Flic?

[Bartimaeus]

I'm new to AGS and I need to figure out how to make an intro movie. I want the game to start with an intro and then go to menu. (As seen in "5 days a stranger") I looked around 4 answers and one of the things that came up was 'Flic animation' which doesnt help me @ all cause I don't know what that is. I'd really appreciate help. Thanx.

[TheJBurger]

Well, I'm pretty sure 5 days a stranger didn't use a flic animation. But anyway, here's how I would suggest doing an intro.

Here's an example way to do the 5 day's a stranger intro.

First make the intro room (I believe this was a car on a road in 5 Days). Draw the road and the car and then import the room into AGS.

Then I would put a character right on top of the car coordinates. Make the character's view invisible though, so you can't see him in the game.

Then get into your "Enters Screen After Fade In" script and do a code similiar to this or so.
------------------------
Wait(40); // Wait 1 Second to allow the player to see what the scene is.
DisplaySpeech(INVIS,"My name is blah blah."); // Make the invisible character that is over the car talk.
// You can continue the speech for as long as you want.
Wait(40); // Once he's done talking you can Wait(40); one more time
NewRoom(*); //  Go to the menu room. Where  * = The Menu Room number
-------------------------

Then draw and import the menu room. (IN the game this was a room with the view of Defoe Manor)
I'd say make the buttons (New Game, Restore, Quit) Objects.
And make one more object for the car that "trilby" is driving in. (Remember, this is just an example intro thing.)
Then make an animation for "Trilby" to get out of the car. Set it to view 5 (just for this example.)
Check all the button objects OFF except the car.

Now in the "Player Enters Screen Before Fade In" script write something like this.
character[INVIS].room=*; // Move character to the menu room which is *
character[INVIS].x=***; // Make the INVIS character over the car coordinates which is ***
character[INVIS].y=***; // Make the INVIS character over the car coordinates which is ***

Now in the "Player Enters Screen After Fade In" script write something like this.
---------------------------------------------
DisplaySpeech(INVIS,"This is my story..."); // Or something like that.
SetObjectView(*, 5); // * = the Car object number.
AnimateObject(*, 0, 0, 0); // Animate object the car using loop 0, with speed 0, and repeat 0
ObjectOn(0); // Turn on New Game
ObjectOn(1); // Turn on Restore Game
ObjectOn(2); // Turn on Quit
---------------------------------------------

And the last thing you have to do is make it when you click on the object buttons (new game, restore, quit) it does the right action.

This is just an example of a 5 Days A Stranger Intro. You can modify the code however you want for your own intro.

Hope it helps. 

[Goot]

You might also want to make it so the player can press esc and skip the intro. In this case you need to use DisplaySpeechBackground and other non blocking functions, with Wait(1);
if(IsKeyPressed(esc key #, look this up in the manual)==1){
NewRoom(mainscreen room #);
}
for ever loop in the intro. There might be an easier way of doing this, but that's all I could think of.

[Albert Cuandero]

Oh boy,

I was hoping someone could answer him/her what a Flic exactly is and which software is used to make it - because I want to know too... I googled, but all I found is people dicussing how to put them on the Win Desktop and such...

[strazer]

A flic is basically a movie, a series of images but without (its own) sound.
.FLI supports only one resolution: 320x200 with 256 colors
.FLC supports any resolution up to 1024x768 with 256 colors.

You can use the RAD Video Tools to convert a series of pictures into a flic ("List files...", save list, select .lst file, "Convert a file", "Output type...", ...).

Goot: Do you mean StartCutScene & EndCutScene?

[Bartimaeus]

Thanks A LOT!!!! It really did help. Really appreciate it.
Cheers.

[TerranRich]

You know, AGS also supports MPEG and AVi files now, too. Those support higher color depths.