of this limitation as well. Since AGS is now 13 years old, I think its time that this feature was modernized a bit. The options I think should be included are either you input the custom resolution manually, or select it from a list. The list can give you idea's of what a good resolution would be based on the platform you are targeting.
*2.5D. Not necessary. I would use this, only if it supported MD2 files personally. However, having a 3D Animated object or character on screen nowadays is a lot simpler and faster for development than converting it to sprites. Well, in some cases I suppose. I wouldn't even know how to approach this or how to implement it. OpenGL would be one way, another one way that seems very good is Ogre 3D and/or irrlicht 3D. The file types I recommend for this, since it can support animated frames or bones are MD2, MD3, 3DS, .X.
*Playing across multiple discs. Although I heard many ask for this, with the release of DVD's and Blu Ray as well as more and more stuff being downloaded from the web, I do not see a big need for this. However, I have seen this being asked for and it probably should have been included years ago. But for some reason, I am starting to think this is already doable anyway.
*Translations for Movie voice overs and sprites.
*Sub Titles for Movies.
*Paralax Scrolling.
A much shorter list than what I have ever suggested, but I think its the essential ones for now.
Crimson Wizard:
Dang, lol, I was afraid someone will do that :)
Ok, my bad. Let me elaborate why I started this thread. We all have some things in mind for sure. However, there are things being mentioned around forums, that could miss our attention. I suggest to gather them, if you find something interesting just give a link and some commentary.
As for those lengthy lists, well, I honestly don't know. I think it is better to start using the issue tracker, since it is practically ready.
Joseph DiPerla:
Ah ok. Gotcha. Sorry CW. :P
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