AGS Awards Ceremony Client App - Feedback, bug reports, suggestions

[Snarky]

Ahead of the actual awards ceremony, it would be great if as many people as possible could join me for a beta test of the updated AGS-IRC client. In previous years it's sometimes been a bit crashy, but in my own testing I haven't been able to break it. (You might think that is good news, but it's actually quite worrying, because the crash you can't reproduce is the crash you can't fix.) To give the highest chance of a successful main event, it's essential to really put the client through its paces in a beta test.

This coming Sunday, 8. March, would be good for me. (Gives me time to finish a few bits that are still missing, but also to fix any errors we discover.) I just picked an arbitrary time, 15:00 GMT, as a starting proposal, it can just as well be earlier or later. (I'll probably be working on it all day anyway.) The weekend seems like the most reasonable time in general, particularly for different time zones, but if many people would prefer another day, let me know!

Edit: Yes, Sunday at 15:00 UTC it is!

Even if you're spending the day playing the nominated games so you can vote, you can just have the client running in the background.

So please indicate if you are able to join a beta test on that day/time, and if not, when you might be available instead. Thanks!

[imgzoom]http://i.cubeupload.com/N62Son.png[/imgzoom]

Edit: As seen in the thread title, there will be another beta test next Sunday at the same time (Sunday 15. March 15:00 UTC). Download now no longer available!

Edit 2: And again, there will be a final beta test this Friday night, (Friday 20. March 20:00 UTC).

Edit 3: The betas are now over. Oh God what if it doesn't work on Sunday?!

Edit 4: Phew, it's done! You can now leave feedback, bug reports or suggestions here.

Edit 5: The source and resources for the client are now available for download along with the final build.

Downloads:
* AGS Client final build 1.0
* Source (with some resources stripped out)
* Graphics pack (psd files of the backgrounds and certain other graphics)

[Gurok]

I'm interested! I'll endeavour to be awake at that time. It works out to 2 AM Monday morning for me. Two hours earlier would be nice, but we'll see how it works out for others.

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=AGS+Awards+Beta+Test&iso=20150308T15

[Mandle]

I'll probably be able to stop by. I dropped my wallet somewhere in that hall last year so gonna take a look for it.

[Ponch]

That's about eight in the morning for me. I can probably drop by and check things out. Maybe carve my name into the edge of the stage... Pee in the corner...

[Stupot]

That time should work for me

[Myinah]

I can probably help out

[selmiak]

I should be there. The more the merrier and the stressier for the server/client.

[Cassiebsg]

I can' promise to be there as I don't know if am home by that time, but if I am I'll turn it on and let it run.

[AprilSkies]

Count me in. Sunday is fine all the the day.. more or less.
One question: will it take place on AGS or AGSA IRC?

[Snarky]

... There are multiple AGS IRC servers?
That's news to me. The client is set to connect to irc.agsarchives.com, and I didn't realize there was an alternative. Does it matter?

[AprilSkies]

Thanks for the answer ^^

... There are multiple AGS IRC servers?

I asked 'cause I was in doubt between irc.adventuregamestudio.co.uk and irc.agsarchives.com ^^ but prolly it was indeed a silly question, prolly the Ceremony connect automatically on the right one. I don't remember how it worked last years.

[Problem]

I should be at home at that time, so you can count me in.

[Snarky]

Just calling your attention to the recruitment post asking for music: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=51827.0

[HanaIndiana]

Yep, I'd like to help. That's 7am Sunday for me, and I'll probably be up playing games anyways.

[Baron]

I'll give it the old college try.

[miguel]

I'll probably drop by and tell a joke or two about early XVIII century's metallurgic tendencies on door frames. 

[zorra]

I can help.

[cat]

There is a familiy meeting I have to attend at the given time. But if it is of any use, I could login to the chat around noon and keep the program running so more people are connected.

[AprilSkies]

So, is the time confirmed?

[m0ds]

Who is that stood next to OceanSpirit Dennis? Is it John Sinclair?

[Snarky]

Who is that stood next to OceanSpirit Dennis? Is it John Sinclair?

Haha, really?
Hint: You made not one but two (well, one-and-a-half) movies about him, Mods!

Thanks to everyone who's expressed interest (even if you can't make it). Yes, given the response so far, you can consider the time confirmed, AprilSkies. (Sorry Gurok!)

[selmiak]

due to recent developments I probably won't make it. Have fun! 

[Yol]

There are, 3 pm in Italy? Tomorrow put the link? hi

[AprilSkies]

Ciao Yol!
In Italy we are GMT+1, so it's 4 pm (16.00)

[Snarky]

Updated first post with download link. See you in two and a half hours!

Edit: BTW, when we run the beta test, in order to push the limits it would be nice to have as many participants as possible. What you can actually do is run multiple clients at the same time:



(I wouldn't try more than three in parallel, though - or two if you're also running an IRC client. It seems to lock up if you try to open too many connections.)

[Gurok]

"Too many sprites have been added to the sprite list. There is a limit of 75 objects and characters being visible at the same time" when I try to click on the mystery figure or the New Profile text after launching it :/

[Snarky]

Huh, that's weird! It seems to be working for others, so why is it crashing for you?

[Gurok]

Ah, was just about to edit. I get that error when selecting DX9 mode. It's fine in DX5 mode. That's probably an issue to consider for the general release though.

[Snarky]

Aha! OK, great. I'll look into it, but for now, just use DX5.

[Snarky]

I've updated the client build to a new version. Please download and use that one!

[Snarky]

Yet another update...

[moloko]

Downloading, albeit very slowly. Thanks for doing all this, Snarky. I can imagine this being an enormous effort to make everything work out, and it looks amazing.

[Stupot]

[forget it. I posted an image here that wouldn't load]

I've gotta go to bed now. Night all x

[Cassiebsg]

Is dwl so slow because everyone is downloading, or is dropbox normally this slow?

[cat]

So, was it successful? Did you crash the server?

[straydogstrut]

There were some issues still to resolve but it's looking wonderful I'm constantly amazed at the creativity and ingenuity of folks around here and the AGS Awards just seem to go from strength to strength. Good job Snarky!

[Retro Wolf]

My evil twin informs me that he had a good time.

[Snarky]

Thank you everybody for helping out!

As I'm sure you could tell, I've just built a little bit more on top of the app Dualnames made (based on Wyz's plugin)... while introducing a few new bugs of my own.

Here's my list of reported bugs:



• Crash in Chat.asc, lines 92, 917, 1061: fixed
• Crash with "Too many sprites have been added to the sprite list." on selecting avatar. Identified as DirectX9/Direct3D-specific (probably won't fix, just ensure winconfig set to DD5)
• Crash with Array out of bounds (Index 2000, array 0...79) in repeatedly_execute(). Caused by malicious client. Will password-protect control channel and add additional safeguards in code
• selmiak's client crashed after two hours, running in VM on Mac. Probably won't fix
• A collection of likely related errors around syncing the remote characters: (will investigate/test)
  
  
  • Avatar randomly(?) changes to the wrong scale. Not consistent across clients. I believe this only ever affects remote avatars? Will investigate
  • Avatar is identified by the wrong name. Not consistent across clients.
  • Character doesn't update to correct avatar. Not consistent across clients.
  • Character doesn't move when supposed to. Not consistent across clients.
  • Avatar doesn't disappear when client disconnects. Not consistent across clients.
• Host managed to lose channel-op privileges (and therefore ability to control the multimedia), was forced to ask everyone to disconnect in order to regain them (and failed). User error, will register IRC channel to avoid in future.
• Users who were kicked from the channel as part of this would get error when trying to rejoin. Will avoid in future by not kicking people out.
• If host restarts category presentation, impossible to turn off music until category ends. Will fix.
• A couple of crashes with the bot if it's not the first to join the channel. Fixed.
• Bot known to have other, serious bugs that have never been tracked down. Could not replicate, will investigate further.
• On Program menu, not obvious that you could expand to see list of categories and nominees. May redesign.
• Question about whether people would be able to laugh/clap during games presentation. I'm looking into changing how this works so you'll be able to applaud nominees, but it's not a top priority right now.

There was also a general call for more different music and more images/animations. Some people also asked about adding more avatars. Yes, this is all still open! If there's music, pictures, animations or avatars you'd like for me to add, please send them to me! Some people also asked about the lesbian pictures from previous years. No, those are out, sorry.

Oh, and some people asked for Linux/Mac builds. I looked into this briefly before, but I'm not sure exactly what it takes to build it for those platforms, particularly given that it relies on a plugin. Also, I'm using a custom version of the engine that CrimsonWizard very kindly provided that fixes an otherwise annoying glitch with the scaling, where characters would jitter as they move. Maybe next year! (Unless one of you would like to have a crack at it, and I could just send you the project.)

If you have any other feedback: about bugs, about the music and sounds (volume ok?), graphics, walk cycles, etc., please let me know in this thread or over PM.

[Tabata]

It is just a wish but now seems to the best time to tell it:

If possible I'd prefer the font to be bigger where you type and read the chat completely (not needed on screen).
It's very hard for me to read when using windowed mode.   

[Snarky]

Yes, it could be done. Just one thing, though: were you running it just in the normal size without any filter, like in this screenshot?



Because for the ceremony itself (when there's no need to run multiple clients simultaneously), I would set the default filter to 2x, making it twice as big on screen.

[Tabata]

Yes it looks like on your screen.
I am running it in DD5 without nearest neighbour-filter in 640 x 480 
but my laptop can't make it bigger in windowed (1280 x 960 is some pixels too big) so 2 x nn doesn't work for me.

So there is no easy jumping to other windows in fullscreen
or the windowed that it's okay for watching but reading the font is hard (for me). 

[Snarky]

OK, then. The drawback, of course, is that it would mean less text visible. And it's a bit of work to change, because it will mean changing the graphics. I can't promise anything, but I'll put it on the list.

[Tabata]

That would be wonderful â€" of course everything which affects all has more priority.
I don't want to 'steal' time that is needed for important things.

Thank you for taking the time to think about alternatives for me and
adding the bigger font size on your to-do-list. 

                     

[Cassiebsg]

Readability of the font might improve if the background is a steady blue (instead of the gradient?), and text maybe bold (in a white/light yellow with black outline)... or drop the blue and make it black with white/yellow font. Nice contrast! It was hard for me to read the text too when in windowed mode and no filters.

Last beta (3) run at 2x, so that made it easier to read, but 2x takes way too much space.

Oh, one thing that I noticed is that when ppl type "/me blah blah blah" text would not display on screen, just on the log. Not a bug and probably too late to implement an appropriate on screen response...

BTW, was there a way to set character in idle mode (assuming there's an idle view)? Don't think mine changed to idle, not that I noticed it anyway.

Oh... and has anyone ever considered using this irc client to make a multiplayer adventure game? I've always dreamed of such game, but it's always all other genders that have multiplayer option...

[Kasander]

I've always dreamed of such game, but it's always all other genders that have multiplayer option...

I'm about 94% sure all genders have multiplayer option

As for the multiplayer irc game, I think somebody was working on Quest for Glory multiplayer game a couple of years ago, but it seems that nothing came of it.***

---
Also, cheers for doing the dirty work Snarky, I appreciate it. Wish I had returned earlier today so I could actually help.

EDIT:

*** I've just checked it. It's on! Silly me!

[m0ds]

Just to say it seemed to work well for me! So many avatars to chose from - nice And animated selection menus too, funky! Hope to be able to attend the ceremony itself.

Note: Used headphones earlier, I'm not sure my ears will be able to handle claps and laughs, but are there any other sounds that might be missed if muting that? Alternatively, how about a full GUI with sliders for the volumes, cos I can probably handle very quiet claps and laughs or did I miss a menu like that?

[Mandle]

Thanks Snarky for what must be a lot of time-consuming and frustrating work to make this great community event even better!

I had a great time checking it out last night. Wish I could have stayed and been of more help instead of just plugging my AGS Awards: Backstage Pass game... But time marched on just a little too fast.

Best of luck getting as many issues sorted as you can without going completely bat-shit insane. Looking forward to the ceremony. I'm planning to attend even if it's at 4AM like it was last year!

[AprilSkies]

Thanks for you work, Snarky !

P.S.

I've always dreamed of such game, but it's always all other genders that have multiplayer option...

Dualnames and JimReed made "Virtual Beer": http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=41451.msg548022#msg548022

[m0ds]

Yes nicely done! I sent a PM with a couple of extra cues in case, and here's an additional song you can use if needed

AGS Awards For You To Win

Spoiler

It's, the A, G S awardz
Yes It's, The A, G S awards,
said It's, The A, G S awards,
Just told you about 8 times it's, the A, G S awards

A-wards!
for you!
for you to win!
or you,
to lose!
for you to lose!

Nevermind,
always be, another time
to win, awards,
like Wadjet Eye

[close]

[Snarky]

Thanks Mods, that's beautiful!



You'll all be pleased to know that I think I've worked out what was causing the weirdness yesterday. In case you're interested: I think it has to do with when people log off and then log back on (at least, that's the situation where I've been able to recreate it). Because of AGS's lack of pointers to custom structs (*fist to the sky*) we're reusing the same data structure instances once they're tagged as being "free" (when the person using it leaves), but presumably they aren't fully wiped out at that time (because I was being sloppy when I modified Dualnames's code), so when the next person logs on they get some traces of the last person's settings. This also explains why it looks inconsistent in different clients (tends to be OK in the recently started ones, wrong in ones that have been online for a while), since it all depends on in what order it logged on and which logoffs and logons it has witnessed.

I'll do some further testing when I have time, but this might mean that the fix is trivial.

Would any of you be willing to do another "dress rehearsal" beta ahead of the ceremony, just to check that things are in order? Maybe this coming weekend? It doesn't have to be huge, but 5-6 people would be nice. It shouldn't be that long, either (I hope).

[Yol]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/51/d8/e3/51d8e3276a37c0669a8a1f37d7d88056.jpg
I do not know if it helps, I attach error yesterday. hi

[Tabata]

... Would any of you be willing to do another "dress rehearsal" beta ahead of the ceremony, just to check that things are in order? Maybe this coming weekend? ...

... same time, same place ...

Spoiler

[embed=420,315]< <iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/J6pAxF2br_U" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>[/embed]

[close]

[Mandle]

I can probably make it....I just love testies...

[Kasander]

You can count me in. Is it too late to make myself a custom dress?

Mods, that's a fantastic song.

[Snarky]

Hi Kasander. No, it's still open, but keep in mind that what I'm looking for is primarily:

-characters that will be freely available for use by all participants (not a "private" avatar only for you)
-characters from already released AGS games (though this is not a hard-and-fast rule)

[Tramponline]

I'd definitely like to help out as well.
My 'plan' for Sunday is to wallow in sweet idleness anyway...

So Sunday at 15:00 GMT it is, then?

[Snarky]

Sure. That way AGA doesn't have to change the banner.

Also, don't forget to vote in the Awards, people. The deadline is only a few hours away!

[cat]

Is there actually a date for the ceremony yet?

This time I can probably come to the test-run.

[m0ds]

Any chance of an extension on the voting say up to Friday if there's no ceremony this weekend? I haven't had a chance to vote yet myself, didn't realize the deadline was middle of a week so it's pointless me reminding others if there's only 5 hours left now.

Also, isn't a round robin (to entire community) PM usually sent out to get people voting?

No problem if not. That's just me being slow and unreminded.

[Snarky]

idk

Bicilotti is in charge of the awards and of the ceremony, but he's been preoccupied lately. I think AGA handles some of the technical details of the voting. I'm just hacking away at the client. Given that there's been no polling and no announcement yet, I'm simply assuming the ceremony is not going to be this weekend, and that I'll have another week to finish it up. (Which is very welcome on my end!)

But I'm not calling the shots here.

[Kasander]

-characters that will be freely available for use by all participants (not a "private" avatar only for you)

I'd have no problem with that.

-characters from already released AGS games (though this is not a hard-and-fast rule)

Well, I was going to propose an avatar from my AGS game in progress, but if there's a rule, then let's not make an exception for one person. I'll be perfectly alright using O.S. Dennis or Troll Song troll as avatar

[Snarky]

Well, like I said it's not an absolute rule, and there are already a few exceptions (mostly characters not from games at all).

The reasons for it are mainly:
-to try to make the selection of avatars as a whole reflect the community and the history of AGS games (though that's probably impossible by definition)
-because I don't think it's a good idea to let everyone in the audience pick characters from games that are up for any awards, because I figure it could be a bit crappy to be one of the other nominees if the whole hall is full of people using their avatar to visibly root for the favorite...
-and therefore if we put them in now, we might have to remove/restrict them again in future years

Which isn't a big deal, TBH. It's more that it's putting that responsibility on whoever's dealing with the client app that year, and there's no telling if they'll keep it in mind.

Anyway, that's my thinking, but it's not a matter of principle for me, just some guidelines I encourage. You decide: If you want I should put it in, I'll put it in. I'm just the guy eating worms...

[Kasander]

The reasons for it are mainly:
-to try to make the selection of avatars as a whole reflect the community and the history of AGS games (though that's probably impossible by definition)
-because I don't think it's a good idea to let everyone in the audience pick characters from games that are up for any awards, because I figure it could be a bit crappy to be one of the other nominees if the whole hall is full of people using their avatar to visibly root for the favorite...
-and therefore if we put them in now, we might have to remove/restrict them again in future years

Oh, I didn't think about it that way, tbh. Thanks for the explanation. Those are very good reasons imo, especially the latter two.
No problem at all for me, there's already so many cool avatars to pick! Besides, I'm sure you have lots of more important stuff to look after - worms, bugs and such See you on Sunday then!

[Creamy]

There was also a general call for more different music and more images/animations. Some people also asked about adding more avatars. Yes, this is all still open! If there's music, pictures, animations or avatars you'd like for me to add, please send them to me!

I dont' know if it's still relevant but you can use my other song if you want.

[Snarky]

Just a heads up, you can now download the latest AGS Awards client beta version for testing in half an hour! (link in the first post)

I dont' know if it's still relevant but you can use my other song if you want.

Thanks Creamy! It's a nice song, I'll add it to the "jukebox" (it's not in the beta, though).

Oh, and I see I missed this earlier:

Note: Used headphones earlier, I'm not sure my ears will be able to handle claps and laughs, but are there any other sounds that might be missed if muting that? Alternatively, how about a full GUI with sliders for the volumes, cos I can probably handle very quiet claps and laughs or did I miss a menu like that?

Yes, if you turn off sound effects you'll miss stuff like the fanfare when the winner is announced. I agree that the volume is a bit out of whack. It bothered me personally, but I wasn't going to prioritize it unless someone else reported it. I will see what I can do. A full volume menu might be the way to go.

[AprilSkies]

COW GALORE

[Cassiebsg]

LOL, tks for the bump

[Kasander]

Milkwhite and Fourteen Ponchs. I could play that.

[Snarky]

Thanks AprilSkies, that might actually be helpful! (I can look in the logs to see what was happening right around that time.) I really want to track down that bug; I thought it would be fixed in the latest update, but there must be some other edge condition hiding somewhere...

Man, if I'm doing this next year too, the first thing I'll work on is a way to simulate IRC traffic by reading from a log, so I can replay and trace what happened in cases like this.

And annoying that it never happens when I'm testing by myself... If I put in a ton of logging to really see what's going on inside the client, would anyone be up for yet another test at some point? (I totally understand if you're sick of it by now.)

[Adeel]

Sorry, Snarky; didn't mean to quit but the power went off and, obviously, I had to go (I use a desktop PC). I think the issue of characters moving slowly might have to do something with my high ping. Just few seconds before the power went out, I saw one character moving at a normal pace.

I'm more than fine to have another go, provided that I find time and don't actually forget.

[Tabata]

@April:  cool screenshot Nearly the same time I did one, too (but with first cow bigger and girl normal)

@Snarky: If I am at home it is no prob to jump in again - just send me a line.

[Tramponline]

@Snarky: If I am at home it is no prob to jump in again - just send me a line.

Yep, same here.
Sorry for being so late today - got the flu and fell asleep 15 min before testing commenced (...oh man, I feel like outing myself as 'Professor Hastings' !). 

[Kasander]

Thanks AprilSkies, that might actually be helpful! (I can look in the logs to see what was happening right around that time.) I really want to track down that bug; I thought it would be fixed in the latest update, but there must be some other edge condition hiding somewhere...

Have mine then, maybe it'll help you too. It's a rather funny bug though, I kind of like it. Just look at that first screen, Cassie trolling poor old Max thumbelina-style





I'd like to help you again Snarky, but I'd need to know the time in advance (say, a day or two before the test would be great).

[Ponch]

COW GALORE

Tis truly a magnificent herd!

[Snarky]

Hey, I think I worked it out! If you're interested in behind-the-scenes coding stories...

Spoiler

See, each of the remote participants is represented as a struct, NPC, and they are all stored in an array, npc[MAX_NPC]. There's a variable, npc_count, that keeps track of how many we're currently using (i.e. how many people are online apart from yourself). All the entries above that index are not in use, and are initially blank. When a remote participant logs off, you have to remove it from the npc[] array, but since you can't just delete entries in the middle of an array, the rather clever way this is done is to overwrite it with a copy of the topmost entry in use, npc[npc_count-1], and then reduce npc_count so that the original copy is no longer considered to be "in use". (This should make it so it's as if it no longer exists.) Essentially, you slide another NPC into the slot freed up.

The bug we were having in the first beta was that I had added some fields to the NPC struct, but didn't copy them over correctly when performing this shift. This created some weird hybrid NPCs that had some of their data from one participant and some from another, leading to lots of bugs.

Now, the bug seen in these screenshots from the last beta is because when I set the scaling of each character, I looped through the whole npc array, 0-MAX_NPC. This works fine for all the NPCs from 0 to npc_count, but once you go beyond that, if someone has logged off, you get to the old "leftover" copies of NPCs that have been shifted down. It reads the scaling from these copies and overwrites the correct scaling from the current, active copy. Which isn't noticeable until you change to a different avatar with a different scaling...

The solution was simply to change "while(i<MAX_NPC)" to "while(i<npc_count)".

Time to solve this bug:
-Reviewing logs and screenshots and ruling out some possible causes: 30 minutes
-Setting up multiple clients to try to recreate the bug: 30 minutes
-Adding logging statements and running repeated tests in the clients: 1 hour 30 minutes
-Pondering: 15 minutes
-Studying the logs, tracing through the logic of the code, adding more logging: 45 minutes
-Finding a couple of other small bugs, putting them aside for later so fixing them won't interfere with this bug hunt: 15 minutes
-Spotting the discrepancy in the logs, working out where the error must be: 1 minute
-Fixing the bug in the code: 5 seconds
-Making sure it makes sense and doesn't obviously break something else: 3 minutes
-Testing old and new version side-by-side to verify that it does fix it: 5 minutes
-Celebration: 5 minutes
-Total: (ca.) 3 hours, 59 minutes and 5 seconds

[close]

Anyway, it should really, honestly be fixed now. I've gone over the code so closely that if it doesn't work now, there must be something wrong with me.

Edit: BTW, if you don't look at sticky threads, let me point out the poll for picking the date and time of the ceremony there up top. (Ah shoot! cat got to it before me!)

[cat]

Vote for your favorite day and time of the ceremony!

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=51512.msg636509338#msg636509338

[Snarky]

I'd like to help you again Snarky, but I'd need to know the time in advance (say, a day or two before the test would be great).

Well, since it's looking like the event will be held on 20:00 UTC on Saturday or Sunday, should we say Friday night at that time for the final dress rehearsal?

[Snarky]

Hey, a quick request: I thought I'd add a Rincewind avatar in memory of Terry Pratchett, and I found sprite sheets here.

However, after futzing about with it for a while, I decided it was taking too much time while I still have other things to finish. So if there's any one of you who wouldn't mind converting the sprite sheets to an AGS character (just the standing/walk views, optionally a talk view) in CHA/CHR format, that would be great.

These are the problems that made me give up:
-the front walk view seems to be missing some frames. I think you need to flip the existing frames, but only the body, not the head
-the back walk view looks weird when animated. The frames may be out of order, or maybe you need to mirror some again. Might want to compare with a video from the game
-the sprites are not aligned, so tiled import won't work as-is

If anyone has the time to tackle it, I'd appreciate it!

[AprilSkies]

I can do it, but not right now. prolly I'll be able to do it tomorrow (let's say after 16:00 gmt).
If someone can make it before, please write here.
done.. I hope it looks good ^^

[Snarky]

OK, are you ready for the final beta test, or do you have something better to do on a Friday night? (I know, I know, what could be better than hanging out with me in in the Awards lounge? )

Edit: Thanks to everyone who helped out with the three beta tests! As a reminder, if you were there tonight, please send me your logs, which are in the game directory and are called something like "game 2015-03-20 21-33-45.log"

(Guess there is something wrong with me. Gah! I'll have a final crack at fixing this &*#@ing bug by Sunday.)

[Snarky]

[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/klZ30zh.png[/imgzoom]

Woohoo!

Yes! I did beat that son of a bitch of a bug in the end, and with only one mass crash the whole night (actually caused by an IRC settings problem, not a bug in the client), I feel pretty happy with the end result.

Now, feedback and suggestions!

Radiant reports a crash. I'm hoping for more details on that. Any other problems you experienced?

Clearly one big, noticeable thing was that the applause system didn't quite work as intended, with abrupt transitions, and that applause would often cut off the fanfare. Also, the sound of one person clapping was... odd. I actually anticipated these problems and wrote a bunch of code to try to stop it from happening, but it was very last-minute and, as you could tell, didn't really work. That's something I would definitely want to fix for next year.

If you have suggestions for other improvements or cool features, this is also the place to post them.

[Adeel]

Also, the sound of one person clapping was... odd.

That's quite blasphemous of you to call it odd! I really liked that fapping/butt spanking sound! Imagine fapping or spanking butts of the people in your vicinity on the marvellous occasion of your favourite game's win.

[arj0n]

Now, feedback and suggestions!
Radiant reports a crash. I'm hoping for more details on that. Any other problems you experienced?

I only encountered 1 crash, which happened before the actual ceremony was running.
I think Radiant reported that one already. I believe it is obsolete now anyway.
During the ceremony, no crashes or whatsoever, nice job!

Also:
I really liked the extra features as the program list. Nice job, Award Ceremony App Team

[Snarky]

I only encountered 1 crash, which happened before the actual ceremony was running.
I think Radiant reported that one already. I believe it is obsolete now anyway.

I don't know what gave you that idea. Any bugs you experienced with the final version are still current. It's too late to fix for this year, of course, but in case we ever want to use it again in the future, I should probably fix them now rather than wait till next year. It would be very helpful if you could send me the "game (timestamp).log" files so I can see more closely why the crash happens.

During the ceremony, no crashes or whatsoever, nice job!

Also:
I really liked the extra features as the program list. Nice job, Award Ceremony App Team

Great, thanks! Yeah, the program list is a feature I've wanted ever since SSH's offline ceremonies, because my short-term memory is terrible and I can never remember what's already been announced (also, the ceremony does go on for a bit, and I expect not everyone is paying attention 100% of the time). The implementation is pretty basic (I know some people didn't notice the difference between categories that had been announced and those that hadn't), but at least it's something. And last night it saved us from forgetting the best writing award.

Oh, and while I remember, there was a request for an option to include what people say during the "silent" portions in the chat window, and yes, I totally agree with that, since the text over people's heads is easy to miss. (It actually stays on for longer than before, but it still disappears quickly.)

[Dave Gilbert]

Lovely client and great fun! The only changes I would make to the client is a limit on avatar size. The troll avatars were cool, but freaking HUGE. Also, for some reason I couldn't get it running in a window above 640 x 480. In order to make it bigger, I had to go to full-screen mode.

Till next year!

[Kasander]

Nooooooo! Spare the trolls, I implore you!

Dave, trolls only grew in numbers when Troll Song tuned in. Before you arrived, there were only a couple of us trolls so the view was much clearer Also, congratulations!

My client on the other hand worked fine in full-screen after scaling to 2x the nearest neighbour (except that one crash obviously).

@Snarky, check out your PMs for my logs.

[Cassiebsg]

Just a quick idea I had... I thought it was quite fun to use the client when beta testing, sorry I didn't make it to the awards, but I thought it would be fun to use it for normal irc chat, just with a new BG, of course... maybe a lounge with some sofas and a bar... on a sunny beach... or something.

[[delete}]

My wholehearted thanks to you - Dualnames, Wyz and Snarky - for creating and directing (thank you, Bicilotti) such lovely awards ceremony!

[LimpingFish]

My wholehearted thanks to you - Dualnames, Wyz and Snarky - for creating and directing (thank you, Bicilotti) such lovely awards ceremony!

Seconded!

Now...complaints!

• It's very difficult to keep track of were your avatar is, due, I would think, to so many overlapping characters walking around. I'd like to see some sort of seated area, where avatars could park or "sit", to help alleviate this.
• On the subject of avatars, I'd also like to see the MC and award presenters represented by unique avatars. Multiple Indy sprites is very confusing!
• Perhaps implement a timed "cooldown" on chat input? I didn't notice if the "mute" command was in effect during the presenting of awards, or if it only works in IRC, but it might be a good idea to curb the haphazard nature of the onscreen text.

I can't think of anything else I would change.

[Snarky]

Thanks guys. I didn't realize how chaotic it felt to be in the audience. From up on stage, having such a packed crowd just looked great!

Lots of interesting ideas for how to alleviate it: limit on avatar size, more audience space, a seating area (not sure I fully understand this suggestion), some easier way to track yourself...

I worry that some of these suggestions would be quite a lot of work for only marginal improvement (like, if we get 40 people online instead of 30-some, that will consume any benefit), but since it seems to be a widespread concern I will definitely give it some thought. I did think about adding a second room, probably a balcony area, but I think the disadvantages of splitting people up into separate groups outweighs the advantages. And I do have to mention that there is already a feature to track yourself, or any other particular avatar: click on a name in the participant list (top-left drop-down), and they'll be marked with an arrow.

Also, for some reason I couldn't get it running in a window above 640 x 480. In order to make it bigger, I had to go to full-screen mode.

Not sure why that might be. I'm not doing anything unusual with the graphics, so it should be just like any other AGS game where you set 2x, 3x, etc. filters to make the window bigger (I assume your screen resolution is bigger than 1280x960). Someone else mentioned having this problem before or during the ceremony, so I tested it and it certainly worked on my machine. Could it simply be that the AGS 3.3 winsetup is a bit unfamiliar? (I think the other person eventually figured out he wasn't using winsetup correctly, but I can't imagine you'd have that problem.)

@Snarky, check out your PMs for my logs.

Thanks!

Just a quick idea I had... I thought it was quite fun to use the client when beta testing, sorry I didn't make it to the awards, but I thought it would be fun to use it for normal irc chat, just with a new BG, of course... maybe a lounge with some sofas and a bar... on a sunny beach... or something.

Sure. I'll open-source it when I have time to take out the not-for-release assets and clean up the documentation a bit (of course, Dualnames's code from last year is already available), and anyone is free to adapt it for everyday use. Though I personally suspect that without the novelty and custom content from the ceremony, it might get old relatively quickly, and people would find it easier to just use text chat.

On the subject of avatars, I'd also like to see the MC and award presenters represented by unique avatars. Multiple Indy sprites is very confusing!

Yes, I totally agree, and this was something I had hoped to address. But it's a tricky problem, because of the way the program works under the hood. The Indy's (Indies?) are people who are just on IRC text chat, not using the game client. So of course they haven't chosen an avatar, aren't clicking to walk around, or anything like that. The AGS client is creating a virtual character for them whenever they're on stage (whenever they've been granted special IRC channel privileges), and tells them to move to certain positions when particular events happen. Since it's all done without any user input, and because none of the logic is synched but is all done locally on each client, I don't want to introduce too much randomness (like picking a random avatar), which might easily have unpredictable effects or cause confusion (if some people are seeing bicilotti as Nelly and some as Oceanspirit Dennis, for example).

I had thought one solution might be for me (or whoever hosts the AGS side of the ceremony) to set the avatar for them, but first of all it's difficult to implement given the architecture of the system, and secondly, having experienced what it's like to actually run the multimedia in real-time, I think it would be too stressful.

A better solution (that occurs to me just now) might be to simply predefine unique avatars for certain screen names (bicilotti and other likely suspects), which should at least cut down on the confusion somewhat. You could also split it by IRC mode (so that hosts/+m(oderators) get a different default avatar than presenters/+v(oiced) participants, and so on). Or you could hash the nick into an avatar ID (though probably only from a subselection of the avatars). And IRC people could get a special command to override their avatar if they wanted to (something like "/me becomes benjordan"), though of course they wouldn't see it themselves... Hmm. Yes, it's possible.

I also want to improve their automated positioning so they're not all standing on top of each other, and so that they make better use of the podium. I did make a start towards this (basically refactoring the existing code into one self-contained module and adding a little bit to it), and would want to flesh it out and tune it more in future years.

So, yes, this is absolutely high on the todo list.

Perhaps implement a timed "cooldown" on chat input? I didn't notice if the "mute" command was in effect during the presenting of awards, or if it only works in IRC, but it might be a good idea to curb the haphazard nature of the onscreen text.

I don't quite understand what you're proposing. The way it works currently, during the "mute" sections (which appear to AGS participants as "*QUIET DOWN* *QUIET DOWN*" and end with "*APPLAUSE* *APPLAUSE* *APPLAUSE*"), anything people in the audience type is not added to the chat log, but only appears over their heads. (Therefore, it's not seen by IRC-only participants.) This allows official announcements (presenting the nominees and winners, and the acceptance speeches) to not be buried in other chatter. Do you mean you don't want it to be displayed at all? That's how it was in (IIRC) the first year of the online AGS ceremony, but it turned out to be quite frustrating to have to spend so much of the time not being able to speak. Maybe I'm missing your point.

This is really good input. Keep it coming!

[Ponch]

While it would be nice to have a larger mosh pit for the audience, being packed in there made it feel very vibrant. (It helped that it was easy to pick myself out of the crowd with my sexy, voluptuous cow costume ).

Also, the red carpet arrival was a wonderful surprise that put a smile on my face. When the game crashed and I had to log back in, arriving by limo a second time still made me smile. Nice work, whoever put that in there.

I second the notion that the presenters need different avatars. I had to use mouse hover to figure out who was who as the event went on.

Lastly, while the clap function didn't quite work as intended, I think it was a very cool idea and once it's implemented properly, it will really add a lot to the experience.

Nice work all around, guys.

[Andail]

Also, the red carpet arrival was a wonderful surprise that put a smile on my face. When the game crashed and I had to log back in, arriving by limo a second time still made me smile. Nice work, whoever put that in there.

Snarky put it there, but Daniel Thomas painted it, based on my line-art.

I think everything went perfectly; you could always nit-pick about floor space or whatever, or that not including lesbian imagery is somehow too "pc", but all in all this was as smooth as it gets.

[Monsieur OUXX]

the clap function didn't quite work as intended, but I think it was a very cool idea and once it's implemented properly, it will really add a lot to the experience.

I didn't join this year so I don't know if it has changed from last year, but I 've had this idea for some time: whenever someone uses the "clap" command, then there should be a count on server side (keeping track of the number of people clapping simultaneously). And depending on that number, there would be a different sound effect: From the sound effect of one person clapping to the sound effect of a crowd widly cheering and clapping like crazy. I'm pretty sure that would work and make the clapping way more immersive.

[Snarky]

Yes, that's what I (tried to) implement, but I didn't have time to properly test and bugfix it (or to find the best possible audio clips), so there were a few problems. Mostly that whenever the clap level changed, it would interrupt the clap-clip that was currently playing and start another one. This made for very abrupt transitions. The clapping would also sometimes interrupt other sounds that were playing, in particular the fanfare for the winner. I still think it made the clapping feel more dynamic, but it should work way better once I iron out those bugs.

So far, I'm pretty committed to these fixes for next year:
-Different avatars for IRC-only presenters (not all Indy) and better scripting of their movements (e.g. ceding the lectern to whoever is speaking)
-Fix the dynamic applause
-An option to view the audience chat in the chat history during "silent" sections. Possibly distinguish audience and on-stage dialogue by color
-Improve chat window text formatting for better readability
-Easier tracking of your own avatar. Possibly an auto-highlight, or at least on-by-default highlight

These are things I will look into:
-Ask Wyz to port/rewrite the IRC plugin/module so the client will run on Linux (and maybe MacOS?)
-Some way to reduce crowding in the audience. Proposals are welcome
-Restore Dualnames' auto-announcement system, where nominees and winners automatically get announced when the presenters say their names (disabled because I changed so much of how the announcements work)
-Avatar speech animations, possibly custom animations

[LimpingFish]

I don't quite understand what you're proposing. The way it works currently, during the "mute" sections (which appear to AGS participants as "*QUIET DOWN* *QUIET DOWN*" and end with "*APPLAUSE* *APPLAUSE* *APPLAUSE*"), anything people in the audience type is not added to the chat log, but only appears over their heads. (Therefore, it's not seen by IRC-only participants.) This allows official announcements (presenting the nominees and winners, and the acceptance speeches) to not be buried in other chatter. Do you mean you don't want it to be displayed at all? That's how it was in (IIRC) the first year of the online AGS ceremony, but it turned out to be quite frustrating to have to spend so much of the time not being able to speak. Maybe I'm missing your point.

Ah, so the mute command is still the same, and working as intended, but the dialog texts are (more or less) operating separately. Being less that useless at the technical side of things, I didn't realise this.

In that case, my suggestion was more about how often, and the speed at which, the dialog text appears (in some cases simultaneously and overlapping), and how that makes it difficult to both read it and identify who has said what. My idea about a "cooldown" was in reference to putting a limit on how frequently a person can "speak" - say, thirty seconds? - which might help lessen the confusion, and make people less likely to type whatever comes into their head at any given moment. Of course, this restriction could be lifted during the "applause" sections of the ceremony, but having in place during the presentations might help people focus more on what's happening on stage.

Being, as I said, technically useless, I'm not sure of the feasibility of such a system.

[Snarky]

I've finally got around to sorting out the credits, licensing, documentation, etc., so here's the source code and graphics pack for the AGS Awards client. Thanks (one final time) to all of you who contributed stuff, helped out and put up with my nagging!

I wasn't able to credit beta testers (I'd have to go through the logs to see who were there, and map from IRC nicks to AGS usernames...), but I am very grateful.

- Edit2: OK, the download is back up!