AGS 3.3.0 Release Candidate

Started by Crimson Wizard, Thu 04/04/2013 19:16:28

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Grim

I'm in, officially using this version now...

Scary, but exciting! :)

So far, no bugs.

Crimson Wizard

Quote from: Grim on Fri 03/01/2014 03:40:13
Scary, but exciting! :)

...A-a-aand we have a new tag line for splash screen now. :)

Grim

haha I have to say I'm really loving it so far! It's great to have a room window and script open at the same time, really useful.

It would be great to see the full list of new features and an updated manual, though. (I had a dream last night that there's a object.Rotate function there... ;) )


Crimson Wizard

Quote from: Grim on Fri 03/01/2014 17:39:52
It would be great to see the full list of new features and an updated manual, though. (I had a dream last night that there's a object.Rotate function there... ;) )
The full list of new features is in the first post of this thread. Updating the manual is what I am going to do in the nearest couple of days.
And, hmm, you can use DynamicSprite.Rotate to rotate images, hope that helps ;)

Radiant

Regarding our earlier discussions about the winsetup program, one of the reasons for releasing Heroine's Quest without one was to find out which options people commonly use in winsetup. Based on feedback thereon, there are three options that players are primarily interested in, and those are (a) fullscreen, (b) magnification factor, i.e. the filter pulldown, and (c) language selection. I'm afraid that common players (as opposed to AGS regulars) simply don't understand most of the other options, like the difference between DX5 and DX9, or "alternate" letterbox resolution.

But then it struck me that the winsetup program already has an "advanced" submenu! This currently contains the options for replay and memory limit. I think a very good approach would be to move all those rarely-used extra options into advanced, that's precisely what it's for! That way, normal users can have their easy winsetup, and AGS regulars can click advanced to see all the other options. Plus it'd take all of five minutes to rearrange controls on a standard Windows GUI like that. (alternatively, add a boolean to the game settings that lets the designer swap between "original" winsetup and "simplified" winsetup).

I stongly believe that clarity is the best approach in installation and setup tools, and this way everybody can have what they need.

Calin Leafshade

Winsetup should be deprecated and the relevant functions moved into the script domain, imo.

Joseph DiPerla

Quote from: Calin Leafshade on Tue 07/01/2014 13:44:11
Winsetup should be deprecated and the relevant functions moved into the script domain, imo.

Agreed.
Joseph DiPerla--- http://www.adventurestockpile.com
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Radiant

Quote from: Calin Leafshade on Tue 07/01/2014 13:44:11
Winsetup should be deprecated and the relevant functions moved into the script domain, imo.
That would be even better, yes, but in the meantime an easy fix to is move all those rarely-used and hard-to-understand functions into the "advanced options". Because they are.

Crimson Wizard

I am looking for anyone who could help proofread and possibly improve the manual update I am writing for 3.3.0.
I am trying to maintain the existing manual style.

Here's the excrept I did for "Upgrading to AGS 3.3" topic:

Quote
Upgrading to AGS 3.3

AGS 3.3 editor contains a major change to user interface that now lets you to "unpin" visual panels,
drag them to any place you want and dock there or optionally leave in "floating" mode. You may
also have more than one editing panel on screen at once, for example room editor and script editor.
This allows everyone to customize the panes layout in AGS to their own taste.

You may now create folders for characters, dialogs, inventory items, guis, rooms, scripts and views,
move them up/down by context menu, and drag & drop items to change their order.
The "Sort room by number" command now sorts within folders.

Script and header files are now combined into one group item, similar to room settings and script.

Proper alpha blending

AGS now features proper alpha blending when drawing GUI Controls and using Drawing Surfaces.
This feature is enabled by two separate options in the "Visual" section of the General Settings:
"GUI alpha rendering style" and "Sprite alpha rendering style". This is done for compatibility with
projects created in previous versions of AGS.
When importing a project in AGS 3.3 these options will retain their original values. You may
consider setting them to "Proper alpha blending", but that may alter the looks of your game.
New projects will have "proper blending" mode set by default.

To support alpha blending a new HasAlphaChannel
property is added to DialogOptionsRenderingInfo class. This property must be set it in
dialog_options_get_dimensions function, the one where you
normally define size and position of the drawing surface.

System limits update

The maximal number of Fonts has been increased from 15 to 30.

New Speech class

There's now a new Speech script class that contains several speech-related properties. This renders
number of global functions obsolete, as well as some of the game variables.
If you are using any of them in your script you will likely get compilation errors. Simply replace
them by corresponding Speech properties, as shown in the table below:

table skipped, for it contains only function names

Game-wide speech animation delay

The "Old-style game-wide speech animation speed" general setting previously found in
"Backwards compatibility" section was replaced with two settings in "Dialog" section:
"Use game-wide speech animation delay" and "Game-wide speech animation delay". First enables the
use of the game-wide delay and the second specify exact delay value.
These settings are accompanied by two respective properties in the Speech class.

Translated ListBox

In the previous versions of AGS the ListBox items were never translated. A new "Translated" property
is added to ListBox class, which forces engine to translate ListBox items. Default value is True
but it is recommended to set it to False if you are using ListBox for listing savedgames.
NOTE: when older projects are imported, it is set to False automatically.

Snarky

Hi CW. I could proofread, but probably not do any major editing in the next couple of weeks.

In this excerpt, the only bits I would change are:
Quotedrag them to any place you want and dock them there, or optionally leave them in "floating" mode.
Quoteconsider setting them to "Proper alpha blending", but that may alter the appearance of your game.
QuoteThis renders a number of global functions obsolete, as well as some of the game variables.
QuoteSimply replace them by the corresponding Speech properties, as shown in the table below:
QuoteThe first enables the use of the game-wide delay and the second specifies exact delay value.

You also use both "is added" and "was added" (/"replaced") to describe changes. I would recommend "has been added" in each instance.

None of the changes are particularly critical; the draft text is mostly fine as it stands.

selmiak

I'd like to help but as a non native speaker myself I make enough errors myself.
Why not paste it all to a wiki and grab the most current version with some code magic every time a new built is released. But as this open up ways to destroy stuff there should be some editing restrictions on the wiki (not neccesarily the main AGS wiki).

Crimson Wizard

Quote from: selmiak on Sun 12/01/2014 19:57:37
Why not paste it all to a wiki and grab the most current version with some code magic every time a new built is released.
Please suggest this here: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=46223.0 . I am just using what is avalaible at the moment.


Regarding text, there will be some more, I am writing formal specifications for new script features now.

Adeel

#612
QuoteSystem limits update

The maximal number of Fonts has been increased from 15 to 30.

Isn't it better to use maximum instead of maximal?

Never mind. Maximal is indeed better to use here.

Knox

If ever you need some help translating from english to french, let me know my wife and I are fluent in both languages. :=
--All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

Crimson Wizard

#614
Quote from: Knox on Mon 13/01/2014 22:58:14
If ever you need some help translating from english to french, let me know my wife and I are fluent in both languages. :=
People, I don't get this. It's french people who might need this translation, not me. If you want to help them, you just translate the manual; you don't need my request to do so.
Stop think of me as some kind of ultimate planner for AGS, this is beyond reasonable (and not true).
How happened that I am making 3.3.0 distributives now? I came on forums back in 2012, asking if there's an assembled team whom I could help. It appeared there was none. Then I just started refactoring the code myself. I guess JJS did not ask permission to make ports too. So you can go same way.
I am not going to care about just everything, I am sticking only to certain tasks, and keep hoping others would do something too...

Knox

Just offering some help. My apologies.
--All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

Crimson Wizard

#616
Quote from: Knox on Tue 14/01/2014 03:03:57
Just offering some help. My apologies.
Apologies for what??????????? :~(


No, it's me who should make an apology. I realize I was rude.

I don't know how to express this, but I feel confused when being offered help like this. There can be a lot of things done in parallel, and I am obviously unable to watch over everything. I am just hoping others would join this work, or make some contributions. When you offer help this way I can't help but wonder, why there's a need to ask me when it's obviously might be useful; is it like I am "blocking" people from doing anything?
Maybe I am? In such case this should be resolved somehow.

Billbis

#617
Out of topic, but the French version of the manual is available (and editable) here thanks to Kitai. Also, French version of AGS (based on an old 3.2.2) here. And we plane to do a French version of 3.3.0 as soon as it is released in final version. Help is very much needed, and will be welcome with great pleasure.
One cool thing with the online manual is that it is linked to the French forum code analyzer (just put your mouse on the "Display" function). 8-)

Back to topic, has someone reproduced and/or corrected this minor bug?

Radiant

Dear CW, could you please comment on the winsetup matter? I understand that moving everything to script functions, as one poster suggests, is best left for 3.4, but it might be possible to move some of the advanced setup options onto the 'advanced' tab for 3.3? Personally I would consider it a bug to have advanced option (as in, "the average player won't need this and doesn't understand what it means") visible on the main setup screen. In my opinion it's important to have a setup tool that is easily understandable even to players who are not familiar with AGS yet.

Crimson Wizard

#619
Quote from: Radiant on Tue 14/01/2014 18:24:28
Dear CW, could you please comment on the winsetup matter? I understand that moving everything to script functions, as one poster suggests, is best left for 3.4, but it might be possible to move some of the advanced setup options onto the 'advanced' tab for 3.3? Personally I would consider it a bug to have advanced option (as in, "the average player won't need this and doesn't understand what it means") visible on the main setup screen. In my opinion it's important to have a setup tool that is easily understandable even to players who are not familiar with AGS yet.
Moving setup to script is something beyond my understanding... unless someone elaborates on that.
Regarding moving controls... I guess it's possible, if no one objects. Winsetup is an ugly WinAPI code, that I hope will be rewritten from scratch (or completely moved out of AGS and use some modern GUI library), but moving these controls around window should be easy.

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