Right, let's get 2.72 out there.
Changes from Final to Final 2:
* Fixed the "adjust volume with scaling" option not being able to be un-ticked
* Rebuilt ACWIN.EXE without compression to fix icon replace corrupting the file
Changes from RC 2 to Final:
* Fixed bug in RC 2 where PlayMusicQueued didn't always respect the SetMusicRepeat setting
* Fixed PlayMusic not working if it was called whilst an old track was fading out but crossfading was now disabled
* Fixed String.Contains not working properly with strings >200 characters.
Changes from RC 2 to RC 2a:
* Fixed sound errors and crashes in RC 2. Oops!
Changes from RC 1 to RC 2:
* PlayMusicQueued now preloads the next track to provide a seamless transition between tracks.
* Added DirectSound Hardware Mixer option to Setup.
* Increased script editor line length limit from 300 to 500 characters.
* Disabled text boxes now do not draw the cursor.
* Fixed mouse.SetPosition and mouse.SetBounds not working properly with graphic filters.
* Fixed GUI import/export which broke on RC 1.
* Fixed crash if a dynamic sprite was deleted in game_start
* Fixed recursive calls to delayed-response functions like ProcessClick crashing the engine, instead an error is now generated
Changes from beta 7 to RC 1:
* Added GUI Control z-order support (right-click Bring To Front / Send To Back options in editor, as well as BringToFront/SendToBack script commands).
* Added Game.SetSaveGameDirectory command, including support for My Documents folder.
* Added Room.MusicOnLoad, Object.Loop, Object.Frame properties.
* PlayVideo now pauses the video if the player alt+tabs away from the game while it is playing.
* Fixed block comment parsing sometimes not working properly if /* was the last thing on a line
* Fixed plugin API waypoint functions crashing when the path id was > 1000
* Fixed autocomplete not picking up definitions of multiple variables on one line when one was an array.
* Removed Object.ManualScaling and Object.Scaling from autocomplete, since they do not actually exist
Changes from beta 6 to beta 7:
* Added Game.StopSound function, to allow you to easily stop all sound effects.
* Added Room.Width, Height, ColorDepth, LeftEdge, RightEdge, BottomEdge and TopEdge properties.
* Added System.Gamma and SupportsGammaControl; and replaced old system.* variables with new System. properties.
* Added plugin API AGSE_SPRITELOAD function to allow plugins to modify sprites as they are loaded into memory.
* Added new plugin API functions IncrementManagedObjectRefCount, DecrementManagedObjectRefCount, SetMousePosition, SimulateMouseClick, GetMovementPathWaypointCount, GetMovementPathLastWaypoint, GetMovementPathWaypointLocation, GetMovementPathWaypointSpeed.
* ListBox.AddItem and ListBox.InsertItemAt now return false rather than quitting the game, if you try to add too many items to the list.
* Deleting a dynamic sprite now flags any objects using it as dirty.
* Fixed issue where it was possible to characters to get stuck on top of each other.
Changes from beta 5 to beta 6:
* Added Game.Name and Game.FileName properties.
* Added AGS_SUPPORTS_IFVER predefined constant to enable script modules to avoid using #ifver on AGS versions before 2.72
* Added AGS_MAX_CONTROLS_PER_GUI constant.
* Editor view preview window will now play frame-linked sounds if they are in .WAV format.
* Obsoleted savegameindex[] array, and added ListBox.SaveGameSlots[] array instead. Additionally, raised the max save games from 20 to 50.
* Engine will look in Sound sub-folder for sound files if not running from the compiled exe, to allow you to run ACWIN.EXE from the game folder if you want to.
* The game can now be closed with the X button or Alt+X while a PlayVideo is playing.
* Fixed crash if you used Restore or Restart within a script module event handler.
* Fixed Mouse.SetPosition clipping the Y to 200, even in 320x240 games.
* Fixed PlayVideo and the box out transition not working with graphic filters.
* Fixed animated background export producing 100% transparent PNG files.
* Fixed FaceLocation not working properly if the character's current loop was not one of the normal walking loops.
* Fixed Global Messages pane not updating after Importing Dumped Text.
Changes from beta 4a to beta 5:
* Added cfg settings to disable graphic filter options in Setup. (see this KB article (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/kbview.php?id=63) for more info).
* Added String.AsFloat property.
* Added system.Version property to return a new-style string.
* Added #ifver/#ifnver commands to allow script modules to determine which version of AGS is being used.
* Added game.read_dialog_option_color to allow you to set a different colour for dialog options which the player has already selected.
* View preview window now cycles through whole of multi-loop animations.
* Fixed ShakeScreen not working with graphic filters.
* Fixed ShakeScreen leaving artefacts in the black borders when running in letterbox mode.
* Fixed translation source not including strings from script modules.
* Fixed backwards compatibility issue with old templates.
* Fixed GUIControl.GetAtScreenXY to pick up un-clickable controls.
* Labels are now not clickable by default but this can be overriden with the Label.Clickable property.
* _blank.crm is now included when you make a template.
* _blank.crm will be checked for in editor folder if not found in game folder.
* Fixed editor crashing if a very large template.txt file was used when starting a game from a template.
* Fixed "too many events posted" error if several commands like Walk were used in quick succession.
* Fixed EndCutscene not always refreshing the screen properly.
Changes from beta 4 to beta 4a:
* Fixed beta 4 corrupting dialog options.
* Fixed beta 4 making dialog options transparent.
* Fixed beta 4 breaking TintScreen and FlipScreen.
* Fixed sierra-style speech screwing up if you used RemoveOverlay or SetTextOverlay in repeatedly_execute_always while the speech was displayed.
Changes from beta 3 to beta 4:
* Added support for graphic filters, and added a standard 2x and 3x scaler, along with Hq2x and Hq3x filters.
* Added ability to name dialog topics, and ported RunDialog/etc to OO-style functions. Additionally, dialog scripts can now use the topic names with goto-dialog rather than using the number.
* Removed 500 character limitation in Room.Messages[] property.
* ViewFrame.Graphic property is now writable, which allows you to change view graphics at run-time.
* Obsoleted SetFrameSound and made the ViewFrame.Sound property writable instead.
Changes from beta 2 to beta 3:
* Added shortcut keys Ctrl+Shift+1 through 9 for easy access to module headers.
* Added ability to use movement speeds slower than 1 (-2 is now 1/2, -3 is 1/3, etc)
* Added Region.TintRed, TintGreen, TintBlue, TintEnabled and TintSaturation properties to allow you to get the current region setting.
* Added Ctrl+S option to script editor, to save changes so far.
* Obsoleted GetGameParameter and added new functions and properties to replace it (see GetGameParameter in the help to redirect you to the new functions).
* Changed the default restart point to be just before the first room is loaded, in order to avoid problems with the restart point not working properly in some games.
* Moved GUI Clickable setting from the checkbox into the Properties window, since it more intuitively belongs there.
* Editor now shows each character's talking view as well as normal view in the Characters pane.
* Increased permitted length of GUI label text from 200 to 2048 characters.
* Increased editor performance when importing tiled sprites.
* Fixed character blinking not working properly once they had finished talking.
* Fixed text parser not handling an optional choice of words properly.
* Fixed text parser not handling a choice of words with spaces properly in Said().
* Fixed "Refresh list" option not working in the Room List if no room was selected.
* Fixed a few minor usability issues.
Changes from beta 1a to beta 2:
* Editor now uses "Sound" sub-folder to store sound files, like the way it currently works with Music and Speech.
* Added shortcut keys Ctrl+1 through Ctrl+9 and Module Scripts sub-menu for easy access to module scripts.
* Added Text Alignment option to GUI buttons and list boxes.
* Added option to Assign Sprites To View dialog to allow you to add the sprites in reverse order.
* Added game.keep_screen_during_instant_transition option for 8-bit colour modes.
* player.ChangeRoom in game_start is now allowed, and will change the room that the game starts in.
* Fixed game erroring out if you used Character.ChangeView to change from a 4-directional to a 2-directional view.
* Fixed GUI Labels to not absorb mouse clicks.
* Fixed script editor function calltips incorrectly parsing commas in previous string parameters.
Changes from beta 1 to beta 1a:
* Added option to export animated background frames, and added a confirmation message to the Delete Frame button.
* Old split resource files now get deleted if you disable splitting or reduce the number of split files.
* Fixed characters with only left/right loops sometimes using the wrong loop when moving.
* Fixed calltips not picking up member functions if you put a space before the opening bracket.
* Fixed Tiled Sprite Import allowing you to import over the edge of the image when zoomed in.
* Fixed PlayAmbientSound error occurring when using PlayVideo (bug introduced in beta 1).
* Fixed winsetup.exe not being generated properly if you used a custom icon (bug introduced in beta 1).
Changes from 2.71:
* Added ability to use any size/resolution of icon, if you save your game with Windows 2000/XP.
* Added Game.SpeechFont and Game.NormalFont properties to replace SetSpeechFont/SetNormalFont but also provide a way for you to get the current setting.
* Added ListBox.ScrollDown, ScrollUp, RowCount, HideBorder and HideScrollArrows. Added "Hide scroll arrows" setting to listboxes in GUI editor.
* Added Button.Font property.
* Added Mouse.GetModeGraphic to allow you to get the sprite slot of the cursor.
* Increased sound channels from 6 to 8, and you can now have more than 1 simultaneous ambient sound.
* Autocomplete now warns if you use an array index to access properties on a non-array, and vice versa.
* Mouse.SetBounds now actually locks the cursor within the bounds, rather than it moving invisibly within the locked out area.
* "Enforce new-style strings" now disables old-style string functions.
* Debug console now also writes its output to the Windows Debugger (which you can read with an application like DebugView); useful if the debug console normally flies past too quickly to be useful.
* Fixed template creation to work with Music and Speech sub-folders.
* Fixed agsedit.log timestamp having the wrong month.
* Fixed a backwards compatibility issue with game.num_inv_items.
REMEMBER, ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR GAME BEFORE TRYING OUT A BETA
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/ags272final2.zip
...I can't believe it. Don't you ever rest? :D
I see lots of goodies on this one! Thanks muchly!
I have no idea whether you consider this somthing that needs "fixing"... it's a silly thing.
I noticed when I was typing a function (using it, not creating it), and the "auto-complete" box came up, if I then scrolled up and down the page, the box stayed there, hovering over all the other text.
As I said, this may be on purpose, I have no idea. Just surprised me :)
EDIT: I second the shock at how fast you do this stuff!
Not sure how easy it might be to implement/fix, but what with my recent cross-version module creation, I've noticed that if I do something like this in a script header:
#ifndef AGS_NEW_STRINGS
import void DoSomething(string text, string buffer);
#endif
#ifdef AGS_NEW_STRINGS
import String DoSomething(String Text);
#endif
Then both functions autocomplete. So long as the correct parameter list is used, then the game will compile fine, as there is only one version of the function actually compiled. But I just wanted to ask if there was any way that autocomplete could ignore functions that aren't compiled in the game (kind of like the way built-in functions don't autocomplete unless they are actually implemented).
Oh, and BTW, I love the fact that you implemented STRICT_STRINGS exactly the way I suggested :D.
Something small that experienced with every version > 2.7 yet:
The autocomplete will only pop up to show you the possible function parameters if you open your bracket right next to the function name. If there is a space in between it won't work.
Example:
testfunction( // ... );
This will open the autocomplete help....
testfunction ( // ... );
But this won't.
I know that many people write in this style ( "cEgo.Say("Test");" ), but I really hate that and love to make the code clearer by seperating characters with a space inbetween them ( "cEgo.Say ( "Test" );" )...
QuoteI noticed when I was typing a function (using it, not creating it), and the "auto-complete" box came up, if I then scrolled up and down the page, the box stayed there, hovering over all the other text.
Hehe yeah, the autocomplete box works ok, but the function calltip just hovers if you scroll the window. I quite like this "feature" actually, I think I'll leave it :)
QuoteThen both functions autocomplete. So long as the correct parameter list is used, then the game will compile fine, as there is only one version of the function actually compiled. But I just wanted to ask if there was any way that autocomplete could ignore functions that aren't compiled in the game (kind of like the way built-in functions don't autocomplete unless they are actually implemented).
Well, at the moment autocomplete is built-in to recognise STRICT and STRICT_STRINGS, but to make it work for all #defines it would have to have a mini-compiler built in to go through all the module headers etc and work out whether there was a #define for the token or not. So it's not really viable.
QuoteOh, and BTW, I love the fact that you implemented STRICT_STRINGS exactly the way I suggested
Ah yes, I think I forgot to add that to the changelog. Silly me :)
QuoteThe autocomplete will only pop up to show you the possible function parameters if you open your bracket right next to the function name. If there is a space in between it won't work.
That is a bit strange, it will pick up global functions, but not member functions. I'll take a look at it.
Oh, finally, there's a bug with PlayVideo in this beta where you can get strange PlayAmbientSound errors when you use PlayVideo -- it'll be fixed for beta 2.
Wooooow ! 8 sound channels and different ambient sounds at the same time ! This is exactly what i wanted ! Thanks Chris
No way, chris. You're a madman!
Quote* Added ability to use any size/resolution of icon, if you save your game with Windows 2000/XP.
Wohoo! For those who want to know how to make XP icons: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnwxp/html/winxpicons.asp
Small bug: if you import a sprite using the "tiled sprite import" option, you can import things that are out of bounds of the sprite. For instance, set the import tile to 10x10 pixels (using the right mouse button) and then import three tiles horizontally. If the sprite size was e.g. 28x10 pixels, you'll import two columns of out of bounds pixels. These should probably be transparent or disallowed. At present they're undefined.
Quote from: Pumaman on Sun 15/01/2006 17:27:48
QuoteI noticed when I was typing a function (using it, not creating it), and the "auto-complete" box came up, if I then scrolled up and down the page, the box stayed there, hovering over all the other text.
Hehe yeah, the autocomplete box works ok, but the function calltip just hovers if you scroll the window. I quite like this "feature" actually, I think I'll leave it :)
QuoteThen both functions autocomplete. So long as the correct parameter list is used, then the game will compile fine, as there is only one version of the function actually compiled. But I just wanted to ask if there was any way that autocomplete could ignore functions that aren't compiled in the game (kind of like the way built-in functions don't autocomplete unless they are actually implemented).
Well, at the moment autocomplete is built-in to recognise STRICT and STRICT_STRINGS, but to make it work for all #defines it would have to have a mini-compiler built in to go through all the module headers etc and work out whether there was a #define for the token or not. So it's not really viable.
That's understandable. I'll keep my eyes open for this feature, but won't get my hopes up too high.
2.71: Two thumbs up! 2.72: promises to be even better (as it should be, with such a devoted team and its Master Chris :) )
Just a small suggestion: the implementing of sub-folders for speech and music files was a great relief, could it be carried even further: a separate sub-folder for in-game sounds - in a good game they could count by dozens, cluttering the parent folder considerably. And with the new extended sound possibilities of the engine it is a thing to expect in games being created from scratch via new versions of AGS - ambience, object interaction responses etc. Maybe the imported TTF fonts deserve their own folder as well, in order to have everything sorted nicely/ It would be a minor change, but a helpful one.
Good job, Chris! An impressive start for the new year!
"Master Chris" is THE team. :)
Quote from: Pumaman on Sun 15/01/2006 17:27:48
QuoteI noticed when I was typing a function (using it, not creating it), and the "auto-complete" box came up, if I then scrolled up and down the page, the box stayed there, hovering over all the other text.
Hehe yeah, the autocomplete box works ok, but the function calltip just hovers if you scroll the window. I quite like this "feature" actually, I think I'll leave it :)
Heh, I feel stupid for pointing it out ^_^; Like I said, it only surprised me because I'd never noticed it before, but there's certainly nothing wrong with it and it could definitely be useful.
Quote from: Traveler on Mon 16/01/2006 02:00:46
"Master Chris" is THE team. :)
He should make that his signature or something. Only I'd say,
Master Chris is the TEAM!. Then I'd go around telling everyone how I was "so the TEAM".
But that's me.
[yoda]Always two there are, a master and an apprentice. But this was which?[/yoda]
Minor: On the tidbits and snippets page, there are details for how to open your .ags file by double-clicking on it. If you do that, then that game isn't bumped to the top of the 'Recent Games' dialog box if you open the editor in the conventional manner.
Also, the manual makes quite a few references to the DOS engine that should be removed.
If you try to copy and paste an invalid name into the "GUI name:" text box, the error message is a bit misleading. It says that it can't change the name because:
Quote---------------------------
AGS Editor Warning
---------------------------
Unable to change the name of the GUI, because another GUI, Character or View already has this name.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------
I didn't know I had another GUI/Character/View with the name of "-05us". :P
8 sound channels and more than 1 ambiant sound at a time!! Great stuff!!! Thanks very much, CJ!! :D
I see that you are very dedicated to the Listboxes so may I ask for an offset-feature between the items?
And I second Aquilo's request regarding the Sound subfolder. I really like to keep my game root directory clean, but with 100+ sounds that's pretty hard to do. And now that we have a Music and Speech subfolder, Sound would just be consistent ;)
Thanks again for the update and all your work for this engine!!
Stefan
Loading a game from a pre 2.71 version should alos reming the user that they may need to move their multimedia files in order for them to work...
I get a new error now after I start my demogame with this message:
Error: PlayAmbientSound: invalid channel number
And I am kicked out of the game.
But I never got this message in AGS 27.1 before only in new AGS 27.2 version.
It has something to do with this function.
PlayVideo ("intro.wmv", 1, 1);Ã, Ã,Â
}
Any suggestion what I should do pumaman?
I have no ambient sound function the same room this message pop up.
Do I have to use different command now in this new beta version to make the video file work ok now?
QuoteSmall bug: if you import a sprite using the "tiled sprite import" option, you can import things that are out of bounds of the sprite. For instance, set the import tile to 10x10 pixels (using the right mouse button) and then import three tiles horizontally. If the sprite size was e.g. 28x10 pixels, you'll import two columns of out of bounds pixels. These should probably be transparent or disallowed. At present they're undefined.
Ah, this only happens if the zoom level is > 1, I'll look into it.
QuoteJust a small suggestion: the implementing of sub-folders for speech and music files was a great relief, could it be carried even further: a separate sub-folder for in-game sounds
Yep, it's a reasonable request and has been suggested before, so I"ll certainly consider it.
QuoteMinor: On the tidbits and snippets page, there are details for how to open your .ags file by double-clicking on it. If you do that, then that game isn't bumped to the top of the 'Recent Games' dialog box if you open the editor in the conventional manner.
I just tried this and it worked fine for me. Remember that the Recent Games list is only updated when you close the editor, so if you open another copy of the editor in the meantime, it won't have updated.
QuoteAlso, the manual makes quite a few references to the DOS engine that should be removed
Well, the DOS engine may make a comeback one day, so I don't want to completely remove all reference to it. I will remove the Wavetable Synth Driver section though, because that's pretty irrelevant these days.
QuoteIf you try to copy and paste an invalid name into the "GUI name:" text box, the error message is a bit misleading. It says that it can't change the name because:
Ok, I'll add "or the name is invalid" to the end of the error :P
QuoteI see that you are very dedicated to the Listboxes so may I ask for an offset-feature between the items?
Would anyone else find that useful?
QuoteLoading a game from a pre 2.71 version should alos reming the user that they may need to move their multimedia files in order for them to work...
How do you mean? It already does warn about the new Speech/Music folders.
QuoteI get a new error now after I start my demogame with this message:
Error: PlayAmbientSound: invalid channel number
Please see my previous post:
Quote from: Pumaman on Sun 15/01/2006 17:27:48
Oh, finally, there's a bug with PlayVideo in this beta where you can get strange PlayAmbientSound errors when you use PlayVideo -- it'll be fixed for beta 2.
Ok, well I thought that as beta 1 had introduced a couple of rather annoying bugs, I'd may as well post a new version to fix them. Hence, beta 1a is now available!
You bloody workaholic.
The new version fixed my problem. Many thanks goes to you Chris!
God, I haven't even hung out my washing from October last year or picked up my cat from the vet (I wonder how old she is now...) and you're here producing a different beta release with each new rise and fall of the sun!
Ayuh - he be an inspiration to us all what doan finish our games.
QuoteOffset-feature for Listboxes.
Would anyone else find that useful?
Well, I know that Rui "something" Pires asked for it in this (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=22835.0) thread and strazer put it on the Tracker.
But I can understand that this is only a low-priority item.
It would be GREAT if we could define arrays using a more complex index, such as:
#define ALPHA 5
#define BETA 10
int Stuff[ALPHA * BETA];
Whereas now we would have to do something like:
#define ALPHA 5
#define BETA 10
#define ALPHA_BETA 50
int Stuff[ALPHA_BETA];
It's pretty much annoying if you want to allow the user to change the values of ALPHA and BETA (in the script, not at run-time) and have the array size update to the change, instead of the user having to set an additional value.
Agreed. It's on the tracker already (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/tracker.php?action=detail&id=500) though.
I should really stop asking for stuff without looking to see if it's not on there yet. Although it would still be awesome if it were implemented in this version ;).
This is from v2.71 but I didn't notice it in the changes for the new beta so...
Tiny thing, but I noticed that if I'm calling a function that includes a string, and I put a , in that string, calltips will skip the next parameter as I continue typing the function.
Small suggestion not worth a new thread:
Now that some parameters in functions can be optional, the three "data" parameters in "GetGameParameter" could be optional, defaulting to "0".
one question about the implemention of new features (see the side www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/tracker.php ):
(if this question is too thumb or in the wrong section (i did not know, where to post it else), please ignore/move it! thanks! ;) )
will CJ select randomly the "next-implemented" features, like entry 42 and 51 of the list sounds interesting, that one i will fix next...
or will it be discussed with strazer/somebody-else to work it out?
thanks for an answer!
QuoteTiny thing, but I noticed that if I'm calling a function that includes a string, and I put a , in that string, calltips will skip the next parameter as I continue typing the function.
Hehe interesting, I'll take a look at it.
QuoteNow that some parameters in functions can be optional, the three "data" parameters in "GetGameParameter" could be optional, defaulting to "0".
Yes good point, I keep meaning to do that but forgetting.
Quotewill CJ select randomly the "next-implemented" features, like entry 42 and 51 of the list sounds interesting, that one i will fix next...
or will it be discussed with strazer/somebody-else to work it out?
Yes, I will "randomly select" the next features depending on my mood at the time :P
Some more things with the sprite importer...
it's somewhat counterintuitive that, to select tile size, you have to right-click, hold and drag - yet to select a bunch of tiles, you have to left-click, release, don't drag, then left-click again.
it's tricky to get a tile starting at the top left pixel, because the gray area outside the actual bitmap is not responsive to mouse clicks, and on most resolutions or zooms moving the mouse cursor even one pixel to the right or bottom means you won't select the top left pixel
when task-swapping, sometimes the selected tile size changes of its own accord
if, while in the task to select a bunch of tiles, you click the right-mouse button, the editor gets confused about whether you're resizing or selecting
importing multiple tiles into a folder gets progressively slower if there already are tiles in the folder; it seems as if the entire folder is rendered between any two sprite imports, and that can take as much as seconds on low-end systems.
speaking of sprites, it would be nice to be able to re-order sprite folders. Also, the interpreter occasionally crashes with an internal error when deleting a sprite folder, even if it was empty. If this happens, game data is not saved, which is kind of annoying
The "current location" in the sprite manager (as well as the opened/closed status of individual sprite folders) sometimes resets when you switch between menus, and sometimes doesn't, for no apparent reason.
Also, when a dialogue picture shows up, the character will blink wrongly when the actual dialog is finished and his mouth stops moving. Specifically, the first frame of the blinking cycle is shown, but the rest are not.
When you right-click on the list of rooms, there's a menu with a "refresh" option. However, this option only works if you right-click on an existing room, i.e. if you click below the rooms but still on the list, the option appears but doesn't actually do anything.
If you edit the room description of the current room, the room menu still shows the old description until you re-load the room.
If you are setting baselines for objects, and you load a new room, you are still in "set baseline" mode, which is somewhat unexpected. This is not the case for walkbehind baselines.
Quote
player.ChangeRoom in game_start is now allowed, and will change the room that the game starts in.
Thanks I needed that for the minigame module.
QuoteAdded game.keep_screen_during_instant_transition option for 8-bit colour modes.
Joy!
Quote* Fixed GUI Labels to not absorb mouse clicks.
Wow, this fixes a particular problem I was having in my current GIP (even though I had just finally figured out a "work-around" by overlaying an almost fully-transparent blank GUI overtop of another GUI to get the the "mouse click" on a GUI effect that I actually wantedÃ, :P ).
Ã, Ã, Anyways, thanks for all of your time and effort to make AGS so awesome and for sharing it with us all!
Ã, Ã, "CJ, you're da
bong man!"
Quote from: Pumaman on Sat 14/01/2006 22:47:30
* Added shortcut keys Ctrl+1 through Ctrl+9 and Module Scripts sub-menu for easy access to module scripts.
Awesome! For me, the first compelling reason to use the new beta!
String
I noticed a couple of apparent problems regarding the new String data type.
1. String is not highlighted as a keyword (i.e. String) is this by design or an omission?
2. String.Format - Format does not appear in the auto-complete list. It seems like there are some other ones missing also but I am not sure.
3. String.Format - When executed from within a module the StringFormat statement seems to have no effect.
returns null.
int value=0;
String buf;
buf = "Hello World";
buf.Format("%d",value); // This statement doesen't seem to do anything
Display(buf); // Displays "Hello World" on screen
4. == Operator - Is there an explanation of how the == operator works with strings (equiv to CaseComp or Comp)? I did not find it in the help document.
Module Edit Short-cut
At one point pressing ctrl-1 to edit the first module brought up the editor'swindow frame and menu but did not display the text. Instead the previous graphics were visible in the background of the window. The menu was functional and could be used to exit the editor.
When this occured I had previously ran "game test" several times and the game aborted because of run time script errors, primarily displaying or accessing a null String.
Quote from: RickJ on Tue 31/01/2006 01:18:41
2. String.Format - Format does not appear in the auto-complete list. It seems like there are some other ones missing also but I am not sure.
3. String.Format - When executed from within a module the StringFormat statement seems to have no effect.
returns null.
int value=0;
String buf;
buf = "Hello World";
buf.Format("%d",value); // This statement doesen't seem to do anything
Display(buf); // Displays "Hello World" on screen
RTFM, n00b! :=
you need to do:
buf = String.Format("%d", value);
then new string functions have no side effects.
Hehe... I shouldn't even admit this as it's embarassing but I totally mis-read the manual about Format. I did use the qualifer "apparent" in anticipation of my noobieness... :=
Thanks though. Now I can stop worrying myself and go to sleep.
Btw SSH, good luck in court if you decide to go through with suing the gardner. Cheers.
Apparent Memory or Resource Leak
After doing a number test games I get the following runtime error when trying to run a "Game Test". Quitting and restarting the editor does no good. I have to reboot my machine to correct the problem.
Unable to execute the game engine. Make sure ACWIN.EXE is in the game folder and that you have write access to the compiled folder.
CreateProcess returned error 8
Note: In the test game I am calling and returning from a minigame and exiting from the first game using crtl+alt+end.
P.S. I know I double posted but since the previous post is totally unreleated it seemed like the best way to document this behavior.
Quoteit's somewhat counterintuitive that, to select tile size, you have to right-click, hold and drag - yet to select a bunch of tiles, you have to left-click, release, don't drag, then left-click again.
It's a reasonable point, but since AGS has always worked this way, people are used to it, so it would only cause confusion to change it now.
Quoteit's tricky to get a tile starting at the top left pixel, because the gray area outside the actual bitmap is not responsive to mouse clicks, and on most resolutions or zooms moving the mouse cursor even one pixel to the right or bottom means you won't select the top left pixel
I see what you mean, but it's a relatively big job to change this compared with the benefit of doing so. I'll think about it though.
Quotewhen task-swapping, sometimes the selected tile size changes of its own accord
I haven't managed to get this to happen myself, but I'll put the same fix in that I put in for the hotspot walk-to points getting moved when you alt+tabbed, which should hopefully resolve it.
Quoteif, while in the task to select a bunch of tiles, you click the right-mouse button, the editor gets confused about whether you're resizing or selecting
Thanks, I'll get that fixed.
Quoteimporting multiple tiles into a folder gets progressively slower if there already are tiles in the folder; it seems as if the entire folder is rendered between any two sprite imports, and that can take as much as seconds on low-end systems.
Good point, there's no need for it to do that, I'll look into it.
Quotespeaking of sprites, it would be nice to be able to re-order sprite folders.
Would anyone else find this ability useful?
QuoteAlso, the interpreter occasionally crashes with an internal error when deleting a sprite folder, even if it was empty. If this happens, game data is not saved, which is kind of annoying
Is this still happening? I was sure it had been fixed in 2.71...
QuoteThe "current location" in the sprite manager (as well as the opened/closed status of individual sprite folders) sometimes resets when you switch between menus, and sometimes doesn't, for no apparent reason.
If you go to the Change Sprite option of the View Editor, Cursor Editor, etc, they use the sprite manager for you to select the sprite, and so the sprite manager will get "reset" to the location of the last thing you selected.
QuoteAlso, when a dialogue picture shows up, the character will blink wrongly when the actual dialog is finished and his mouth stops moving. Specifically, the first frame of the blinking cycle is shown, but the rest are not.
Well spotted, I'll get it fixed.
QuoteWhen you right-click on the list of rooms, there's a menu with a "refresh" option. However, this option only works if you right-click on an existing room, i.e. if you click below the rooms but still on the list, the option appears but doesn't actually do anything.
Well spotted, I'll get that fixed too.
QuoteIf you edit the room description of the current room, the room menu still shows the old description until you re-load the room.
Thanks, I'll fix it.
QuoteIf you are setting baselines for objects, and you load a new room, you are still in "set baseline" mode, which is somewhat unexpected. This is not the case for walkbehind baselines.
That's a reasonable point, I'll change it.
Thanks for all your feedback, Radiant. :)
Quote1. String is not highlighted as a keyword (i.e. String) is this by design or an omission?
Yeah, I'm not sure about this one. In a way, it's not a keyword, since the String class is a class just like Character or Game is, it's no longer a special built-in thing. But on the other hand, maybe it should be highlighted as a keyword considering its importance.
Quote4. == Operator - Is there an explanation of how the == operator works with strings (equiv to CaseComp or Comp)? I did not find it in the help document.
It's case-sensitive (so equivalent to StrComp). I'll mention it in the StrComp section of the manual.
QuoteAt one point pressing ctrl-1 to edit the first module brought up the editor'swindow frame and menu but did not display the text. Instead the previous graphics were visible in the background of the window. The menu was functional and could be used to exit the editor.
When this occured I had previously ran "game test" several times
QuoteApparent Memory or Resource Leak
After doing a number test games I get the following runtime error when trying to run a "Game Test". Quitting and restarting the editor does no good. I have to reboot my machine to correct the problem.
Has anyone else seen this sort of behaviour? I'm wondering if it might be a problem specific to RunAGSGame.
Which version of Windows are you running?
Quote from: Pumaman on Sat 04/02/2006 16:41:34
Quotespeaking of sprites, it would be nice to be able to re-order sprite folders.
Would anyone else find this ability useful?
Yes, I'd use it. I like to keep (digital ;) ) things neatly organized so I use sprite folders a lot. I think especially in larger game projects there's no way around it. Being able to move those folders about would simplify things. But it's obviously not a priority.
I also would find it a good move to add. Us animators who like everything meticulously correct are adamant about neatness and being able to organize everything best, would keep us just that little bit more saner.
Quote from: Pumaman on Sat 04/02/2006 16:41:34
Quoteit's tricky to get a tile starting at the top left pixel, because the gray area outside the actual bitmap is not responsive to mouse clicks, and on most resolutions or zooms moving the mouse cursor even one pixel to the right or bottom means you won't select the top left pixel
I see what you mean, but it's a relatively big job to change this compared with the benefit of doing so. I'll think about it though.
I always thought it would be handy to be able to enetr the numbers for the size and origin of the sprite grabbing manually....
(http://www.lucasstyle.com/images/ags/CJSmack.gif)
Do'h!
Quote
Has anyone else seen this sort of behaviour? I'm wondering if it might be a problem specific to RunAGSGame.
Which version of Windows are you running?
I am running WinME (arghhh!).
Quote from: Pumaman on Sat 04/02/2006 16:41:34
Quoteit's tricky to get a tile starting at the top left pixel, because the gray area outside the actual bitmap is not responsive to mouse clicks, and on most resolutions or zooms moving the mouse cursor even one pixel to the right or bottom means you won't select the top left pixel
I see what you mean, but it's a relatively big job to change this compared with the benefit of doing so. I'll think about it though.
It would help if you changed the "rounding"... if you zoom the sprite, each pixel of the sprite is mapped to 3x3 pixels on screen, yes? If you click on 1,1 on-screen it should map to (1 / 3), (1 / 3) = 0,0 in the sprite. But it doesn't.
By the way feature request - in the "characters" panel, could you show the sprite from the talk view, as well as from the character's walk view? Would be nice.
Also feature request - the ability to name dialogs (not for any in-game use, but to make the menu with 50+ dialogs more accessible)
QuoteQuotespeaking of sprites, it would be nice to be able to re-order sprite folders.
Would anyone else find this ability useful?
Yes, I have a large game which equals many folders that I'd like to keep organised. But yeah, it's not a pressing issue, it would simply be nice.
When a speech portrait is displayed, after all text is "read", the character's mouth will stop moving. At this point, the character will also stop blinking! Please fix that. In some cases, the first frame of the blinking loop is displayed, but not the entire loop.
If you change a character's BlinkInterval, the first time the character blinks will still use the old interval.
If a character has only two loops (for moving left and right), if the character moves diagonally to the upper right, the loop for moving left is displayed. If the character moves diagonally to the lower left, the loop for moving right is displayed.
In spite of what the documentation says, LockView does not prevent a character's loop number (within that view) from being changed. For instance, if a character is given "LockView" and "AnimateCharacter" commands (e.g. to set loop 4 which is a falling animation), then moves, the character's animation will change to loop 0-3 depending on the direction. Of course a walkaround exists by creating a new view with the falling animation in loop 0, 1, 2 and 3, but it's a bit weird.
Any chance of Ctrl-Shift-1, Ctrl-Shift-2, etc. opening the module HEADERS?
Quote from: SSH on Wed 08/02/2006 17:08:29
Any chance of Ctrl-Shift-1, Ctrl-Shift-2, etc. opening the module HEADERS?
I'll second that.
Help file still has 2.71 as its title, btw ;)
QuoteYes, I'd use it. I like to keep (digital ) things neatly organized so I use sprite folders a lot. I think especially in larger game projects there's no way around it. Being able to move those folders about would simplify things. But it's obviously not a priority.
QuoteI also would find it a good move to add. Us animators who like everything meticulously correct are adamant about neatness and being able to organize everything best, would keep us just that little bit more saner.
Ok, it's certainly worth considering then.
QuoteIt would help if you changed the "rounding"... if you zoom the sprite, each pixel of the sprite is mapped to 3x3 pixels on screen, yes? If you click on 1,1 on-screen it should map to (1 / 3), (1 / 3) = 0,0 in the sprite. But it doesn't.
I just tried this, but it does seem to do as you suggest, where at a zoom level, the top-left block of pixels all map to 0,0...
QuoteBy the way feature request - in the "characters" panel, could you show the sprite from the talk view, as well as from the character's walk view? Would be nice.
That wouldn't be hard to do, I'll look into it.
QuoteAlso feature request - the ability to name dialogs (not for any in-game use, but to make the menu with 50+ dialogs more accessible)
Yes, this has come up before, along with fonts they are the last purely number-based bits of AGS, so it's something I should address at some point.
QuoteWhen a speech portrait is displayed, after all text is "read", the character's mouth will stop moving. At this point, the character will also stop blinking! Please fix that. In some cases, the first frame of the blinking loop is displayed, but not the entire loop.
It seems ok to me ... the first-frame thing is related to the other bug you pointed out earlier in the thread.
QuoteIf you change a character's BlinkInterval, the first time the character blinks will still use the old interval.
This is because the current "blink countdown" continues and only gets reset when he next blinks. If the opposite behaviour was used, where changing the blink interval also reset the blink, some people would probably complain about that, too.
QuoteIf a character has only two loops (for moving left and right), if the character moves diagonally to the upper right, the loop for moving left is displayed. If the character moves diagonally to the lower left, the loop for moving right is displayed.
Does this definitely still happen with 2.72 beta 2? It's something I thought I addressed in the beta.
QuoteIn spite of what the documentation says, LockView does not prevent a character's loop number (within that view) from being changed. For instance, if a character is given "LockView" and "AnimateCharacter" commands (e.g. to set loop 4 which is a falling animation), then moves, the character's animation will change to loop 0-3 depending on the direction
This is a very long-standing issue, basically it's been like this for so long that if I fixed it now, it would probably break a lot of people's games. Therefore, there's not much that can be done about it at this point ... I'll leave the documentation though, because that *should* be how people use the LockView function.
QuoteAny chance of Ctrl-Shift-1, Ctrl-Shift-2, etc. opening the module HEADERS?
I thought about this, but decided that module headers were edited so rarely that it wasn't worth a shortcut key ... however since you both seem keen on it I'll see what I can do.
QuoteHelp file still has 2.71 as its title, btw
Hehe yes ta, I noticed this earlier in the week too ;)
Quote from: Pumaman on Fri 10/02/2006 20:44:18
QuoteAny chance of Ctrl-Shift-1, Ctrl-Shift-2, etc. opening the module HEADERS?
I thought about this, but decided that module headers were edited so rarely that it wasn't worth a shortcut key ... however since you both seem keen on it I'll see what I can do.
You must plan ahead a lot more than I do! :=
(I would love to be able to have both open at once and toggle between them with a shortcut key.)
Definitely. Once the modules have been produced the headers might not get edited much...but during production. :o I love the fact there's a shortcut to open the scripts...That's awesome. But if I want to change the parameter lists for the global functions...as I've been doing quite a bit lately for this next version of the QueuedSpeech module...
I'm sure it couldn't be that hard to manage what with already having implemented shortcuts to edit the scripts. And I can't tell you how much I would love being able to have quick access to those!
Oi! bug: I'm used to pressing Ctrl+S to save on other script editors (like Scite? ;)), but when I do that on the AGS script editor, it works kind of like an undo for me. I found this on 2.71, but it must be on 2.72 as well... right?
It's always worked that way. The AGS Editor uses Ctrl+W for saving. You can use other script editors (I'm not sure which ones work with it) if you want though.
Quote from: monkey_05_06 on Sat 11/02/2006 20:03:28
It's always worked that way. The AGS Editor uses Ctrl+W for saving. You can use other script editors (I'm not sure which ones work with it) if you want though.
Ah, you don't understand... the bug is that Ctrl+S does something that is not supposed to. Pressing Ctrl+S should do nothing at all.
1) It's not necessary to quote the post directly above you.
2) Are you sure it's not by design? It's been mentioned many times before. I would think if it were a bug it would have been fixed long ago.
Ok, beta 3 is now up. This should address a few issues -- and your mention of Ctrl+S reminded me that I never did add it in as a Save option, which I have now done for beta 3.
Quote* Increased permitted length of GUI label text from 200 to 2048 characters.
Haha! Thank you thank you thank YOU! Now I can happily conclude my project, and even be on time for Release Something!
Quote from: Pumaman on Sat 14/01/2006 22:47:30* Added Region.TintRed, TintGreen, TintBlue, TintEnabled and TintSaturation properties to allow you to get the current region setting.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Edit: Wow, I didn't even see Rui's post before writing this. People here sure are grateful.
Edit 2: Is the new ViewFrame pointer a step on the way to a writable ViewFrame.Graphic value?
Edit 3: And only now when compiling do I realize that there's GetGameParameter's all over my script. Damn you, damn you all to hell!!! Oh well, I can afford the 15 minutes it will take me to fix ;)
Well...I feel stupid now don't I? Yes. Yes I do.
So...by "EVIL CARTOONS" you mean the new ViewFrame type? Seeing as that's not documented (by which I mean announced, the documentation is fine) anywhere, I feel safe to assume that this is exactly what you meant. You know, just to make sure I went back to 2.71 and the older 2.72 beta help files (I keep all the old files on hand in case I need them), but to my joy, it wasn't there!
I found it when I was looking through the GetGameParameter replacements, and I see this
crazy function declaration:
Quote from: The 2.72 BETA 3 Manualstatic ViewFrame* Game.GetViewFrame(int view, int loop, int frame)
Quote from: MeFTW??? ViewFrame? Wha's that!
Quote from: The 2.72 BETA 3 ManualViewFrame functions and properties
Flipped property
Frame property (view frame)
Graphic property (view frame)
Loop property (view frame)
Sound property (view frame)
Speed property (view frame)
View property (view frame)
Quote from: MezOmG!!! This wasn't announced on the changes page! [inconspicously verifies this last statement] CHRIS!!! YOU FOOL OF A TOOK!!!
Quote from: The AGS 2.72 BETA 3 ManualChris is not a fool of a Took.
Quote from: Meo.0. WTFH? The manual is ALIVE?
[end hallucinations]
Sorry to be picky, but I notice that there's still some limit concerning messages - when I do "lblWhatever.Text=Room.Messages[1]", the output is still limited to -+ 200 characters.
Nothing I can't work around. ;D Just be nice if, you know, it weren't there. The limit, I mean.
QuoteEdit 2: Is the new ViewFrame pointer a step on the way to a writable ViewFrame.Graphic value?
That's a possibility. At the very least, SetFrameSound will probably be obsoleted and the ViewFrame.Sound property made writable instead.
QuoteSo...by "EVIL CARTOONS" you mean the new ViewFrame type? Seeing as that's not documented (by which I mean announced, the documentation is fine) anywhere, I feel safe to assume that this is exactly what you meant. You know, just to make sure I went back to 2.71 and the older 2.72 beta help files (I keep all the old files on hand in case I need them), but to my joy, it wasn't there!
It wasn't "announced" explicitly because it's part of the replacement of GetGameParameter, therefore it's covered by that. :P
QuoteSorry to be picky, but I notice that there's still some limit concerning messages - when I do "lblWhatever.Text=Room.Messages[1]", the output is still limited to -+ 200 characters.
I just tried that with a room message 350 characters long and it seemed fine -- can you provide more info?
My bad, I hadn't bothered to count the characters. It's actually to just under 500 char that the text gets reduced. From a total that... well, I don't know the total, but I can append lines of text and get teh whole thing without it getting too long.
Do you still know, when there would be implemented an improved conversation system to AGS?
I would need SO much an option to mark read/unread topics...
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/tracker.php?action=detail&id=478
Please, could you implement it to AGS 2.72...?Ã, :'(
Like Samara, you never sleep Chris. Amazing stuff! Kudos!
So what are the chances of this (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/tracker.php?action=detail&id=218) being implemented into this version?
QuoteChanged the default restart point to be just before the first room is loaded, in order to avoid problems with the restart point not working properly in some games.
Yes! Thankyou! Now THIS is very useful for me! Restart was never any use to me before because of the way it worked.
Very nice Easter egg, er, Valentine's egg
Oh my...I think I'll set the clock to the 14th every time I edit my game from now on :D.
QuoteMy bad, I hadn't bothered to count the characters. It's actually to just under 500 char that the text gets reduced. From a total that... well, I don't know the total, but I can append lines of text and get teh whole thing without it getting too long.
Ah, this is probably to do with the Room.Messages property limiting its returns to 500 characters, I'll get it fixed.
QuoteDo you still know, when there would be implemented an improved conversation system to AGS?
I would need SO much an option to mark read/unread topics...
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/tracker.php?action=detail&id=478
I appreciate the fact that I've been talking about doing this for a while, so I'll see what I can do ... but I can't promise anything, I'm afraid.
QuoteSo what are the chances of this being implemented into this version?
Again, this is non-trivial because it means extra information needs to be stored when the character leaves the room, but it's certainly possible.
I had some error problem when I use Sierra with background speech style. But it has never happen to me before. Has anyone experience it too?
But as you can see in this picture you see a three guy dressed in red shirt. The guys in the top left corner shows you the speech view.Ã, The left guy has no loops I mean you can't see his lips animation but the guy in the right has speech loops. But that is not suppose to happen. I think it has something to do with the new update you made.Ã, I mean I don't want a double speechs view appear. This has never happened to me before with the other ags update.Ã,Â
So how can this be fixed?Ã,Â
(http://images.hugi.is/blog/72810.jpg)
Can you upload a game that demonstrates the problem? I can't replicate this myself.
Ok, beta 4 is now up.
I've uploaded this one earlier than I normally would, because the addition of graphic filters has led to fairly significant changes to the AGS rendering code -- which means I'd appreciate some testing. Could you guys make sure that:
(a) if no filter is enabled, it all works as before, and:
(b) that the filters themselves don't cause any problems
Filters can be enabled by running Setup, by the way.
Hmm...it seems that StopDialog is still global instead of say...a static Dialog.Stop function?
QuoteViewFrame.Graphic property is now writable, which allows you to change view graphics at run-time.
Woohoo, awesome. Good thing I didn't get to the object graphics part of my script module yet - characters are SO much better for my purpose. Thanks, CJ!
Thanks for the new version CJ!
1. It seems that the new version screwed all my dialog options. I had a simple test game from beta 3 and loaded it with beta 4. Now all the dialog options say: "Default Option Text" and the ticks for 'show' and 'say' are all removed. Not very nice ::)
2. My game has a resolution of 320x240.
I can't get the Hq3x or Nearest Neighbor 3x filters to run.
If I set the filter settings to any one of those two the suggested resolution is 960x720.
If I try to start the game now I get the message that my graphics card can't initialize the resolution 320x200 and the game quits. (GeForce 4 Ti 4200, monitor: TFT with maximum resolution of 1280x1024)
I think 320x200 was never a problem before.
3. Playing without any filters seems fine to me.
Using Hq2x also works nicely without performance drops, but personally I don't like the "smooth" look of it. I think it is meant to be used with higher resolution games, right?
Using any of the filters seems to have a problem when I use a timer, everything stops until the timer expires, the screen gets updated with the display but then I can't do anything again (such as cancelling the display)
Might just be the timer updating the screen and the problem with a TintScreen
QuoteCan you upload a game that demonstrates the problem? I can't replicate this myself.
I use lucasart speech style instead now because there is no problem with that setting, but when I change it to Sierra with background style this problem always happen to me. Instead for seeing just one talking view I see two. The other has animation loops working but the other has no loops. I don't know how I shall let the talk view with no loop animationÃ, disappear. I think this is because of the new setting in character editor fault.
I am afraid I can't upload my demo now but maybe if you try it with someone else demo you could maybe see that problem.
Be careful everyone!
I don't know if it's just me, but after a few test I think that the new version really corrupts all dialog options!
Backup your files!
Have you also run in same problem as I have? If you are using lucasart speech style try change it into the sierra with background style and see what happens then.
Cool thing about the graphic filters, never would have imagined that it would actually happen (I remember someone suggesting it).
What about the graphical speed of AGS, in general? can that be improved? We've all known for a while that it's painfully slow for a 2d graphics engine. I'd rather this gets improved before having more graphical features.
QuoteHmm...it seems that StopDialog is still global instead of say...a static Dialog.Stop function?
That's a possibility, yes.
QuoteIt seems that the new version screwed all my dialog options. I had a simple test game from beta 3 and loaded it with beta 4. Now all the dialog options say: "Default Option Text" and the ticks for 'show' and 'say' are all removed. Not very nice
Strange, has anyone else experienced this? I just tried loading a couple of old games in and didn't get a problem.
Quote2. My game has a resolution of 320x240.
I can't get the Hq3x or Nearest Neighbor 3x filters to run.
If I set the filter settings to any one of those two the suggested resolution is 960x720.
If I try to start the game now I get the message that my graphics card can't initialize the resolution 320x200 and the game quits. (GeForce 4 Ti 4200, monitor: TFT with maximum resolution of 1280x1024)
You probably won't be able to run full-screen with those filters, because it's a strange resolution.
The filters are really meant for when playing in a window, so that you don't have a tiny 320x200 window for the game on a big 1280x1024 desktop. There's very little point in using them if you're playing full-screen.
QuoteUsing Hq2x also works nicely without performance drops, but personally I don't like the "smooth" look of it. I think it is meant to be used with higher resolution games, right?
Depends on the art style, I think -- it works quite well with cartoony-style graphics, but not so well with photo-realistic type graphics.
QuoteUsing any of the filters seems to have a problem when I use a timer, everything stops until the timer expires, the screen gets updated with the display but then I can't do anything again (such as cancelling the display)
Might just be the timer updating the screen and the problem with a TintScreen
Ah yes, thanks for spotting this. Filters don't work when TintScreen or FlipScreen is in effect, I'll have to look into this. Actually I didn't realise anyone was usnig TintScreen, I thought it was far too slow to be useful ;)
QuoteI use lucasart speech style instead now because there is no problem with that setting, but when I change it to Sierra with background style this problem always happen to me.
So are you saying it has always happened, or is it a new problem with the 2.72 betas?
Have you set a blink view for the character? If so it gets drawn on top of the talking view at various intervals, which can cause strange effects if the images don't line up.
QuoteWhat about the graphical speed of AGS, in general? can that be improved? We've all known for a while that it's painfully slow for a 2d graphics engine. I'd rather this gets improved before having more graphical features.
Is performance still an issue for you? As far as I was aware, it was reasonable now -- at least, I haven't heard people complaining about the perforamnce for a while.
QuoteSo are you saying it has always happened, or is it a new problem with the 2.72 betas?
This is a new problem with 2.72 beta. It happened after I installed the 3thrd version of it.
Hi CJ,
well, you may try this game I just created using beta 2.
If I load this game with beta 4 and do nothing else, just load it and have a look at the dialog options right away, all the options are messed up.
Here's the download: LINK (http://stefan.lohner-net.de/AGS/TestDialog.rar)
Cj check also on your pm but I have uploaded my demo on that link.
Quote from: Pumaman on Sun 19/02/2006 22:12:25
QuoteIt seems that the new version screwed all my dialog options. I had a simple test game from beta 3 and loaded it with beta 4. Now all the dialog options say: "Default Option Text" and the ticks for 'show' and 'say' are all removed. Not very nice
Strange, has anyone else experienced this? I just tried loading a couple of old games in and didn't get a problem.
Yep, they all start using topic 1 and Default Option Text is shown
edit: in which beta did the dialog options become transparent? couldn't see it in the change log and couldn't see a way to pick a background colour
http://www.custardsclutter.com/gfh.PNG also shows the broken dialog kinda
It's reasonable, yes. But sludge is kicking our butt!
Seriously, though, I don't know if anyone else had problems with mind's eye, but it really shows the graphical limitations of the engine on my computer when you went into the whole dream mode, and I have one of those expensive video cards that can do directx9 effects and run doom3 or whatever.
I just think that the speed is an issue that if it can get it optimized and out of the way, then it should be done. It's cool that it has a lot of features for the creator, but it needs to offer more to the player as well.
Wow!
Awesome new features.
I also have the dialog problem (all dialog questions have been overwritten with those from dialog 1).
Also, are there some edge detection options for the hq*x filters? It looks great for most of my artwork but some edges don't get filtered:
(http://www.steporg.com/step/ags/images/uxmalhq3x.png)
You can see the grey lines on the stone aren't smoothed; nor are the darker outlines of Dixie's skin.
Hey, nice to see you are making updates to dialog system!Ã, :)
Perhaps we can have some hope now, that the option of "mark read/unread topics" will be implemented, too? ::)
It would be so useful, because my game can't be made without it...
JLM, there's always ways to do things in AGS with a bit of scripting. Myself and others have made icon-based dialogs, scrolling dialogs, etc. So, don't wait on a particualr feature or you rgame might wait forever: go out and do it yourself!
Quote from: SSH on Mon 20/02/2006 10:50:47
JLM, there's always ways to do things in AGS with a bit of scripting. Myself and others have made icon-based dialogs, scrolling dialogs, etc. So, don't wait on a particualr feature or you rgame might wait forever: go out and do it yourself!
So there is really some way to do it with scripting?
Because if it's really possible, of course I have to try. I just thought, as my game is a quite big project already now, that it would be nice if the dialogs could be implemented with some easier way than with heavy scripting...
Quote from: TheMagician on Sun 19/02/2006 21:14:44
2. My game has a resolution of 320x240.
I can't get the Hq3x or Nearest Neighbor 3x filters to run.
If I set the filter settings to any one of those two the suggested resolution is 960x720.
If I try to start the game now I get the message that my graphics card can't initialize the resolution 320x200 and the game quits. (GeForce 4 Ti 4200, monitor: TFT with maximum resolution of 1280x1024)
I think 320x200 was never a problem before.
If you have a GeForce card, you can manually add 960x600 and 960x720 to your list of resolutions. Go to 'Display Properties'/Settings/Advanced/GeForce/'Screen Resolutions and Refresh Rates.' There should be a box for "Custom resolutions and refresh rates." Click the "Add" button. (This path may vary depending on your card.)
The driver will give a dire warning about how custom settings can be dangerous and cause your computer to melt down, but I'm pretty sure that only applies to higher resolutions than your card is capable of out of the box. At least, I've had no problems with these resolutions. But don't blame me if you fry your video card or motherboard.
Quote from: SteveMcCrea on Mon 20/02/2006 00:06:54
Also, are there some edge detection options for the hq*x filters? It looks great for most of my artwork but some edges don't get filtered:
You can see the grey lines on the stone aren't smoothed; nor are the darker outlines of Dixie's skin.
I think the hq filters measure the contrast between two adjacent colors. If the difference is greater than some threshold, it's a border and gets a sharp, smooth edge. If it's less than the threshold it's considered part of the same surface and is just blurred mildly.
I don't know if it would be possible to vary the threshold. I suspect that it's more complicated than you'd think, since my explanation is probably a gross over-simplification of how the algorithm actually works.
Quote from: Snarky on Mon 20/02/2006 15:45:14
I don't know if it would be possible to vary the threshold. I suspect that it's more complicated than you'd think, since my explanation is probably a gross over-simplification of how the algorithm actually works.
No, it is that simple. RGB is converted to YUV 888, and if (Ydiff > 0x30 || Udiff > 0x07 || Vdiff > 0x06) they are counted as different. So it's just a matter of exposing these threshold values to the game author.
I understand that exposing them adds documentation and support work, and leaves it open to people fiddling with the numbers and then releasing their game without testing it - on the other hand not doing so will mean that people whine about, well, what I'm whining about right now :=
It would also be good to be able to disable the hq filter option entirely, for games with painted or photographic artwork where it breaks down.
The x2 and x3 options are awesome too. Playing in a window while testing is now much more comfortable. Thanks CJ.
QuoteThis is a new problem with 2.72 beta. It happened after I installed the 3thrd version of it.
Thanks for uploading -- found the problem, it happens if you use RemoveOverlay or SetTextOverlay in a rep_exec_always script while sierra-style speech is displayed -- in your case the OverHotspot module was doing so.
I'll get it fixed.
QuoteIf I load this game with beta 4 and do nothing else, just load it and have a look at the dialog options right away, all the options are messed up.
Thanks for uploading, I've found the problem, and will upload a fix ASAP because it is quite serious.
DON'T SAVE YOUR GAMES WITH BETA 4!!!Quoteedit: in which beta did the dialog options become transparent? couldn't see it in the change log and couldn't see a way to pick a background colour
Thanks for the bug report -- this sort of glitch is the sort of thing I was expecting due to the filters, so I'll look into it.
QuoteSeriously, though, I don't know if anyone else had problems with mind's eye, but it really shows the graphical limitations of the engine on my computer when you went into the whole dream mode, and I have one of those expensive video cards that can do directx9 effects and run doom3 or whatever.
That may just be the fact that modern video cards are optimised for 3D, however. I am investigating whether AGS could be sped up by running under Direct3D, however this is still a long way off.
QuoteAlso, are there some edge detection options for the hq*x filters? It looks great for most of my artwork but some edges don't get filtered:
As far as I know, the only options are off and on ... I think if the edge is 1 pixel wide it should filter it, but any wider and it won't pick it up. The Hq2x homepage is here: http://www.hiend3d.com/hq2x.html if that helps.
Ok, beta 4a is now up, which should fix the dialog options corruption problem, as well as a few other things that were reported here.
Quote from: Pumaman on Mon 20/02/2006 19:14:21
As far as I know, the only options are off and on ... I think if the edge is 1 pixel wide it should filter it, but any wider and it won't pick it up. The Hq2x homepage is here: http://www.hiend3d.com/hq2x.html if that helps.
Yes, I looked at the source code there - that's where I got their edge determination code. Hmm, however looking at the "recommended" code (which includes some MMX assembly) I can see it's a bit more difficult than I first thought - the "treshold" const at the top of hq*x.cpp would need to be changed to
(Ythreshold << 16)|(Uthreshold << 8)|(Vthreshold)
QuoteThanks for uploading -- found the problem, it happens if you use RemoveOverlay or SetTextOverlay in a rep_exec_always script while sierra-style speech is displayed -- in your case the OverHotspot module was doing so.
I'll get it fixed.
Thanks CJ. BTW I did not made that module so maybe it is too old for the new beta version. I can't even use "enable new script" because some of these modules I use for my game don't work with it. But I am not very good in scripting a module so I have be waiting for the new updated modules to fix that problem. I don't want to fiddle on that thing because I don't want to mess it up.
And your new update fixed my problem. Many thanks goes to you CJ.
Manual Correction:
The game.previous_game_data property is not listed in the "Variables" section of the manual.
Quote from: SteveMcCrea on Mon 20/02/2006 17:05:22
No, it is that simple. RGB is converted to YUV 888, and if (Ydiff > 0x30 || Udiff > 0x07 || Vdiff > 0x06) they are counted as different. So it's just a matter of exposing these threshold values to the game author.
OK. I freely admit that the source code for the algorithm is over my head. In the description, there is one paragraph that made me think something more complex is going on:
QuoteCreating a lookup table was the most difficult part - for each combination the most probable vector representation of the area has to be determined, with the idea of edges between the different colored areas of the image to be preserved, with the edge direction to be as close to a correct one as possible.
This seems to say that a lookup table is involved in determining if there are edges, but I guess it could just mean that the table tells you how to draw the edge once you've decided there is one.
QuoteIt would also be good to be able to disable the hq filter option entirely, for games with painted or photographic artwork where it breaks down.
Isn't that up to the player? You can already fiddle with all sorts of settings (force alternate resolution, run in 640x400, smooth scaled sprites) that can make some games look wonky.
QuoteThe x2 and x3 options are awesome too. Playing in a window while testing is now much more comfortable. Thanks CJ.
It is teh excellent. Since my LCD screen performs linear upscaling on lower-than-native resolutions, 320x2_0 always comes out blurry. I run all games in 640x4_0 (which is somewhat sharper), but it mucks up sprites when they are scaled down, and I have framerate problems on some games. These filters should solve all my problems.
Quote from: Snarky on Tue 21/02/2006 14:43:17
I guess it could just mean that the table tells you how to draw the edge once you've decided there is one.
Yes, that's the idea.
[EDIT]
Here's my avatar with hq2x. The first image is with "treshold" 0x300706, the second with 0x200706.
(http://www.steporg.com/step/ags/images/avatarhq300706.png)(http://www.steporg.com/step/ags/images/avatarhq200706.png)
The skin tones look much better IMO. The hair is debatable I suppose, but then it's more painted than outlined.
Quote
QuoteIt would also be good to be able to disable the hq filter option entirely, for games with painted or photographic artwork where it breaks down.
Isn't that up to the player? You can already fiddle with all sorts of settings (force alternate resolution, run in 640x400, smooth scaled sprites) that can make some games look wonky.
Of course, as a player I'd rather have the option to turn it on. On the other hand, as a game designer I'd rather the player not see this when playing:
http://www.locustleaves.com/output.png [thanks Helm]
I think 90% of the designers around here are rather receptive to players' wishes, but I suppose there's the 10% who are obstinate and will want people to play it "as intended" no matter if it isn't possible on a particular machine.
If only the generic AGS setup dialog could be customized, you could just remove options that you don't want to be available. I tried doing this using ResHacker - and it worked great until I tried starting the game and found out that AGS considered the .exe file corrupted :(
I for one would like to be able to remove the 320x240 option, since any text in my game will be displayed at double the size. Sure, I can detect the resolution in script, put in a "This isn't the resolution the game was made for" message, and prevent the game from starting. But the user would probably think "then why did you even give me the option, jackass?"
Edit: Actually it would be way easier just to write an external setup program, since all it does is write to the cfg file. However, the player could still run "gamename.exe --setup". So perhaps it would be nice with an option to include or not include the setup menu in the compiled exe? (um, of course then, the player could edit the cfg in notepad... but maybe a great big "don't fuck with the settings" message on startup would be at place then ;D).
QuoteManual Correction:
The game.previous_game_data property is not listed in the "Variables" section of the manual.
This is an interesting one, because there are several game.* properties that are not documented in the main manual page ... ideally I want to phase them out since they're rather ugly, but we'll see.
QuoteHere's my avatar with hq2x. The first image is with "treshold" 0x300706, the second with 0x200706.
Does anyone else think that exposing these values for the HqX filter would be useful? What about if they were settings in the .cfg file that you could add manually, rather than having to actually code them into your game?
QuoteOf course, as a player I'd rather have the option to turn it on. On the other hand, as a game designer I'd rather the player not see this when playing:
http://www.locustleaves.com/output.png [thanks Helm]
If the filter has completely garbled the screen like that, then it's a bug and it needs to be reported and fixed. I don't think that a bug in the filter code is a reason to disable it.
However,
QuoteI think 90% of the designers around here are rather receptive to players' wishes, but I suppose there's the 10% who are obstinate and will want people to play it "as intended" no matter if it isn't possible on a particular machine.
QuoteIf only the generic AGS setup dialog could be customized, you could just remove options that you don't want to be available
Perhaps allowing the Filters option to be disabled is a reasonable idea as a compromise.
Currently AGS allows you to add these to your acsetup.cfg file:
[disabled]
musicvox=1
speechvox=1
16bit=1
Those entries disable the "use digital music pack", "use speech pack" and "downgrade 32-bit graphics to 16-bit" options respectively. A new, similar option to disable the Filter box is something I'll look at.
Now obviously, a seasoned player could simply open the CFG file and remove these entries to re-enable the options, but if they wilfully do that then really it's their own fault if the game doesn't play as expected.
Quote from: Pumaman on Tue 21/02/2006 20:21:52
QuoteOf course, as a player I'd rather have the option to turn it on. On the other hand, as a game designer I'd rather the player not see this when playing:
http://www.locustleaves.com/output.png [thanks Helm]
If the filter has completely garbled the screen like that, then it's a bug and it needs to be reported and fixed. I don't think that a bug in the filter code is a reason to disable it.
This is a good point.
I just ran Helm's original image through the recommended hq2x and hq3x source code and it didn't garble the image, so I'm not sure what Helm did wrong when he ran his tests. It sure doesn't seem like the algorithm could go so badly wrong, given the local nature of its approach.
Perhaps it got corrupted when he uploaded the image!
So I think the point is moot.
These hq2x/3x filters open up a whole new headache for developers, especially if you enable them to be as screwuppable as possible by the end user who delights in diddling with every setting then emailing the game creator because the graphics suck. The less options there are for people to mess up with the filters the better, you can't trust the general public these days :P
The plain nearest neighbour filters are going to be wonderful for a multitude of reasons, but I can't get over worrying about releasing my game with the beautiful artwork scotch is putting so much effort into only for folks to put on the 'make my game look better' gee-whiz option and blurring things up to hell (and then emailing me saying the game is broken).
So yes, I second the notion to be able to disable the hq filters... if only in the cfg file, so those that are desperate to get eye-strain can enable them. ;)
I don't think this is a significant problem, not many people are going to turn it on if it isn't on by default, and if they do... well, they can decide what looks better to them. On the subject of graphical perfection, I think being able to adjust the brightness/contrast of the display somehow would be good, would allow for the developer to make one of those little calibration bars at the start maybe. Because it seems however I draw backgrounds they look washed out or too dark on most other monitors, or even on the same monitor but in a different display mode...
Quote from: Adamski on Tue 21/02/2006 21:35:12
These hq2x/3x filters open up a whole new headache for developers, especially if you enable them to be as screwuppable as possible by the end user who delights in diddling with every setting then emailing the game creator because the graphics suck. The less options there are for people to mess up with the filters the better, you can't trust the general public these days :P
The plain nearest neighbour filters are going to be wonderful for a multitude of reasons, but I can't get over worrying about releasing my game with the beautiful artwork scotch is putting so much effort into only for folks to put on the 'make my game look better' gee-whiz option and blurring things up to hell (and then emailing me saying the game is broken).
So yes, I second the notion to be able to disable the hq filters... if only in the cfg file, so those that are desperate to get eye-strain can enable them. ;)
In deciding whether to give the control to the developers or the players, I'd much rather let the player choose. After all, if a player selects the wrong settings, the only person affected is him. But if a developer decides to disable some function that is actually useful in some circumstances, that screws it up for everybody who might want to play the game.
And yeah, if you give them the ability, developers
will arbitrarily disable perfectly legitimate options. They may not be aware of the conditions under which the setting is useful, or they may just be obstinate. I seem to remember someone trying to disable Alt-X as a way to kill AGS.
Developers can be dumbasses just as much as players.
I agree, but there are some cases where options are going to have a detremental effect on the visual experience and I feel this is true with the game I'm working on.
If they make the game look like someone's run riot with the smudge tool in photoshop and things look noticeably worse then surely it's not such a big deal to be able to disable the two hq filters, right? Especially if it's not a permanent disablement.
Quote
And yeah, if you give them the ability, developers will arbitrarily disable perfectly legitimate options. They may not be aware of the conditions under which the setting is useful, or they may just be obstinate.
Completely disagree here. What is and is not legitimate feature-wise is purely relative, and I think the power of all important decisions in any game engine need to rest with the creator rather than the players. If the creator decides to do things a certain way, sobeit; viewing a nintendo-stylized game with filters would destroy the impact of the game and its nostalgia. It is his/her game and decision, ultimately, as it should be. Play another game or make a request to change it like everyone else does with commercial products. Allow people to flick it on and off, sure, but put an option in ags to disable it from working if such a feature is entirely inappropriate to your game- and this
is a decision the creator has the right to make.
Also, to address the AGS performance situation, it does seem to suffer when anything stressful is done- multiple transparencies, setting up a rawdraw loop in anything above 8-bit, and the filters effectively cut fps from a few tests I've run so far by up to half. I'm not sure how thoroughly the speed loss was tested, but based on seeing a 16-bit game with a basic background and a few characters losing 15 fps immediately makes me wonder that the impact on a 32-bit game would be horrendousâ€"especially if one were to use transparencies or rawdraw or multiple onscreen animated objects/characters. As far as Direct3D goes, I would say it will provide no benefit IF ags is currently fully directdraw functional; that is, if all the code is operating within directx handlers and such. I only say this because I've coded many programs with directx support in the past and have read a great deal on the subject. DirectX supporter, GET HIM!!! :) If AGS draw routines and such are not handled through directx I will be happy to offer my knowledge in this regard- if you decide you want to update it. Anyway, I think it's great that you put so much effort into adding all these features and I certainly applaud your dedication to a single program.
I wish I'd been so dedicated to my own game engine. Now I will go cry ;(.
-ProgZ
I'm curious what kind of framerates are people getting when using the Hq filters? Because from my own experiments I don't see any way to use them for games beyond 320x200 resolution? Running my 640x480x32 game with the Hq2x filter in the 1280x960 windowed mode (can't run full screen due to laptop resolution issues), I get framerates of 12-13 fps even in rooms with nothing else going on, no animation, no rawdrawing, nada. This is on a 1.6GHz centrino laptop with 1024MB RAM and a 128MB ATI Radeon 9700 video card.
Edit: I also wanted to ask CJ - regarding the dialog problem, if you've edited your game on beta 4, will it still be broken when you upgrade to 4a? In other words, should I revert to my beta3 code when I start working with beta 4a? (and please, don't tell me I shouldn't really use betas for developing - the new features are worth the risk)
Yes they are extremely slow filters, they were designed for emulator games for older consoles and handhelds... so that's even lower than 320x200. They aren't suitable for use on higher res graphics generally.
Too bad that not many 320x200 games are developed in 32 bit. Would it be enough to compile the game in 32 bit mode to make the filters work, or would the art have to be re-imported with the palette set to 32 bit?
I'm a bit for the idea of being able to disable certain options in setup, just to prevent stuff from being screwed up.
Actually you can disable some of the setup options via script already, for example you can disable the "smooth scaled sprites" option (due to my previous request :P ) by putting this line in your script:
game.disable_antialiasing = 1;
Well, this won't remove the option from setup, however, it will in fact override the config file and force to disable it.
Some people might think it's not very important, however it's very import for me, as my games are in 256 colours and I use dynamic palette effects extensively, when this option's turned on it can mess up scaled sprites heavily when palette is being animated (I can expect the HQ filters can do even more harms for such a case, I don't know if they can be used in 8-bit modes or not, but if in case more filters that work under 8-bit may be added later...). I don't have a concrete example for hicolour+ cases, but maybe the filters should be disabled if you just don't want your good pixel art to be hurt, or in some evil pixel hunting puzzle that the original pixel arrangements must be perfect ? :=
But if there's to be some way to disable the filters within the game, I'll recommend that you can disable them in levels, for example, if a system variable is set to 2 all filters are disabled, if it's 1 all filters but the 2X and 3X ones are disabled. Since IMO 2X and 3X are AWESOME idea (in fact they're not "filters" at all, I think it can even help the MAC port to run games in "true" 320 graphics now).
On the other hand, however, since you can warn players in the game's documents about using some of the settings (who reads documents nowadays? := ) this may not be that important anyway.
Enough ranting for me. ;)
Quote from: ProgZmax on Wed 22/02/2006 09:32:17
As far as Direct3D goes, I would say it will provide no benefit IF ags is currently fully directdraw functional; that is, if all the code is operating within directx handlers and such.
Correct me if I'm wrong but AGS uses Allegro that works with DirectDraw, which is not hardware accelerated. Moving AGS to use Direct3D surfaces instead of DirectDraw would actualy provide a speed benefit, because 3D routines are fully supported by the hardware. For example, a transparency calculation would not be done by the DirectDraw driver, it would be done by the video card. The same goes for scaling. This would provide a performance increase especially for 16-bit and 32-bit games.
Quote from: ProgZmax on Wed 22/02/2006 09:32:17
Completely disagree here.Ã, What is and is not legitimate feature-wise is purely relative, and I think the power of all important decisions in any game engine need to rest with the creator rather than the players.Ã, If the creator decides to do things a certain way, sobeit; viewing a nintendo-stylized game with filters would destroy the impact of the game and its nostalgia.Ã, It is his/her game and decision, ultimately, as it should be.Ã, Play another game or make a request to change it like everyone else does with commercial products.Ã, Allow people to flick it on and off, sure, but put an option in ags to disable it from working if such a feature is entirely inappropriate to your game- and this is a decision the creator has the right to make.
I don't want to get into a big argument about this, but I don't buy that argument at all. No, all important decisions in the game engine shouldn't rest with the game creators. The disabling Alt-X example I gave earlier demonstrates the fallacy of that.
Graphic filters shouldn't, in my opinion, be considered part of the game design. It is part of the settings for the environment the game exists in. I can turn on filters in DOSBox, ScummVM, MAME, or ZSNES, for any game. It works better for some games than others, but I as a player am perfectly able to make that judgment. The game design is not involved at all.
If you want to give the game creators this level of control, why not allow them to turn off the option to run the game in a window, too? After all, I'm sure a lot of creators prefer players to play their games in full screen. Or disable the ability to Tab out of AGS, to make sure people aren't "abusing" it to look up hints? You could make a much better case that these are game-design issues, but allowing creators to dictate and restrict players in this way would be a Bad Thing.
Besides, these days probably as many people play old Nintendo games on emulators as play them on the original consoles, and usually with filters, so a Nintendo-stylized game is exactly the kind that filters are appropriate for.
Even if you don't want certain settings turned on when people play your game, there are completely legitimate reasons why people might want to do so. One of the most obvious and probably most common is just to see what it looks like, or to test the effect. For instance, if I was making a game with lots of graphical effects, and wondered whether it would run under hq3x without stuttering, I might want to test it on
Mind's Eye with the filter turned on, because I know that's a graphically demanding game. Earlier in this discussion, I mentioned how running a 320x2_0 game in 640x4_0 mode mucks up the sprites when they're scaled; I quickly verified that by running
Cedric, which has extreme character scaling on one of the first screens. Another may be for performance; these particular filters reduce the frame rate, but it's conceivable that other settings might speed things up... or you may be in a situation where you
need to slow it down. Or there may be unexpected factors coming into play, like my case where LCD screens produce a sharper image in higher resolutions.
Quote from: Gilbot V7000a on Wed 22/02/2006 10:53:15
But if there's to be some way to disable the filters within the game, I'll recommend that you can disable them in levels, for example, if a system variable is set to 2 all filters are disabled, if it's 1 all filters but the 2X and 3X ones are disabled. Since IMO 2X and 3X are AWESOME idea (in fact they're not "filters" at all, I think it can even help the MAC port to run games in "true" 320 graphics now).
Jesus, now you want to disable the 2X and 3X filters? Under what possible situation would a game creator have any reason to do that?
The amount of effort devoted to making things difficult for players astounds me. Almost everyone who plays your game will be familiar with the standard AGS setup, will know their system, and will be able to choose the settings that are right for them.
In order to add something vaguely constructive to the thread, it sounds like what CJ suggested would be a workable compromise: Adding flags to the cfg file will remove the options from the setup, but a dedicated player could always go in and edit the file manually to restore them. Adding Steve's edge threshold as another setting to the cfg file also makes sense, since again it's not really part of the game design itself, but precisely part of the configuration.
Disabling Alt+X or running in a window is a lot different to disabling a gimmicky device that distorts the visuals (especially when they only work in 32 bit colour games where there'll more than likely be art used that resampling filters only mess up).
Quote from: GarageGothic on Wed 22/02/2006 10:26:19
Too bad that not many 320x200 games are developed in 32 bit. Would it be enough to compile the game in 32 bit mode to make the filters work, or would the art have to be re-imported with the palette set to 32 bit?
It works for everything except rawdrawn graphics I think.
I don't know where you get your statistics on 32 bit use!
It should be relatively straightforward to convert 8bit or 16bit to 32bit for the filters (it wouldn't be necessary to convert back). Of course it would slow things down and consume a screen-worth of memory.
Quote from: Snarky
Jesus, now you want to disable the 2X and 3X filters?
Read his post more carefully.
Quote from: Adamski
32 bit colour games where there'll more than likely be art used that resampling filters only mess up
There's not necessarily a connection between 32 bit mode and painted artwork. I use 16 and 32 bit just to simplify colour selection.
Quote from: Adamski on Wed 22/02/2006 14:48:49
Disabling Alt+X or running in a window is a lot different to disabling a gimmicky device that distorts the visuals (especially when they only work in 32 bit colour games where there'll more than likely be art used that resampling filters only mess up).
Running in a window changes the experience just as much as smoothing out the graphics does. And in both cases there are valid reasons why a player might want to do so.
Besides, it's not technically true that these filters "distort" the visuals. If the original bitmap is a sampled representation of a continous image, the different resampling methods used to scale to another resolution (including pixel doubling or setting a high-resolution screen to a low-resolution setting) are all equally valid, they merely correspond to different assumptions about the image that was sampled.
Quote from: SteveMcCrea on Wed 22/02/2006 15:00:03
Quote from: Snarky
Jesus, now you want to disable the 2X and 3X filters?
Read his post more carefully.
I understood the post just fine:
Quoteif a system variable is set to 2 all filters are disabled"
I know he made the suggestion because he wanted to allow people to not disable the 2x/3x filters, but this was the first time anyone had suggested there should be a way to disable them at all.
Since some people are so concerned about having filters applied to their game graphics, why not just add a message box to the setup when you pick a filter (other than 2x/3x), warning players that it makes the graphics look different? The same way you get a warning if you switch a 320x200 game to 640x400 resolution.
Quote from: Snarky on Tue 21/02/2006 22:31:08And yeah, if you give them the ability, developers will arbitrarily disable perfectly legitimate options. They may not be aware of the conditions under which the setting is useful, or they may just be obstinate. I seem to remember someone trying to disable Alt-X as a way to kill AGS.
Developers can be dumbasses just as much as players.
Shh...We've all put that behind us a
long long long time ago. Never speak of it again. :=
QuoteCorrect me if I'm wrong but AGS uses Allegro that works with DirectDraw, which is not hardware accelerated. Moving AGS to use Direct3D surfaces instead of DirectDraw would actualy provide a speed benefit, because 3D routines are fully supported by the hardware.
As far as I know it uses Allegro, but that doesn't mean it uses directdraw surfaces for rendering (and directdraw surfaces do support hardware acceleration), which is why I'm curious. In my own engine I was able to implement 4 fully transparent interframe blended layers without virtually no speed hit (this was back on my 1ghz), and this is one of the reasons why I ask if ags is running completely under directx. Direct 3d won't provide a bonus because it essentially treats sprites drawn on flat polys exactly like directdraw treats the surface. The only real difference is you have far greater control over rotation- one major limitation of directdraw- and scaling looks nicer. You can also place it in 3d space, obviously, but we're still talking 2d graphics here ;).
Snarky- I'm not going to get into a discussion (read: pissing match) with you about how players deserve to have access to fancy bells and whistles regardless of their impact on the overall feel of the game. I think those options should be up to the designer, you don't, the end. It's that simple, really.
Quote from: ProgZmax on Wed 22/02/2006 22:56:35
I think those options should be up to the designer
That's it. From now on I'm playing your games through a Fresnel lens and in a mirror. Oh, and I'm going to unplug the red cable from my monitor and feed the audio through a surround processor. Ha! Just try and stop me! ;D
QuoteSo yes, I second the notion to be able to disable the hq filters... if only in the cfg file, so those that are desperate to get eye-strain can enable them.
This seems to be a common viewpoint, so I will provide the ability to do so via the CFG file.
--
Edit by strazer:
AGS v2.72 Beta 5:
* Added cfg settings to disable graphic filter options in Setup. (see this KB article (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/kbview.php?id=63) for more info).
--
QuoteAlso, to address the AGS performance situation, it does seem to suffer when anything stressful is done- multiple transparencies
Transparencies are always slow when using a software renderer since AGS needs to manually read, manipulate then write each pixel in turn, which is a much slower operation than a standard "copy sprite to screen" type thing.
QuoteI'm not sure how thoroughly the speed loss was tested, but based on seeing a 16-bit game with a basic background and a few characters losing 15 fps immediately makes me wonder that the impact on a 32-bit game would be horrendousâ€"especially if one were to use transparencies or rawdraw or multiple onscreen animated objects/characters.
The advantage of the filters is that, for the standard 2x filter at least, it is actually faster running a 320x200 game with a 2x filter, than it is currently running a 320x200 game at 640x400 by selecting the "640x400" option.
Please see this post:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=25054.msg313812#msg313812
where I provide some examples of frame rates with various filters.
QuoteAs far as Direct3D goes, I would say it will provide no benefit IF ags is currently fully directdraw functional; that is, if all the code is operating within directx handlers and such.
AGS currently uses DirectDraw, which is hardware accelerated to a point, but not to the same degree as Direct3D is. However, because of the way in which AGS does graphical rendering, most of the images are stored in system RAM rather than on DX surfaces -- it may be possible to change the rendering process to improve this, which is probably worth me experimenting with.
QuoteI'm curious what kind of framerates are people getting when using the Hq filters? Because from my own experiments I don't see any way to use them for games beyond 320x200 resolution?
Yes, as scotch says generally the filters are only useful for 320x200 games.
QuoteCJ - regarding the dialog problem, if you've edited your game on beta 4, will it still be broken when you upgrade to 4a? In other words, should I revert to my beta3 code when I start working with beta 4a? (and please, don't tell me I shouldn't really use betas for developing - the new features are worth the risk)
Beta 4 would only have corrupted your dialogs if you actually used the dialog editor pane, then saved the game. If you had only loaded your game, edited some sprites, then saved it, the corruption would not have occurred.
Easy way to check -- just have a run down all your dialogs and check that the options are ok.
QuoteToo bad that not many 320x200 games are developed in 32 bit. Would it be enough to compile the game in 32 bit mode to make the filters work, or would the art have to be re-imported with the palette set to 32 bit?
Adding 16-bit support for the Hqx filters is probably relatively easy, if it's a popular request I'm sure it could be done.
QuoteBut if there's to be some way to disable the filters within the game, I'll recommend that you can disable them in levels
My current plan is to provide a per-filter option to disable filters, something like:
[disabled]
Hq2x=1
Hq3x=1
NearestNeighbour2x=1
etc
QuoteMoving AGS to use Direct3D surfaces instead of DirectDraw would actualy provide a speed benefit, because 3D routines are fully supported by the hardware. For example, a transparency calculation would not be done by the DirectDraw driver, it would be done by the video card. The same goes for scaling. This would provide a performance increase especially for 16-bit and 32-bit games.
This is true. The problem with moving to Direct3D is that it has various other difficulties to work around, such as textures being limited to sizes that are powers of 2, and other strange quirks that you have to code around just to get some sprites onto the screen.
QuoteThat's it. From now on I'm playing your games through a Fresnel lens and in a mirror. Oh, and I'm going to unplug the red cable from my monitor and feed the audio through a surround processor. Ha! Just try and stop me!
Nooooooooo! Actually, I'd be curious to see the results ;P
QuoteAGS currently uses DirectDraw, which is hardware accelerated to a point, but not to the same degree as Direct3D is. However, because of the way in which AGS does graphical rendering, most of the images are stored in system RAM rather than on DX surfaces -- it may be possible to change the rendering process to improve this, which is probably worth me experimenting with.
Good to know, and yes, converting it to operating entirely on directdraw surfaces will improve performance considerably, especially for transparencies and the like. I'd also recommend employing a triple-buffer flipping scheme if you haven't already, since I've seen substantial gains using it.
Out of curiousity, would switching to DirectDraw surfaces make the Linux or Mac ports more difficult to maintain, or would it make any difference?
(Not that either of them have been updated lately...) ::)
HoN
Quote from: Pumaman on Sat 14/01/2006 22:47:30* Fixed GUI Labels to not absorb mouse clicks.
I've only just noticed, but this seems to have prevented GUI Labels from being detected on screen at all? Because I can't detect them with GUIControl.GetAtScreenXY any more. I turn the Labels on, and I can see them, but using GUIControl.GetAtScreenXY always returns null for coordinates over the Labels. :(
And just as a matter of interest, does this mean that using on_event with eEventGUIMouseDown wouldn't be run for mouse clicks on Labels? Because...I kind of needed that for the ScrollingDialog module.
Furthermore, it's time to quit all this foolish nonsense with updating the dialog system! := I've just about got all the bugs worked out (in mine), except every time I fix
mine you implement new ones into the system! :P *
Spoiler
* I really love your work. But I've been working on this dialog system for over a year now, and I've just about got it working. No offense, but even if you do update the built-in system, I'd probably still use the module just so that I could say I programmed it, and, sentimental reasons of course...:D.
When a new character is created, the Idle view comes put automatically to 1. It happens also in the previous versions.
I think that should be set to zero!!! ;)
I have been three days to understand why my plugin works on some games and not on others, simply I had not modified the idle view.
I just noticed that some old templates (.agt files) can't be seen (i.e. dont even appear in templates list when trying new game) by AGS 2.7 and later. e.g. Junc's http://www.lucasstyle.com/media/ags/opensource/SPYvsSPY_source.zip
Now, I can get 2.56d to see this (most recent old AGS I could find) but it is older than that template.
So, is it possible to restore compatibility with these old templates, and if not does someone know where I can get AGS 2.62? AGAgames had it but the server crash must have killed that one.
I have got the template bug also
Quote from: HeirOfNorton on Thu 23/02/2006 21:55:36
Out of curiousity, would switching to DirectDraw surfaces make the Linux or Mac ports more difficult to maintain, or would it make any difference?
I'm no DirectX expert, but I don't think CJ would have a difficult time with this, but he is the one who could tell for sure.
Quote from: SSH on Fri 24/02/2006 12:51:20
I just noticed that some old templates (.agt files) can't be seen (i.e. dont even appear in templates list when trying new game) by AGS 2.7 and later. e.g. Junc's http://www.lucasstyle.com/media/ags/opensource/SPYvsSPY_source.zip
Now, I can get 2.56d to see this (most recent old AGS I could find) but it is older than that template.
So, is it possible to restore compatibility with these old templates, and if not does someone know where I can get AGS 2.62? AGAgames had it but the server crash must have killed that one.
http://www.sitesled.com/members/meleepta/ags_262.zip
[and...more because I needed to remember what the file structure was...]
http://www.americangirlscouts.org/agsuploads/files/ags_262.zip
QuoteOut of curiousity, would switching to DirectDraw surfaces make the Linux or Mac ports more difficult to maintain, or would it make any difference?
Well, any changes would have to be done whilst bearing in mind cross-platform compatibility, so this would of course have to be a consideration in the way it was coded.
QuoteI've only just noticed, but this seems to have prevented GUI Labels from being detected on screen at all? Because I can't detect them with GUIControl.GetAtScreenXY any more. I turn the Labels on, and I can see them, but using GUIControl.GetAtScreenXY always returns null for coordinates over the Labels.
This is a good point, GetAtScreenXY only detects controls that the mouse can click on -- this is not just limited to Labels. I guess the documentation doens't specify it one way or the other, so I'll see about changing this.
QuoteWhen a new character is created, the Idle view comes put automatically to 1. It happens also in the previous versions.
I just tried creating a new character and the idle view was "None".
You may be referring to this bug:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/kbview.php?id=17
which is unfortunately not easily fixable.
QuoteI just noticed that some old templates (.agt files) can't be seen (i.e. dont even appear in templates list when trying new game) by AGS 2.7 and later.
I'll look into it.
Edit by strazer:
AGS v2.72 Beta 5:
* Fixed backwards compatibility issue with old templates.
Quote from: Pumaman on Fri 24/02/2006 22:18:18QuoteI've only just noticed, but this seems to have prevented GUI Labels from being detected on screen at all? Because I can't detect them with GUIControl.GetAtScreenXY any more. I turn the Labels on, and I can see them, but using GUIControl.GetAtScreenXY always returns null for coordinates over the Labels.
This is a good point, GetAtScreenXY only detects controls that the mouse can click on -- this is not just limited to Labels. I guess the documentation doens't specify it one way or the other, so I'll see about changing this.
Thanks Chris. It just seemed kind of odd to make Labels GUIControls (make the Label structure derived from the GUIControl structure) if GUIControl.GetAtScreenXY doesn't detect them.
And just curious...does the Label.Clickable property do anything? I was going to say that it would be more sensical to let the user decide whether Labels would absorb mouse-clicks than the engine just saying yes or no, but there's already Label.Clickable and Label.Enabled properties. The manual entries on these properties just redirects to the GUIControl property entries...so...
QuoteQuote
When a new character is created, the Idle view comes put automatically to 1. It happens also in the previous versions.
I just tried creating a new character and the idle view was "None".
You may be referring to this bug:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/kbview.php?id=17
which is unfortunately not easily fixable.
Yes, the relative button in the character panel show "none" but if you click it the dialog show 1.
Whenever you obsolete old functions, CJ, can you provide a #define so that module-writers can make code work on the latest beta or the previous stable release, please?
Lots of my old modules that used GetGameParamter are broken, but I don't want to maintain two versions of them if I can avoid it.
Sorry for the double-post, but I wanted to make sure this wasn't missed.
If you have a function in a module (and probably global) script that took a "const string" and you change it to take a "String", then when this function is called in a room script with a string literal, it fails unless you add a blank line to the script or somesuch to make it become "dirty".
Here is another Sting thing: The variable system.version returns a string that is incompatible with String. For example the following produces an error somrthing about not being able to convert string to String.
String MyString;
MyString = system.version;
I did the following to make this work ...
String MyString;
MyString = String.Format("system.version");
The workaround isn't that annoying or ugly but I thought this may have sliiped through a crack and that CJ may want to know about it. If this is a know issue then please disregard. Chers.
Btw, working with the new String stuff is a breeze. The code is creatly simplified. Thanks.
QuoteAnd just curious...does the Label.Clickable property do anything? I was going to say that it would be more sensical to let the user decide whether Labels would absorb mouse-clicks than the engine just saying yes or no, but there's already Label.Clickable and Label.Enabled properties. The manual entries on these properties just redirects to the GUIControl property entries...so...
This is a good point, Clickable is now false by default for labels but you can turn it back on in the script if you want.
There's an issue in this version where it will get reset back to false whenever you load a save game, but I'll fix that.
QuoteYes, the relative button in the character panel show "none" but if you click it the dialog show 1.
Yeah, this is related to the bug I mentioned earlier; it's a bit annoying but not too serious.
QuoteWhenever you obsolete old functions, CJ, can you provide a #define so that module-writers can make code work on the latest beta or the previous stable release, please?
Lots of my old modules that used GetGameParamter are broken, but I don't want to maintain two versions of them if I can avoid it.
That's a good point, I'll look into it.
--
Edit by strazer:
AGS v2.72 Beta 5:
* Added #ifver/#ifnver commands to allow script modules to determine which version of AGS is being used.
--
QuoteIf you have a function in a module (and probably global) script that took a "const string" and you change it to take a "String", then when this function is called in a room script with a string literal, it fails unless you add a blank line to the script or somesuch to make it become "dirty".
This is true in various scenarios -- for example if you change a parameter type from string to int, if it's called from a room script then things can go funny until you recompile the room.
I'm not sure if a solution to this is possible really, other than forcing all rooms to be rebuilt whenever you edit the global script...
QuoteHere is another Sting thing: The variable system.version returns a string that is incompatible with String. For example the following produces an error somrthing about not being able to convert string to String.
Thanks, I missed that, I'll look into it.
Edit by strazer:
AGS v2.72 Beta 5:
* Added system.Version property to return a new-style string.
Cleanup unhandled_event() ?
This not a very high priority item but I thought it would be a good time to mention it since there are already a number compatibility issues. I was wondering if now would be a good time to cleanup the unhandled_event() handler so that it passes in consistent values through the WHAT and TYPE parameters. The new and old parameter values could be tied to the "Enforce Strict OO" setting so that it would be possible to define and use enumerated values for the WHAT and TYPE parameters.
I am asking now because perhaps later on it will no longer be practical to introduce changes that may break compatibility.
Quote from: RickJ on Wed 01/03/2006 16:28:17I did the following to make this work ...
String MyString;
MyString = String.Format("system.version");
Erm...you created a String holding the text "system.version"? Or you used MyString = String.Format("%s", system.version);? Just clarifying this of course...
Quote from: Pumaman on Wed 01/03/2006 20:12:05QuoteAnd just curious...does the Label.Clickable property do anything? I was going to say that it would be more sensical to let the user decide whether Labels would absorb mouse-clicks than the engine just saying yes or no, but there's already Label.Clickable and Label.Enabled properties. The manual entries on these properties just redirects to the GUIControl property entries...so...
This is a good point, Clickable is now false by default for labels but you can turn it back on in the script if you want.
There's an issue in this version where it will get reset back to false whenever you load a save game, but I'll fix that.
Thanks again Chris.
Hehe, yeah you're right. := I should have said this:
String MyString = String.Format("%s",system.version);
I wanted to pass system.version into a function and found that it wouldn't wort if the parameter was a defined as String.
Well you could do:
func_name_here(String.Format("%s", system.version));
Instead of storing the String...unless you need it after the function call. Save yourself a couple lines. Or a line. Or whatever.
Well that's what I in fact did. But, IMHO, the function call and parameter pass aren't really the problem and so that wasn't the simplest way of reporting the problem.
Okay...I understand now.
I wouldn't have posted that except I found this out...if you manually set the Label's Clickable property to true, then it is detected by GUIControl.GetAtScreenXY...So it seems that I can in fact continue on without the next version. Which upsets me because...well...if I can get the highlighting to work...I'm going to work on the module...whether I like it or not. But I really wanted to play games right now. Oh well...back to work I guess. :=
Minor bug: the script parser puts those "#sectionstart" lines around any function name starting with "repeatedly_execute", even if the function is named "repeatedly_execute_a" or if the entire function is within a /*block of content*/.
By the way I am somewhat annoyed by the huge letters "DO NOT MODIFY THIS LINE" popping up all over my code (especially considering that if the line was removed or modified, AGS will simply put it back). Sorry if I'm nitpicking, but would it be possible to turn that off?
Also by the way, would it be possible to increase the maximum string length for GUI labels? SetLabelText chokes over messages longer than 200 characters, but e.g. a GUI showing a book with text could feasibly use longer ones.
Quote from: Radiant on Fri 03/03/2006 12:56:50
Also by the way, would it be possible to increase the maximum string length for GUI labels? SetLabelText chokes over messages longer than 200 characters, but e.g. a GUI showing a book with text could feasibly use longer ones.
Quote from: Pumaman
Changes to beta3:
* Increased permitted length of GUI label text from 200 to 2048 characters.
RTFT!
Well that and...even if you don't enforce new-style Strings...then the Label.SetText function still takes a const string as a parameter so you couldn't use more than 200 characters. So RTFM... :=
Speaking of...with beta 4a (not sure about the earlier betas)...old-style string functions don't autocomplete whether you enforce new-style Strings or not. Not that it matters to me...I use the new-style Strings.
yay, naming the dialog topics was on my wishing list for SO LONG. the other features sound, as they often do, sensible and useful: Downloading now.
Just a thought regarding the autocomplete parser. Clearly it's too late to implement any changes to the parser for older versions, but could you implement some sort of value so that functions will only autocomplete for certain versions of AGS?
The reasons for this might not be obvious right now, but if it had been implemented before then modules could be released for more than one version (one module compatible with more than one version) and only the correct functions would autocomplete.
It might seem pointless to implement it now, but I think in the future it might find its uses, depending on the way the language evolves. Right now it might not seem like the language will be undergoing any huge changes any more...but who would have thought back when Adventure Creator was around that it would one day have an OO language of its own?
Thanks either way!
QuoteCleanup unhandled_event() ?
This not a very high priority item but I thought it would be a good time to mention it since there are already a number compatibility issues. I was wondering if now would be a good time to cleanup the unhandled_event() handler so that it passes in consistent values through the WHAT and TYPE parameters.
I'm still not sure about this one. I'm not really sure if it's worth the hassle of changing it, when effectively it would still work exactly the same way. Needs further consideration.
QuoteMinor bug: the script parser puts those "#sectionstart" lines around any function name starting with "repeatedly_execute", even if the function is named "repeatedly_execute_a" or if the entire function is within a /*block of content*/.
The #sectionstarts should only be added once -- if you manually remove the lines around a function they shouldn't reappear. The automatic wrapping is only done if no #sectionstarts are detected in the script.
QuoteBy the way I am somewhat annoyed by the huge letters "DO NOT MODIFY THIS LINE" popping up all over my code (especially considering that if the line was removed or modified, AGS will simply put it back). Sorry if I'm nitpicking, but would it be possible to turn that off?
I'm not sure about this one, I think it's important to have the DO NOT MODIFY there, because AGS will not put it back automatically and it can really screw up the script editor if you delete the start but not the end, or vice versa.
QuoteWell that and...even if you don't enforce new-style Strings...then the Label.SetText function still takes a const string as a parameter so you couldn't use more than 200 characters. So RTFM...
I'm not sure how this is relevant, the Label.Text / Label.SetText now have a 2048 character limit, you could pass in a literal string of 250 characters if you wanted to.
QuoteSpeaking of...with beta 4a (not sure about the earlier betas)...old-style string functions don't autocomplete whether you enforce new-style Strings or not. Not that it matters to me...I use the new-style Strings.
Can you give an example of a function that doesn't work? I just tried StrComp, StrCopy, etc and they seemed to autocomplete just fine.
QuoteJust a thought regarding the autocomplete parser. Clearly it's too late to implement any changes to the parser for older versions, but could you implement some sort of value so that functions will only autocomplete for certain versions of AGS?
I suppose it's possible that autocomplete could detect the new #ifver directives and work out what to autocomplete based on that, but for now it's not a priority.
Oh, thanks forever! You really added an option to mark read/unread topics! :D
Now I can start to script my game... Or perhaps I still wait for the final version of AGS 2.72.
Thanks! :)
Quote from: Pumaman on Sun 05/03/2006 19:34:38QuoteWell that and...even if you don't enforce new-style Strings...then the Label.SetText function still takes a const string as a parameter so you couldn't use more than 200 characters. So RTFM...
I'm not sure how this is relevant, the Label.Text / Label.SetText now have a 2048 character limit, you could pass in a literal string of 250 characters if you wanted to.
Erm...I thought because Label.SetText took a const string as a parameter it wouldn't be able to handle more than 200 characters. I know that Label.Text has the 2048 character limit, he was just referring to the deprecated function...
Quote from: Pumaman on Sun 05/03/2006 19:34:38QuoteSpeaking of...with beta 4a (not sure about the earlier betas)...old-style string functions don't autocomplete whether you enforce new-style Strings or not. Not that it matters to me...I use the new-style Strings.
Can you give an example of a function that doesn't work? I just tried StrComp, StrCopy, etc and they seemed to autocomplete just fine.
Well...I start a new game with the Default template, uncheck "Enforce new-style Strings", go to the global script, and type "Str" and the only thing I see in the autocomplete is "String". I'll try unzipping the files to a clean folder and try again, as well as trying the new beta, and let you know...probably just something I did to screw up the computer again.
Quote from: Pumaman on Sun 05/03/2006 19:34:38QuoteJust a thought regarding the autocomplete parser. Clearly it's too late to implement any changes to the parser for older versions, but could you implement some sort of value so that functions will only autocomplete for certain versions of AGS?
I suppose it's possible that autocomplete could detect the new #ifver directives and work out what to autocomplete based on that, but for now it's not a priority.
Okay...that's understandable. Acceptable. Good 'nough.
Thanks for the new version Chris.
Quote* View preview window now cycles through whole of multi-loop animations.
Ahh this is a great bug fix, considering this was an issue for me because most of my animations take up at least 2 loops each :D
Thanks Chris
Quote from: Pumaman on Sat 14/01/2006 22:47:30
* Added system.Version property to return a new-style string.
Is it me or this nowhere to be found in the manual yet? It still refers to system.version. FIXED
Sorry if this has been reported, but Acwin.exe (I've copied it to the games folder for quick testing) still looks for music in the root directory and not in the new Music folder.
The music folder was for the editor to find its resource, in this case, it looks for music files in the music folder in the game source's folder.
On the other hand, the engine looks for all the files (if not packed into the executable or vox, .ags, etc.) in the game's "compiled" folder, so this is the expected behaviour.
Well it seems a bit odd having to have the music in the root and and Music folder yet the sounds just in the Sounds folder. Make sence to me if acwin looked in the music folder.
Look, the Music and Sounds folders only exist so the game source folder doesn't get clogged up.
When your game is saved/compiled, sounds get compiled into the game exe, digitial music will be bundled into the music.vox file.
Everything you need to distribute the game (except video files) will be put into the Compiled folder.
Ah, nevermind I'll just live with duplicate music files.
EDIT: I just thought I'd clarify the problem in the hope it might one day get resolved. If you have have a big game say 50+ rooms, it becomes impracticable to use the test game command as it is too slow. Instead I copy the acwin.exe into the game directory and run it from there (after just needing to do a quick save), this allows instant game testing. Unfortunately as acwin.exe does not look in the media folders, it can't play the music. Seems a shame that this is not catered for as it is such a useful way to test games.
What would help is simply testing with a lesser amount of rooms, by temporarily moving room files you won't need at the moment to a storage subdirectory.
By the way could you please implement hotkeys in the "Module manager" menu? In particular, I'd like to be able to close the screen by pressing ESC.
Just noticed this, while playing around. "Auto-number speech lines" does not number any lines that are in a script module. I can see how you might want that, if it's a third-party module, but if you made the module yourself just to separate some of the code, than you might want some of that speech auto-numbered.
Perhaps an option, or a prompt like it does for Display() ?
HoN
SetLabelText still truncates the text at 200 characters.
I tried bringing that up...but only brought confusion.
Sorry if this message is rather long...
With the latest beta, it is still possible to get the "internal tree processing error" when deleting an (empty) 2nd-level folder of sprites, thus crashing AGS without possibility of saving anything.
My game is 16-bit color. So is my desktop. When I use RawDrawImage and the game is set to windowed mode, the following warning is generated: Sprite 156 colour depth 16-bit not same as background depth 32-bit. Weird.
If a character is set to have no diagonal loops, it kind of makes sense to use loop 4-15 for miscellaneous other animations (e.g. picking things up, stuff like that). A character with no diagonal loops will behave strangely if FaceLocation() is used for it while it is in a loop greater than three. Examples of strange behavior include spinning around, or resetting to frame zero of the loop.
Characters may also start to spin if FaceLocation() is used on them while they're not on a walkable area.
When typing long lines in the editor, the autocomplete suggestions tend to run out of the window, making them illegible.
Exporting a room's additional background frame as a GIF results in an entirely black GIF (the room was 16-bit color, btw).
When exporting a room's additional background frame, the 'default' file format (if nothing else is entered) is the seldom-used TGA. Maybe it should default to PNG or BMP?
When exporting that room's background frame again and typing the same name, AGS will assume it is the TGA file again and complete to 'test.tga'; if I then select e.g. GIF from the pulldown menu, the result is the filename 'test.gif.tga'
From a tester's report, I believe that Windows XP and/or windowed gameplay mode may interfere with SetMousePosition. Running under ME myself I have been unable to verify that.
I would appreciate it if saving when you close the AGS editor defaults to quicksaving rather than fullsaving, given the time taken by the latter. Or, on the "would you like to save" box, add an extra button for it.
If the game has just been quicksaved (or otherwise not been modified), quitting AGS still gives the query "would you like to save the game".
Quicksave also saves things that haven't actually been modified since the last save. In particular for a compressed sprite file, this takes quite a while.
If you quit AGS and select not to save, the editor deletes your executable. AGS also tends to delete the executable at other moments when it decides it would be out of date; this is rather annoying when testing things, and my takes a long time every time since windows automatically backs up executable files whenever they are deleted. I would prefer if there was an option so that AGS never deleted the executable under any circumstances.
This is a weird one... if you press then release the control key, then subsequently press escape, it will not trigger on_key_press.
If you import the global messages from a dumped file, the editor panel that shows them doesn't update and still lists the old one - even if you move to another panel and go back. It works when you quit and restart AGS.
If you quit the editor and decide not to save, it appears that AGS saves some editor information anyway, but not all of it. I believe the current sprite set is saved and the global script is not, or something. This is confusing. It also means you cannot go recover a mistake by quitting, unless you "force-quit" through ctrl-alt-del.
When clicking to change one of a GUI's properties on the floating menu, the old value is automatically highlighted so that any typing will overwrite it. When clicking on an animation frame's delay or sound effect, the old value must be deleted manually.
A font with automatic outlining is wider than one without. In the GUI editor, this is not accounted for; thus any label that has text in an outlined font will look differently in-game.
Mouse.SetPosition() is clipping the Y value to the range 0-200, even though the mouse freely moves within the 0-240 range, the 240 letterbox option is greyed out and checked. I've tried using SetBounds(0,0,0,0) and SetBounds(0,0,320,240) but this still happens. Game resolution is 320x240, 32 bit.
Also suggestion for a Mouse.IsOutsideWindow(), to know if, in windowed mode, whether the mouse (i.e. the Windows Mouse pointer) is outside the game window. I want to add a jitter to the mouse but not grab the mouse back if it is outside the game window. Allowing the player to acces the exit application button, or switch to another windows program.
QuoteEDIT: I just thought I'd clarify the problem in the hope it might one day get resolved. If you have have a big game say 50+ rooms, it becomes impracticable to use the test game command as it is too slow. Instead I copy the acwin.exe into the game directory and run it from there (after just needing to do a quick save), this allows instant game testing. Unfortunately as acwin.exe does not look in the media folders, it can't play the music. Seems a shame that this is not catered for as it is such a useful way to test games.
I will resolve this for the Sounds folder so that the engine will look in the Sound sub-folder, however for now for music and speech you'll just need a copy of the VOX files in the game folder if you want these to work.
QuoteJust noticed this, while playing around. "Auto-number speech lines" does not number any lines that are in a script module. I can see how you might want that, if it's a third-party module, but if you made the module yourself just to separate some of the code, than you might want some of that speech auto-numbered.
Perhaps an option, or a prompt like it does for Display() ?
I'm not sure about this one, I wouldn't like it to be changing module code ... and if it did, it'd need a per-module option for whether to number the lines or not. I'd prefer to say that modules shouldn't really have any hard-coded speech strings in them, ideally.
QuoteSetLabelText still truncates the text at 200 characters.
It does, however Label.Text="" will now allow you to have 2048 characters. I have tested this with a 350 character string and had no problems.
QuoteSorry if this message is rather long...
Sorry, in future could you try to post things in smaller installments, as it is it's quite difficult for me to verify whether all these issues are bugs or not before I reply to the thread.
Quote from: Pumaman on Sun 19/03/2006 18:32:02
QuoteJust noticed this, while playing around. "Auto-number speech lines" does not number any lines that are in a script module.
I'm not sure about this one, I wouldn't like it to be changing module code ... and if it did, it'd need a per-module option for whether to number the lines or not. I'd prefer to say that modules shouldn't really have any hard-coded speech strings in them, ideally.
Yeah, I can understand this. I mainly noticed it playing around with my IconDialog module , in which the user HAS to put the dialog into a module for it to work right.
(which I keep meaning to debug/update, but I'll probabky wait until 2.72 final, just in case you decide to continue updating the dialog system like you've started... ;D)
It may yet be possible to work around, now that I know about that limitation. I'll think on it a bit. If nothing else, I could do it as a template instead of a module.
HoN
QuoteWith the latest beta, it is still possible to get the "internal tree processing error" when deleting an (empty) 2nd-level folder of sprites, thus crashing AGS without possibility of saving anything.
Is there any way you can reliably reproduce this? I have tried to do it myself but have been unable to get the problem.
QuoteMy game is 16-bit color. So is my desktop. When I use RawDrawImage and the game is set to windowed mode, the following warning is generated: Sprite 156 colour depth 16-bit not same as background depth 32-bit. Weird.
The room background itself might be 32-bit. Unfortunately this bit of information is not shown anywhere in the editor (I'll add it for the next beta).
QuoteIf a character is set to have no diagonal loops, it kind of makes sense to use loop 4-15 for miscellaneous other animations (e.g. picking things up, stuff like that). A character with no diagonal loops will behave strangely if FaceLocation() is used for it while it is in a loop greater than three. Examples of strange behavior include spinning around, or resetting to frame zero of the loop.
I'll look into this.
QuoteWhen typing long lines in the editor, the autocomplete suggestions tend to run out of the window, making them illegible.
Fair point, but it's not too serious. This seems to just be the way that the text editing component that AGS uses works, so it's probably not something I can change.
QuoteExporting a room's additional background frame as a GIF results in an entirely black GIF (the room was 16-bit color, btw).
Yes, if you attempt to export a 16- or 32-bit background as a GIF, you'll get a black image. This is because GIF only supports 8-bit, and it seemed a better idea to give an obviously wrong black output than to dither it down to 8-bit colour and get complaints that the export had made the colours go funny.
QuoteWhen exporting a room's additional background frame, the 'default' file format (if nothing else is entered) is the seldom-used TGA. Maybe it should default to PNG or BMP?
Yes, I'm not sure why it chooses TGA -- I guess it could be that it chooses the last one in the list. I'll see if I can change this.
QuoteWhen exporting that room's background frame again and typing the same name, AGS will assume it is the TGA file again and complete to 'test.tga'; if I then select e.g. GIF from the pulldown menu, the result is the filename 'test.gif.tga'
This is probably some strangeness with the Windows File Dialog, I don't know that I can do anything about it.
QuoteFrom a tester's report, I believe that Windows XP and/or windowed gameplay mode may interfere with SetMousePosition. Running under ME myself I have been unable to verify that.
Interfere with it in what way?
QuoteI would appreciate it if saving when you close the AGS editor defaults to quicksaving rather than fullsaving, given the time taken by the latter. Or, on the "would you like to save" box, add an extra button for it.
I guess this is a reasonable idea.
Quotef the game has just been quicksaved (or otherwise not been modified), quitting AGS still gives the query "would you like to save the game".
Yes, the editor does not currently have a "game dirty" type flag so it doesn't know if the game needs saving. This would actually be quite difficult to add so it's unlikely to be fixed anytime soon.
QuoteQuicksave also saves things that haven't actually been modified since the last save. In particular for a compressed sprite file, this takes quite a while.
Again, because there is no concept of a dirty flag, it will save everything. The only exceptions to this are the sprite file and the script compilation, which it can skip if no changes have been made.
However, with the sprite file don't confuse the actual creation of the .spr file (which will be skipped if unchanged) with the creation of the ac2game.dat data file (which includes the sprite file, and will be generated regardless).
QuoteIf you quit AGS and select not to save, the editor deletes your executable. AGS also tends to delete the executable at other moments when it decides it would be out of date; this is rather annoying when testing things, and my takes a long time every time since windows automatically backs up executable files whenever they are deleted. I would prefer if there was an option so that AGS never deleted the executable under any circumstances.
This is to make sure that people don't accidentally run the old EXE file and then start complaining that "AGS has lost my changes" and so on.
QuoteThis is a weird one... if you press then release the control key, then subsequently press escape, it will not trigger on_key_press.
That is a strange one, seems like it's something wierd with allegro, I'll have a look at it.
QuoteIf you import the global messages from a dumped file, the editor panel that shows them doesn't update and still lists the old one - even if you move to another panel and go back. It works when you quit and restart AGS.
Well spotted, I'll get it fixed.
(Edit by strazer: AGS v2.72 Beta 6: * Fixed Global Messages pane not updating after Importing Dumped Text.)
QuoteIf you quit the editor and decide not to save, it appears that AGS saves some editor information anyway, but not all of it. I believe the current sprite set is saved and the global script is not, or something. This is confusing. It also means you cannot go recover a mistake by quitting, unless you "force-quit" through ctrl-alt-del.
If you quit the editor and choose not to save, nothing at all is saved. The only information that AGS saves in that case is the editor window size, no game data is saved. What is giving you the impression that it is saving something?
QuoteA font with automatic outlining is wider than one without. In the GUI editor, this is not accounted for; thus any label that has text in an outlined font will look differently in-game.
This is only 1 pixel so shouldn't make a difference in the majority of cases, but I see your point. Is it GUI labels where this is particularly noticable?
QuoteMouse.SetPosition() is clipping the Y value to the range 0-200, even though the mouse freely moves within the 0-240 range, the 240 letterbox option is greyed out and checked. I've tried using SetBounds(0,0,0,0) and SetBounds(0,0,320,240) but this still happens. Game resolution is 320x240, 32 bit.
Thanks for spotting that, I'll get it fixed.
(Edit by strazer: AGS v2.72 Beta 6: * Fixed Mouse.SetPosition clipping the Y to 200, even in 320x240 games.)
QuoteAlso suggestion for a Mouse.IsOutsideWindow(), to know if, in windowed mode, whether the mouse (i.e. the Windows Mouse pointer) is outside the game window. I want to add a jitter to the mouse but not grab the mouse back if it is outside the game window. Allowing the player to acces the exit application button, or switch to another windows program.
I'm not sure how difficult this would be to implement, but I'll take a look at it.
Quote from: Pumaman on Mon 20/03/2006 15:38:34
QuoteThis is a weird one... if you press then release the control key, then subsequently press escape, it will not trigger on_key_press.
That is a strange one, seems like it's something wierd with allegro, I'll have a look at it.
Sounds like Windows' StickyKeys to me
Quote from: Pumaman on Mon 20/03/2006 15:38:34
QuoteWith the latest beta, it is still possible to get the "internal tree processing error"
Is there any way you can reliably reproduce this? I have tried to do it myself but have been unable to get the problem.
I'm afraid not. It happened only once, most of the time it works fine (including after reloading immediately). Is there any particular information I should write down if it happens again?
Quote
QuoteMy game is 16-bit color. So is my desktop. When I use RawDrawImage and the game is set to windowed mode, the following warning is generated: Sprite 156 colour depth 16-bit not same as background depth 32-bit. Weird.
The room background itself might be 32-bit. Unfortunately this bit of information is not shown anywhere in the editor (I'll add it for the next beta).
I should point out that these warnings didn't happen in the last non-beta version of AGS.
The room probably is 32-bit, since I've imported it from a 24-bit BMP file. However, I'm wondering why it works this way? If a game is 16 bit, then it won't ever display a 32-bit background as other than 16-bit, thus needlessly increasing disk size and processor load. Can I decrease my game size by (nearly) half by importing 16-bit backgrounds (and, assumedly, sprites)? And how do I do that?
QuoteYes, I'm not sure why it chooses TGA -- I guess it could be that it chooses the last one in the list. I'll see if I can change this.
This is probably some strangeness with the Windows File Dialog, I don't know that I can do anything about it.
IIRC there's some obscure flag you can use to fix both of these. If you're using CFileDialog, the parameter "LPCTSTR lpszDefExt" should fix the former. I'm not sure what windows quirk caused the latter, but it might be solved by adding an "all files|*.*" option to the end.
Quote
QuoteFrom a tester's report, I believe that Windows XP and/or windowed gameplay mode may interfere with SetMousePosition.
Interfere with it in what way?
Oh, sorry. Interfere as in causing the SetMousePosition() call to be ignored (or overridden) by the Windows kernel. By the way it wasn't related to windowed mode, it also happens in fullscreen mode, but not on all computers. Sorry that I can't be more helpful about this. I'll try if I can construct a demo for it.
Quote
However, with the sprite file don't confuse the actual creation of the .spr file (which will be skipped if unchanged) with the creation of the ac2game.dat data file (which includes the sprite file, and will be generated regardless).
Okay, but isn't that the complete game data file except it's not linked to the AGS runtime? Does a quicksave have to recreate that?
Quote
QuoteA font with automatic outlining is wider than one without. In the GUI editor, this is not accounted for; thus any label that has text in an outlined font will look differently in-game.
This is only 1 pixel so shouldn't make a difference in the majority of cases, but I see your point. Is it GUI labels where this is particularly noticable?
Yes, mostly labels; buttons tend to be graphical, or wider than their text. Case in point, I made some GUI labels with minimal width in order to fit more text on the screen, then when running the game I found out that all that text is actually a couple pixels wider so part of it gets moved to the next line. It's no big deal but it is unexpected.
Quote
QuoteIf you quit AGS and select not to save, the editor deletes your executable.
This is to make sure that people don't accidentally run the old EXE file and then start complaining that "AGS has lost my changes" and so on.
I understand that, but could you please have an option to turn this off? Pretty please with sugar on top? It does cause a lot of disk trashing here (with a 25-meg executable). Also, when I have the executable running and am editing in AGS in another window, AGS's attempts to delete the executable anyway and fails after a timeout. Then again I'm probably the only one coding 25-meg games on a low-end system :)
Quote from: Radiant on Mon 20/03/2006 16:44:34
The room probably is 32-bit, since I've imported it from a 24-bit BMP file. However, I'm wondering why it works this way? If a game is 16 bit, then it won't ever display a 32-bit background as other than 16-bit, thus needlessly increasing disk size and processor load. Can I decrease my game size by (nearly) half by importing 16-bit backgrounds (and, assumedly, sprites)? And how do I do that?
Current versions of AGS should automatically convert backgrounds to the game colour depth, so if you import one now it should get changed to 16-bit. This didn't used to happen so it might be that you originally imported the background with an earlier version of AGS.
Quote
Okay, but isn't that the complete game data file except it's not linked to the AGS runtime? Does a quicksave have to recreate that?
I've rechecked the code and a quick save does not recreate that. What makes you think it's saving something that it shouldn't?
Quote
I understand that, but could you please have an option to turn this off? Pretty please with sugar on top? It does cause a lot of disk trashing here (with a 25-meg executable). Also, when I have the executable running and am editing in AGS in another window, AGS's attempts to delete the executable anyway and fails after a timeout. Then again I'm probably the only one coding 25-meg games on a low-end system :)
Well, if you have some sort of application running that keeps backing up EXE files when they get deleted, could you turn it off or disable it for your game EXE? Alternatively, you could enable Split Resource Files which will significantly reduce the EXE file size.
Anyway, beta 6 is now up ... nothing in particular of note, various fixes and minor bits and bobs.
Quote from: Pumaman on Mon 20/03/2006 21:53:22
Current versions of AGS should automatically convert backgrounds to the game colour depth, so if you import one now it should get changed to 16-bit. This didn't used to happen so it might be that you originally imported the background with an earlier version of AGS.
Thanks, I'll go re-import everything then and see if that works (or, if you plan on implementing an indicator some time soon, I'll wait for that).
Speaking of which - it would be rather useful if, in the sprite list, there was an indicator as to which sprites were in a different resolution (e.g. 640x480) or in a different color depth (because those are likely an author's mistake that is hard to see as of now). Maybe in the right-click menu "select all sprites with such-and-such resolution" would help.
QuoteQuote
Okay, but isn't that the complete game data file except it's not linked to the AGS runtime? Does a quicksave have to recreate that?
I've rechecked the code and a quick save does not recreate that. What makes you think it's saving something that it shouldn't?
Mainly the amount of time it takes to quicksave anything. Come to think of it that could also be because my global script is rather large.
QuoteWell, if you have some sort of application running that keeps backing up EXE files when they get deleted, could you turn it off or disable it for your game EXE?
Not really - it is part of windows' really idiotic System Restore function, that is so integrated with everything that I have been unable to turn it off. When I manually delete big EXEs, I rename them first. I'll give split resources a try, though.
Speaking of split reosurces. This is probably a rather complex idea, but it would be really nifty for testing purposes if it were possible to upgrade things without having to redistribute the entire game. In particular, the global script or any particular room file. You're probably aware that Sierra games allow this (they always look for 'loose' resource files first, and if none are found they check their big library files; thus you can 'upgrade' any script by simply dumping a script file in the game directory). So I guess this would be something like "if a file 42.crm (or globalscript.txt) exists in the current directory, load that instead of grabbing it from the resource library".
Hmm...that last suggestion sounds potentially dangerous to me.
Thanks for the new beta Chris.
Quote from: monkey_05_06 on Mon 20/03/2006 22:35:38
Hmm...that last suggestion sounds potentially dangerous to me.
You mean that I can haxx0r your game by replacing one of the rooms by mine? Sure, but some kind of signature code could prevent that, and at any rate I fail to see how that would help me finish your game easier, or screw it up royally, or indeed do anything that isn't completely pointless.
I like the resource upgrade idea and I think it would be useful.
Full support here.
Why are we downloading versions of games *just released* again and again? Most of games are released untested (or poorly tested, to be correct), and bugs will be noticed very quickly. But for a 40+ MB game, well... That's a pain to download whole thing again just to prevent some stupid lockup bug in second room.
Bugfixes would be much easier to make this way. Not sure how difficult would it be to implement this, though...
Quote from: Radiant on Mon 20/03/2006 22:32:52
So I guess this would be something like "if a file 42.crm (or globalscript.txt) exists in the current directory, load that instead of grabbing it from the resource library".
I think this is supported already since AC era :P , works for rooms, musics, sounds, etc. resources, "large" "global" changes like adding a sprite or changing the global script (since global script was
compiled into the game's main chunk) may require a complete change though.
Interesting that beta 5 had some weird bug that caused game to crash when testing. Immediately after the game loads, without even starting screen coming up, AGS crashed back to editor and gave a message about engine "shut down improperly" with no clearer text of error.
Tested both with my old game (I made no changes from beta4, and it ran well with that one) and also a default game template, with only room1.crm added (just a random BG) so it could be tested.
When my project crashed, I quite started to panic, since CJ always warns about backing up the game... But then noticed that next version is out, updated - and no problem anymore.
Can't figure out from bugfixes list neither, I don't have anything listed that could cause the crash.
But my guess is that it's something about palette.
Well, nevermind anymore.
Quote"large" "global" changes like adding a sprite or changing the global script (since global script was compiled into the game's main chunk) may require a complete change though.
What about a small recompiler? Like, you distribute fixed resource and small EXE file, which integrates the resource into game? Nowadays, many games have patching utilities, while updating, there's always updated resources AND a little program that applies them? Something like mini-AGS, without user interaction or GUIs, just a compiler. It would be smaller indeed.
For something like the patching option, you should check out ClickTeam's freeware version of Patchmaker:
http://www.clickteam.com/English/patch_maker.htm
Basically, you point the program to the directory containing your old compiled game files. In the other box, you point it to the folder containing the latest compiled version of your game with all the bug fixes included. You can then make tweaks to various settings and exclude files you do not wish to update etc. When you're done, it'll compile an .exe patch using only the data that has changed between versions of your game to keep filesize to a minimum.
PatchMaker might work well on smaller AGS games; but as CJ once said, AGS compiles its resource files in an arbitrary manner. This being the case, PatchMaker may still compile a lot of redundant data. Although, you might get smaller patch file sizes from if you compile your AGS game into a single executable file without any resource files.
I think a built-in AGS patch utility would be a great addition, but likely a lot of work for CJ. A suitable alternative for minor room-related bugs might be to allow the user to password protect their .crm files, so that new versions could be placed in the game directory if needed, without the worry that anybody else can open them up and view/change them in the editor?
Ah, now this tracker entry (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/tracker.php?action=detail&id=321) makes a lot more sense.
QuoteThanks, I'll go re-import everything then and see if that works (or, if you plan on implementing an indicator some time soon, I'll wait for that).
Beta 6 will display the colour depth on the Room Settings pane, next to the Relative Size.
QuoteSpeaking of which - it would be rather useful if, in the sprite list, there was an indicator as to which sprites were in a different resolution (e.g. 640x480) or in a different color depth (because those are likely an author's mistake that is hard to see as of now). Maybe in the right-click menu "select all sprites with such-and-such resolution" would help.
That's not a bad idea -- it does do this if you use hi-color sprites in an 8-bit game, but not otherwise.
QuoteNot really - it is part of windows' really idiotic System Restore function, that is so integrated with everything that I have been unable to turn it off. When I manually delete big EXEs, I rename them first. I'll give split resources a try, though.
Sounds annoying, it must be possible to turn that off. I've never noticed it doing anything myself.
QuoteSpeaking of split reosurces. This is probably a rather complex idea, but it would be really nifty for testing purposes if it were possible to upgrade things without having to redistribute the entire game. In particular, the global script or any particular room file. You're probably aware that Sierra games allow this (they always look for 'loose' resource files first, and if none are found they check their big library files; thus you can 'upgrade' any script by simply dumping a script file in the game directory). So I guess this would be something like "if a file 42.crm (or globalscript.txt) exists in the current directory, load that instead of grabbing it from the resource library".
As Gilbot says, this is already supported. You can place room42.crm in your Compiled and it will override the version that's compiled into the exe; it also works for sounds, etc; but the trouble is of course that if you do this, anyone can open those files in the editor.
There's a request outstanding to either password protect room files, or better still, to enable compiling "mini-patch" type things which would create a DAT file with just a specific set of rooms and which would take precedence over the main EXE file.
QuoteWhen my project crashed, I quite started to panic, since CJ always warns about backing up the game...
This isn't just idle advice, you know :P
It only takes 2 seconds to back up your game; a simple Copy & Paste of the game folder and you're sorted. Really people, it's not hard to do :P
Quote from: Pumaman on Tue 21/03/2006 19:46:48
There's a request outstanding to either password protect room files, or better still, to enable compiling "mini-patch" type things which would create a DAT file with just a specific set of rooms and which would take precedence over the main EXE file.
Password protected rooms? Don't look back to good o' AC! :=
Spoiler
Well, to be serious, I think one problem is, AGS game data is not that secured anyway (most data are not encrypted as far as I know), so I think an even better choice was maybe, provide an option in the editor to save an encrypted room (maybe with extension .erm), and that room cannot be loaded back into the editor for editting anymore (not even with passwords, you can keep the original crm file for updating though), if a .erm file is placed in a game's folder teh engine will use it first. And if this is possible, I'll also suggest when saving a game in the editor you may have an option to save the rooms encrypted into the executable (make it an option, otherwise it would be annoyingly wasting time when testing games) when you feel the game's ready for public release.
Quote from: Pumaman on Tue 21/03/2006 19:46:48
There's a request outstanding to either password protect room files, or better still, to enable compiling "mini-patch" type things which would create a DAT file with just a specific set of rooms and which would take precedence over the main EXE file.
Hi Pumaman, about this...
how about .zip support like in the Quake engine where they had renamed .zip files that the game engine would be able to query the enclosed filenames, and extract them on demand as fi they were simply present in the directory... then everyone can easily make compressed passworded data files simply with a copy of winzip?
cheers,
lemmy
The problem with encrypting data is that the engine has to be able to open it. Therefore you can never have true data encryption in a situation like this, since the game engine needs to know the password/key in order to extract the game data and therefore it can't be protected to the same extent as you could a personal zip file where only you know the password.
Also, encryption obviously adds to the amount of time it takes to read the data files, and thus has a performance impact.
The more basic request of a simple password protection on room files is still possible of course, but it can never be water-tight.
Quote from: Pumaman on Tue 21/03/2006 19:46:48
QuoteThanks, I'll go re-import everything then and see if that works (or, if you plan on implementing an indicator some time soon, I'll wait for that).
Beta 6 will display the colour depth on the Room Settings pane, next to the Relative Size.
For my SpriteFonts module, it would be nice to know a Room's BG depth
at runtime and act diffeently accordingly. Any chance of a room.color_depth to go alongside the system.color_depth?
If I declare a struct containing an array like this
struct thingy {
int a, b, c[10], d;
};
then variable d won't show up in the syntax completion.
If I use a non-existent operator such as *= the compiler treats this as an error in the keyword preceding it; e.g.
blup *= 2;
gives an error about the word 'blup' (even if it's a legal var) rather than about the operator.
Small feature request:
*= /= &= |= %=
I keep using these by reflex and they don't exist in AGS.
Game.GlobalMessages[500].LowerCase () is accepted by the syntax completer, but not the compiler ('instance required')
string s1; s1.LowerCase () is not accepted by the syntax completer, nor by the compiler ('not a public member')
Quote from: SSH on Sat 25/03/2006 16:31:04
For my SpriteFonts module, it would be nice to know a Room's BG depth at runtime and act diffeently accordingly. Any chance of a room.color_depth to go alongside the system.color_depth?
Beta 7 adds this.
QuoteIf I declare a struct containing an array like this
struct thingy {
int a, b, c[10], d;
};
then variable d won't show up in the syntax completion.
Ok, I'll look into this.
(Edit by strazer: AGS v2.72 RC 1: * Fixed autocomplete not picking up definitions of multiple variables on one line when one was an array.)
QuoteIf I use a non-existent operator such as *= the compiler treats this as an error in the keyword preceding it;
I wouldn't really say that this is an issue, it's just the way the compiler works. Giving you the identifier preceding it should be close enough to allow you to track down the problem.
Quote*= /= &= |= %=
I keep using these by reflex and they don't exist in AGS.
Sounds like a reasonable request, it is something anyone else would use?
QuoteGame.GlobalMessages[500].LowerCase () is accepted by the syntax completer, but not the compiler ('instance required')
Yes, this is an issue with the compiler at the moment, it doesn't support instance methods on static properties, I need to implement that at some point. The workaround is quite easy though.
Quotestring s1; s1.LowerCase () is not accepted by the syntax completer, nor by the compiler ('not a public member')
Indeed, because it's an old-style string. Old style strings are not objects, hence that will not work.
I tend to want to use ^= quite a lot as a quick toggle, don't forget that one. Also float versions where applicable.
While I'm here, I've noticed that the crossfade between rooms, esp. in beta 6, is now so fast it looks like an instant change.Ã,Â
And I can't get Object.ManualScaling to work, complains about not being able to import the function. Maybe this is wip.
Thank you very much for all the WAYPOINT functions.
Great works ;D
Strange bug... the compiler occasionally, but not always, chokes if two multiline comments are sequential. For instance,
/****** Dataset header ******/
/*
Earth */
gives the error "unexpected 'Earth'".
Quote from: Pumaman on Sat 14/01/2006 22:47:30
* Fixed issue where it was possible to characters to get stuck on top of each other.
I sure hoped they named this the Three Stooges bug! :P
Quote from: Pumaman on Sat 14/01/2006 22:47:30* Added System.Gamma and SupportsGammaControl
Awesome! No more worries about screens being too dark. Let's hope that everyone starts implementing this function. Thanks, CJ.
Edit: Except for one small thing - it doesn't seem to work! I put this code into my room script enter room after fadein interaction:
if (System.SupportsGammaControl) {
Wait(200);
System.Gamma = 10;
}And I didn't see any difference at all on the screen once the blocking period ended. I'm doing this on my laptop, so I wonder if the gamma only works on CRT screens - but that would be very strange. The game is 32 bit, I'm running in full screen mode, and the System.SupportsGammaControl must return as True since the Wait(200) command does run.
QuoteWhile I'm here, I've noticed that the crossfade between rooms, esp. in beta 6, is now so fast it looks like an instant change.
Has anyone else noticed this? I'll have a look at it.
QuoteAnd I can't get Object.ManualScaling to work, complains about not being able to import the function. Maybe this is wip.
The property is called Object.IgnoreScaling -- is there a typo in the manual somewhere where it gives you the wrong name?
QuoteStrange bug... the compiler occasionally, but not always, chokes if two multiline comments are sequential
Strange, I'll look into it.
(Edit by strazer: AGS v2.72 RC 1: * Fixed block comment parsing sometimes not working properly if /* was the last thing on a line)
QuoteAnd I didn't see any difference at all on the screen once the blocking period ended. I'm doing this on my laptop, so I wonder if the gamma only works on CRT screens - but that would be very strange. The game is 32 bit, I'm running in full screen mode, and the System.SupportsGammaControl must return as True since the Wait(200) command does run.
Has anyone else tried this feature, and had success? It seems to work fine for me, I wonder if some graphics cards report that they support the feature, but actually don't...
It's certainly not a CRT issue, because I have a TFT and it works.
EDIT: I'm not sure if the Gamma feature will work with 8-bit games, but that should'nt be an issue as yours is 32-bit
Quote from: Pumaman on Tue 11/04/2006 18:26:57I wonder if some graphics cards report that they support the feature, but actually don't...
My laptop has a ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 Pro video card. It does support gamma settings trough the desktop properties and in other games, but of course it could have an Allegro/DirectDraw incompability of some kind.
Edit: Neither positive nor negative values have any visible effect. Not even 0.
Quote from: Pumaman on Tue 11/04/2006 18:26:57
Has anyone else tried this feature, and had success? It seems to work fine for me, I wonder if some graphics cards report that they support the feature, but actually don't...
It works perfectly on my laptop (ATI Mobility Radeon 9700).
But setting the gamma to 0 on my desktop (NVIDIA GeForce 5900XT and a CRT) doesn't make the screen black. It looks like a photo negative.
Well it's odd because object[0].ManualScaling=true; compiles and the ManualScaling appears in the auto complete but you get the error
Script link failed: Runtime error: unresolved import 'Object::get_ManualScaling'
when you try to run.
i know its a tad off topic but when is AGS 2.72 going to be completely finished and also, when are you gonna make AGS 3
The official response is probably "When it's finished", but looking at past releases should give you an estimate:
VERSION 2.71, December 2005
VERSION 2.7, May 2005
VERSION 2.62, November 2004
VERSION 2.61, May 2004
...
The mathematically correct answer would thus be:
2.72: This May
AGS 3: April 2010
Hope this helped ;)
What will be likely changed between AGS 2 and AGS 3
sorry to be offtopic
I think a complete rewrite was mentioned at some point. But since AGS 3 is a long way off, it's impossible to say for sure what will change.
Please keep on topic from now on.
AGS 3 was made a few months ago, but it took over chris' body and made ROBOCHRIS...
Wait, this really isnt the place to be off topic...
CJ, you might want to take a look at this thread (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=26178) in the Beginners Forum. A user reported a weird crash with v2.72. Maybe you can make sense of it.
QuoteWell it's odd because object[0].ManualScaling=true; compiles and the ManualScaling appears in the auto complete but you get the error
Script link failed: Runtime error: unresolved import 'Object::get_ManualScaling'
Oops, that shouldn't be in the autocomplete. Sorry about that, I'll remove it.
(Edit by strazer: AGS v2.72 RC 1: * Removed Object.ManualScaling and Object.Scaling from autocomplete, since they do not actually exist)
QuoteCJ, you might want to take a look at this thread in the Beginners Forum. A user reported a weird crash with v2.72. Maybe you can make sense of it.
Bit strange, I'll have to keep an eye out for anything like that happening again.
Ok, RC 1 is now up, which adds a few bits and bobs.
---------------------------
Illegal exception
---------------------------
An exception 0xC0000005 occured in ACWIN.EXE at EIP = 0x0044C71B ; program pointer is -42, ACI version 2.72.913, gtags (2039,18)
AGS cannot continue, this exception was fatal. Please note down the numbers
above, remember what you were doing at the time and notify CJ on the Tech
forum.
in Bones (line 72)
from XML (line 108)
from XML (line 197)
from Global script (line 68)
Bones line 72 is:
Ã, if (this.ds!=null) this.ds.Delete();
possibly significant is that this is occuring during game_start after some debug messages were displayed with Display (without a room loaded)
this.ds is a DynamicSprite, btw.
Also, I've noticed some strange behaviour with Strings during game_start, too. Its as if the managed objecet garbage collection isn't quite initialised properly or something...
Can you upload an example that causes this crash?
Yes, I've PM-ed the link
Thanks, I'll look into it.
In the meantime, I've discovered that GUI import/export is broken in RC 1, so don't use it if you'll be doing any GUI importing/exporting. I'll get it fixed for RC 2.
(Edit by strazer: AGS v2.72 RC 2: * Fixed GUI import/export which broke on RC 1.)
Ok, I've tracked down your problem to a bug in AGS, whereby it will crash if you call DynamicSprite.Delete from within game_start. I'll get it fixed.
(Edit by strazer: AGS v2.72 RC 2: * Fixed crash if a dynamic sprite was deleted in game_start)
By the way SSH, I noticed in your Bones::Swap method some comments that you were getting wierd crashes trying to swap pointers -- if this is the case, please report it as a bug so that I can look into it.
I'm not sure if this has been reported yet, but Mouse.SetPosition seems to divide the coordinates by two when the game is run with a 2x graphic filter. (The game is 640x400 and I ran the game in 320x200 with the 2x filter.)
That's probably not a bug, no matter the game's in 640x400 or 320x200, it's game screen resolution is always 320x200.
Uhm, is there a reason why the RC doesn't have a setup.exe file? ???
Beta versions only contain files changed from the latest stable version. You have to extract them over a copy of v2.71.
But AFAIK the editor itself doesn't contain a setup.exe anyway? Isn't it generated for each game in the compiled folder?
It is usually generated based on the setup.exe file provided I thought. And the problem is that, if I'm right, this version contains a different setup.exe with the graphic filters and all that jazz...
Quote from: Gilbot V7000a on Sun 28/05/2006 08:46:40
That's probably not a bug, no matter the game's in 640x400 or 320x200, it's game screen resolution is always 320x200.
Yes, but the mouse coordinates are in 320x200. It's obviously some sort of a bug since it works perfectly in 320x200 with no filters and in its original resolution 640x400 without filters.
And, yeah, the setup.exe isn't generated anymore.
Quote from: Pumaman on Sun 18/12/2005 13:04:22
AGS v2.71:
* Renamed the setup.exe in the AGS distribution to setup.dat to prevent unzip programs from trying to "install" it.
I guess from the setup.dat file the winsetup.exe in a game's compiled folder is created.
However, this winsetup.exe only calls "game.exe -setup". So the setup is actually integrated into the game exe itself.
AJA: Are you saying that your game doesn't have a winsetup.exe generated in its Compiled folder anymore?
Quote from: AJA on Sun 28/05/2006 19:29:39
Yes, but the mouse coordinates are in 320x200. It's obviously some sort of a bug since it works perfectly in 320x200 with no filters and in its original resolution 640x400 without filters.
Actually I don't quite understand what you meaned, did you mean, the mouse position was restricted to be set on the upper left screen when the 2X filter is used?
Quote from: strazer on Sun 28/05/2006 20:16:48
AJA: Are you saying that your game doesn't have a winsetup.exe generated in its Compiled folder anymore?
Yup, no setup of any kind.
Quote from: Gilbot V7000a on Mon 29/05/2006 02:19:22
Actually I don't quite understand what you meaned, did you mean, the mouse position was restricted to be set on the upper left screen when the 2X filter is used?
This is how it goes: The room script calls Mouse.SetPosition(30, 30). Normally (when playing in 640x400 or 320x200) the cursor moves to the coordinates 30,30 on screen which is the same spot whether you're playing in 320x200 or 640x400. When I start the game using a 2x filter the mouse position changes to something closer to (15, 15), which is half of the intended position.
I see now, so when it's set to (320x200) the cursor is somewhere at the centre of the screen right? That's certainly a glitch.
Quote from: Gilbot V7000a on Tue 30/05/2006 02:33:27
I see now, so when it's set to (320x200) the cursor is somewhere at the centre of the screen right? That's certainly a glitch.
Yeah, that's right.
The mouse.SetPosition wierdness also seems to extend to mouse.SetBounds.
QuoteI'm not sure if this has been reported yet, but Mouse.SetPosition seems to divide the coordinates by two when the game is run with a 2x graphic filter. (The game is 640x400 and I ran the game in 320x200 with the 2x filter.)
Well spotted, this is indeed a bug, thanks for pointing it out, I'll get it fixed.
QuoteThe mouse.SetPosition wierdness also seems to extend to mouse.SetBounds.
Thanks, that's a bug too. I'll get them fixed.
(Edit by strazer: AGS v2.72 RC 2: * Fixed mouse.SetPosition and mouse.SetBounds not working properly with graphic filters.)
Any chances of also letting GUI/Controls have custom properties?
Also I think not all of the properties on the GUI editor can be changed at runtime, though that might be intended.
No idea how long this bug (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=26809) has been here, since it was found by someone using the interaction editor, which I dont.
Anyway:
It seems that if someone uses the interaction editor to start an object animating, firstly the "Script equivalent" is wrong at the bottom as it doesn't mention the repeat parameter. Secondly, it seems to do the animation as a blocking one, even if repeat is set. Due to the wierdness of the AGS "thread" system this blocks the interaction thread but not the script one, so the script runs fine, however in a room with "hide player character" it seems that this hiding occurs in the interaction thread after the "before fadein" is run and so the player character appears for 1 frame after the room fades in. or something liek that. Anyway, my suggestions:
player is hidden before and "before fadein" stuff
Interaction animations should be non-blocking if they use the repeat option
The script equivalent should be fixed
EDIT:
And while I'm here, I just got this from both 2.71 and 2.72:
---------------------------
Illegal exception
---------------------------
An exception 0xC00000FD occured in ACWIN.EXE at EIP = 0x00448346 ; program pointer is +6, ACI version 2.72.913, gtags (1,11)
in Global script (line 193)
from Global script (line 1024)
Around Line 193 is:
String RemoveExtension(String name){
//removes the extension of a string
int pos=name.Contains(EXTENSION_IDENTIFIER); // LINE 193
if (Extension(name)>0) {
// do something
if (pos<1) Display("%d %d", pos, name.Length);
return name.Truncate(pos);
}
else return name;
}
and also, at top of script:
#define EXTENSION_IDENTIFIER ">"
and i put a Display in the code before the call at line 1024 to see what the string being passed was and:
a) It was "sign>sd"
b) It didn't crash when I had the Display in there...
Quote from: SupSuper on Sun 04/06/2006 00:34:04
Any chances of also letting GUI/Controls have custom properties?
Also I think not all of the properties on the GUI editor can be changed at runtime, though that might be intended.
If you would find having custom properties on GUI controls useful, please post it as a suggestion and we can see whether anyone else is interested.
As for the properties that you can't change, which property do you need to change that you can't?
QuoteIt seems that if someone uses the interaction editor to start an object animating, firstly the "Script equivalent" is wrong at the bottom as it doesn't mention the repeat parameter. Secondly, it seems to do the animation as a blocking one, even if repeat is set. Due to the wierdness of the AGS "thread" system this blocks the interaction thread but not the script one, so the script runs fine, however in a room with "hide player character" it seems that this hiding occurs in the interaction thread after the "before fadein" is run and so the player character appears for 1 frame after the room fades in. or something liek that. Anyway, my suggestions:
Hmm, I'm really not sure what to do with the interaction editor. On the one hand it's a good introduction for newbies to the scripting system, but on the other hand it's a pain in the ass to maintain and I'm not sure whether it's really worth it. I'll have to have a think.
QuoteAnd while I'm here, I just got this from both 2.71 and 2.72:
An exception 0xC00000FD occured in ACWIN.EXE at EIP = 0x00448346 ; program pointer is +6, ACI version 2.72.913, gtags (1,11)
in Global script (line 193)
from Global script (line 1024)
Any chance you could upload a game that demonstrates the problem? I tried a similar function but was unable to get it to crash.
Quote from: Pumaman on Mon 05/06/2006 20:12:40
Hmm, I'm really not sure what to do with the interaction editor. On the one hand it's a good introduction for newbies to the scripting system, but on the other hand it's a pain in the ass to maintain and I'm not sure whether it's really worth it. I'll have to have a think.
Perhaps if there was a way you could open up the interaction editor coding via a COM plugin interface? So that the interaction editor actually created scripts with those script equivalent things and if you opened up that part of AGS it could free you from maintaining it. Or something?
Quote
Any chance you could upload a game that demonstrates the problem? I tried a similar function but was unable to get it to crash.
EDIT: I sent it to you via PM, but now I realise it was just a function calling itself via ProcessClick infinitely and overflowing the function call stack... but the error message could be friendlier.
Quote from: Pumaman on Mon 05/06/2006 20:12:40As for the properties that you can't change, which property do you need to change that you can't?
Formatting properties like a GUI's background color or border color, color/images for other controls like ListBox or Slider, etc. can't be changed at runtime, and this would prove useful for creating "skinnable" controls at runtime.
On the other hand, there's also properties like Transparency which can only be set through scripts and not the GUI editor. It's just a bit less trouble if you don't have to stick a lot of lines in on_game_start. ;)
Btw, a minor bug: GUIControl.AsInvWindow is listed in the help file as GUIControl.InvWindow which makes the context-sensitive help not work for that function.
QuotePerhaps if there was a way you could open up the interaction editor coding via a COM plugin interface? So that the interaction editor actually created scripts with those script equivalent things and if you opened up that part of AGS it could free you from maintaining it. Or something?
Something like that might work, yeah. In a way, the interaction editor is only designed to be used briefly to introduce people to AGS -- as far as I know, everyone moves to scripting once they've got used to using AGS.
QuoteEDIT: I sent it to you via PM, but now I realise it was just a function calling itself via ProcessClick infinitely and overflowing the function call stack... but the error message could be friendlier.
Hmm, ah that's a difficult one. Because ProcessClick is a delayed-response function, it's not actually exceeding the script's call stack, but internally AGS is blowing its stack. I'll have to see if I can catch this somehow.
(Edit by strazer: AGS v2.72 RC 2: * Fixed recursive calls to delayed-response functions like ProcessClick crashing the engine, instead an error is now generated)
QuoteFormatting properties like a GUI's background color or border color, color/images for other controls like ListBox or Slider, etc. can't be changed at runtime, and this would prove useful for creating "skinnable" controls at runtime.
Yep that's fair enough, I think there's an outstanding request for these to be added, so it's something that I'll do at some point.
QuoteBtw, a minor bug: GUIControl.AsInvWindow is listed in the help file as GUIControl.InvWindow which makes the context-sensitive help not work for that function.
Well spotted thanks, I'll fix that.
(Edit by strazer: Fixed in AGS v2.72 RC 2a)
Don't know if someone already said that: animated backgrounds don't work in RC 1! It's always saying "the old background has a color-depth of 8 bit, the new one has 16 bit", but they have THE SAME color-depth (16-bit). I tried it with .bmp and .png, it didnt work. And I'm really sure they have the same color-depth, because I got the new frames with copying the old ones and editing them. So it would be really strange if they had not the same color-depth ;) and I saved them more than one time to be sure they have the same.
So please fix that because I'd love to use animated backgrounds again :)
EDIT: oh I forgot to say: game resolution is 320x240 and game color-depth is 16 bit
EDIT NO2: owwww no one more mistake! it said that the NEW backgroudn has only 8-bit and the old one (main-background) 16-bit. sorry
EDIT NO3: I tried it with .pcx and now it works. But .bmp and .png didnt
Quote from: BlueDeath on Wed 07/06/2006 23:43:37
I'm really sure they have the same color-depth, because I got the new frames with copying the old ones and editing them. So it would be really strange if they had not the same color-depth ;)
Actually I would not be at all surprised if they did have a different colour depth. I have had this problem many times when I open a file in photoshop (for example) do a few edits without adding any more levels of transparancy and save it again--it often comes out with a lot more colours unless I force the colour depth via the overhead menu. It happens quite frequently. Since it worked with pcx, I suspect that your problem is that the program you are using uses better colour ordering with pcx than with png or bmp.
Quote---------------------------
Illegal exception
---------------------------
An exception 0xC0000005 occured in ACWIN.EXE at EIP = 0x0047A6D5 ; program pointer is +6, ACI version 2.72.915, gtags (2,0)
AGS cannot continue, this exception was fatal. Please note down the numbers above, remember what you were doing at the time and notify CJ on the Tech forum.
in Global script (line 28)
Most versions of Windows allow you to press Ctrl+C now to copy this entire message to the clipboard for easy reporting.
---------------------------
OKÃ, Ã,Â
---------------------------
I got that when I had this kind of script:
int mon=1;
#sectionstart repeatedly_executeÃ,Â
function repeatedly_execute() {
String MoneyText = String.Format("Money: %s", mon); //This is line 28
lblMoney.Text = MoneyText;
}
#sectionend repeatedly_execute
How weird. This kind of script has worked before.
Shouldn't this:
String MoneyText = String.Format("Money: %s", mon); //This is line 28
be:
String MoneyText = String.Format("Money: %d", mon); //This is line 28
since mon is an int, not a string?
Yes, at the moment if you use the wrong token (ie. %s rather than %d or vice versa) it can crash the game. At some point I'd like to make this more user friendly, but for now it's an unfortunate 'feature'.
Edit by strazer:
Tracker'd: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/tracker.php?action=detail&id=577
Oh, haha! How silly of me! Of course it should be %d. Sorry about that. :P
There was some talk earlier about increasing the maximum number of controls per GUI. Would it be possible to have that for 2.72? I'm hoping it's as easy as changing a #define for you :)
Bug? RawDrawFrameTransparent() disallows drawing the 'current' background frame over itself. However, after doing e.g. RawClearScreen, doing so may actually make sense.
Quote from: Radiant on Sat 10/06/2006 08:49:07
There was some talk earlier about increasing the maximum number of controls per GUI. Would it be possible to have that for 2.72? I'm hoping it's as easy as changing a #define for you :)
I'll take a look at it.
QuoteBug? RawDrawFrameTransparent() disallows drawing the 'current' background frame over itself. However, after doing e.g. RawClearScreen, doing so may actually make sense.
Yes, but if you did RawClearScreen then the current background frame would now be black, so drawing black on top of black wouldn't really make sense...
@color-depth-problem: I checked the color-depth of both pictures, and it was 8-bit. I wondered a bit because it should be 16-bit, but maybe the program saved it as 8-bit because it has only a few colours...
But 8-bit and 8-bit should work too, shouldn't it? So why AGS is telling my something about 16-bit and 8-bit?
EDIT: ummmm okay game color-depth is 16-bit. maybe that's the problem? but there should be a better message for that, and not only it doesn't fit with the main background - and it shouldn't even be possible to import the first background with 8-bit!
Did you import befoer you switched to 16-bit?
Small bug: the 'recompile voice packs' option includes any MP3/OGG files in the relevant directories, even though files not named "Music???" and "Sound???" won't actually ever be used (e.g. "backuptune3.mp3")
Oh yeah, I notcied the other day that although importing an old game forces an all-room recompile, using an old template DOESN'T, even though its effectively the same issue...
Something's rotten in the state of Denmark:
I'm getting this message when I try to compile my game in debug:
There was an error compiling your script. The problem was:
In: 'Internal character defines'
Error (line 62): macro 'DEBUG' already defined
Do you want to fix the script now? (Your game has not been saved).
so I click yes, and:
The error occured in an internal AGS script. This should never happen; try re-installing the latest version of AGS.
It may have been because I stupidly named one of the modules DEBUG (with all caps) that would house all my debug mode-only code. I got rid of it, but I still get the error if I try to compile with debug mode.
Would it be possible that it's also used in other rooms and/or the header script?
I'll suggest trying a more thorough search.
Maybe rebuild all the rooms also.
I realized that not only I named a module debug but also I named the GUI that contails all my debug controls DEBUG as well. whoops. It's just that AGS didn't give a good warning for me to get it. :P
Right, well I'm bored of 2.72, so RC 2 is now up. Hopefully it can be released before long.
teh yay! Now I can't wait for AGS Vista beta 1 :=
Cheers CJ, thanks a bunch for the enhanced editor line length and the new text box functionality!
Wonderful!
Uh... the setup.exe file is still missing, and it's a totally different one for RC2, isn't it?
Also, you should say something about the new RC on the Release Something! thread ;)
QuoteSOME FILES ARE MISSING, YOU NEED TO GRAB THE MISSING FILES FROM THE 2.71 FINAL DISTRIBUTION
¬¬ quote?
I thought the new setup file was different from the 2.71 dist.
I think it's mentioned many times, the so-called setup file does nothing other than calling:
GAMENAME --setup
So, normally setup.exe seldomly need an update, whenever the config programme is updated most of the times it's agswin.exe which is updated.
D'oh! :P
I'm so out of touch... the setup.dat file is what I was looking for! ¬¬
---------------------------
Illegal exception
---------------------------
An exception 0xC0000005 occured in ACWIN.EXE at EIP = 0x0040A6E0 ; program pointer is +6, ACI version 2.72.917, gtags (3,0)
AGS cannot continue, this exception was fatal. Please note down the numbers above, remember what you were doing at the time and notify CJ on the Tech forum.
in Room 2 script (line 14)
That line is in First Time Player Enters Room, and is "PlaySound (1);". It worked fine before.
Sounds seem to miss being triggered first time around. If I interact with something, and a sound is meant to be played, I get silence. If I interact with it again, THEN the sound plays.
:-\
In the 'conversation dialog topics' menu, the control that lists all the names of the dialogs is too narrow. If you have more than 40 or so, 20% of its size is taken up by a vertical scrollbar and this makes reading the names somewhat awkward.
Also, if you click on any name in this control, the entire screen flashes for a second. Not sure why.
Quote from: LimpingFish on Sun 18/06/2006 00:50:30
---------------------------
Illegal exception
---------------------------
An exception 0xC0000005 occured in ACWIN.EXE at EIP = 0x0040A6E0 ; program pointer is +6, ACI version 2.72.917, gtags (3,0)
AGS cannot continue, this exception was fatal. Please note down the numbers above, remember what you were doing at the time and notify CJ on the Tech forum.
in Room 2 script (line 14)
That line is in First Time Player Enters Room, and is "PlaySound (1);". It worked fine before.
Sounds seem to miss being triggered first time around. If I interact with something, and a sound is meant to be played, I get silence. If I interact with it again, THEN the sound plays.
:-\
I got the the same thing here. I get kicked out of the game when the game is suppose to play sound effect and when I restart the game again, it never happens then. It is really bad and strange for sure.Ã, It has never happened before until I downloaded and installed the latest AGS version. Maybe Chris was thinking too much about who will win in the World cup football in this time. ;)
PS: Has anyone played a handball computer game before? ButI have never saw any computer handball game wich look like Fifa and NBA game.
And I know it is very difficult to make a code script for such game like that.
Yes, there seems to be a problem playing sounds in RC 2. Sorry about that, I'll look into it.
I was wondering why my sounds were playing sometimes. and then my game crashed...
Quote from: Pumaman on Tue 06/06/2006 20:28:15Quote from: SupSuper on Tue 06/06/2006 00:19:17Btw, a minor bug: GUIControl.AsInvWindow is listed in the help file as GUIControl.InvWindow which makes the context-sensitive help not work for that function.
Well spotted thanks, I'll fix that.
This isn't fixed in RC 2, is it?
I had very strange problem with inventory in RC2,
So, i added inventory 6, when i went in game and selected new inventory game crashed and reported error.
Something like that, -6 runing events, -> under on_mouse click in line 130.
******
line 130 is:
if (button == eMouseLeftInv) player.ActiveInventory = inventory[game.inv_activated];//.RunInteraction(mouse.Mode);
******
I added two new inventories 7 and 8, and both encountered same error, but all items below 6 (5,4,3,2,1) worked normaly. So i tried this few times, and now it works normaly, WITHOUT me changing ANY CODE !
full script under on_mouse click:
**********
#sectionstart on_mouse_click // DO NOT EDIT OR REMOVE THIS LINE
function on_mouse_click(MouseButton button) {
// called when a mouse button is clicked. button is either LEFT or RIGHT
if (IsGamePaused() == 1) {
// Game is paused, so do nothing (ie. don't allow mouse click)
}
// Inventory Stuff //
if (button == eMouseLeftInv) player.ActiveInventory = inventory[game.inv_activated];//.RunInteraction(mouse.Mode);
if (button == eMouseRightInv) {
if (inventory[game.inv_activated].ID == 1) gExtrainv.SetPosition(131,111);
if (inventory[game.inv_activated].ID == 2) gExtrainv.SetPosition(174,111);
if (inventory[game.inv_activated].ID == 3) gExtrainv.SetPosition(217,111);
if (inventory[game.inv_activated].ID == 4) gExtrainv.SetPosition(260,111);
gExtrainv.Visible=true;
}
// end
// Closing Extrainv GUI //
if (gExtrainv.Visible==true) {
if (((mouse.IsButtonDown(eMouseLeft)) || (mouse.IsButtonDown(eMouseRight))) && (GUI.GetAtScreenXY(mouse.x, mouse.y) != gExtrainv)) {
gExtrainv.Visible=false;
}
}
// end
if (mouse.IsButtonDown(eMouseLeft)) {
if (GetLocationType (mouse.x, mouse.y) != 0) { // if the mouse is over a hotspot, object, or character
ProcessClick (mouse.x, mouse.y, mouse.Mode);
if (mouse.Mode != eModeInteract) mouse.Mode = eModeInteract;
}
else ProcessClick (mouse.x, mouse.y, eModeWalkto);
mouse.Mode = eModeInteract; // if the mouse isn't over a hotspot, object, or character
}
else if (mouse.IsButtonDown(eMouseRight)) { //Look at the thing.
if (mouse.Mode == eModeUseinv) mouse.Mode = eModeInteract;
if (GetLocationType (mouse.x, mouse.y) != 0) ProcessClick(mouse.x, mouse.y, eModeLookat);
}
}
#sectionend on_mouse_click // DO NOT EDIT OR REMOVE THIS LINE
**********
Ok, that sound issue was quite serious, I was sloppy, sorry!! RC2a now up to fix it.
QuoteThis isn't fixed in RC 2, is it?
Hehe oops, I did fix it but forgot to recompile the help file. Done in RC2a.
QuoteI had very strange problem with inventory in RC2,
So, i added inventory 6, when i went in game and selected new inventory game crashed and reported error.
Something like that, -6 runing events, -> under on_mouse click in line 130.
Please try again with RC2a, it could be the sound bug that crashed it. If you still get problems, please post the
exact error message (you can usually use Ctrl+C to copy it to the clipboard).
Well, i didn't use any sound, (no sound/music -> in options menu),
still it is hard for me to replicate this problem as it works normaly now, but i didn't change anything.. hmm
Not sure if this belongs here, but...
could you please add an editor option somewhere to 'disable source comments'? Basically when I'm making the game, the AGS engine adds helpful comments in a number of places. I'm sure these are useful to a beginner, but to one who isn't they have a rather big 'duh' factor. I delete them all on sight, actually.
For instance,
// This is a text script
@2 // option 2
#section-start thingy // DO NOT EDIT OR REMOVE THIS LINE!!!!!!one!!!
Also, this appears to be a bug... if you do 'option-on' twice on the same option, you must also do option-off on it twice before it goes away.
And also, in a 16-bit color game, you cannot import PNGs for the 'alternate' room images #2-#5. The game claims the color depth is wrong (24 bit PNG rather than 16 bit). It is, however, perfectly possible to import a 24-bit BMP file.
I haven't been here for a while, but I must say: good work on the new RC!
I must say that really this has been a useful update. And quickly produced as well. It seems just a few weeks ago that new-style Strings were introduced (like the best addition to AGS ever :=). And now here we are a whole 'nother 0.01 versions ahead! Thanks a lot for all your hard work and dedication CJ.
Some weird bugs:
During the game_start version, system.viewport_height is assumed to be 200 even if the game actually runs in 320x240. This means that setting a GUI at the bottom of the screen is not possible at this time, since setting a GUI's Y beyond the (perceived) viewport height causes the game to abort with an error.
If a GUI button's font is set to a nonexistent font number, a critical error (of the kind that dumps a bunch of hex data) happens the next time that button's TEXT variable is changed, but nothing happens when the font is set.
Quotecould you please add an editor option somewhere to 'disable source comments'? Basically when I'm making the game, the AGS engine adds helpful comments in a number of places. I'm sure these are useful to a beginner, but to one who isn't they have a rather big 'duh' factor. I delete them all on sight, actually.
It's a possibility, but not really a priority. It'd be a relatively large amount of work for something that's really not that important, to be honest.
QuoteAlso, this appears to be a bug... if you do 'option-on' twice on the same option, you must also do option-off on it twice before it goes away.
And also, in a 16-bit color game, you cannot import PNGs for the 'alternate' room images #2-#5. The game claims the color depth is wrong (24 bit PNG rather than 16 bit). It is, however, perfectly possible to import a 24-bit BMP file.
I'll look into these.
QuoteDuring the game_start version, system.viewport_height is assumed to be 200 even if the game actually runs in 320x240. This means that setting a GUI at the bottom of the screen is not possible at this time, since setting a GUI's Y beyond the (perceived) viewport height causes the game to abort with an error.
This is a known issue (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/tracker.php?action=detail&id=470), because no room is loaded in game_start, it doesn't know whether to expect the rooms to be 320x200 or 320x240. The workaround is to set your GUI position in the Player ENters Screen event of the first room.
QuoteIf a GUI button's font is set to a nonexistent font number, a critical error (of the kind that dumps a bunch of hex data) happens the next time that button's TEXT variable is changed, but nothing happens when the font is set.
I'll get this fixed.
Quote from: Pumaman on Sun 25/06/2006 20:14:00
Quotecould you please add an editor option somewhere to 'disable source comments'?
It's a possibility, but not really a priority. It'd be a relatively large amount of work for something that's really not that important, to be honest.
Ok :) I suppose I could locate the strings in the .EXE and replace them with blanks :)
Quote from: Radiant on Wed 21/06/2006 19:33:48
Also, this appears to be a bug... if you do 'option-on' twice on the same option, you must also do option-off on it twice before it goes away.
I'm unable to reproduce this, could you provide any more information?
Quote from: Pumaman on Sun 02/07/2006 11:58:59
I'm unable to reproduce this, could you provide any more information?
I'm afraid not. I may have been hallucinating at the time.
Not sure if this is a bug but it's somewhat annoying... I tend to put stuff like this in repeatedly_execute: if (someCharacter is here) FaceCharacterNonBlocking (thatCharacter, EGO). Okay, not quite the official code but you catch my idea. The point is that if said character also has an idle view, these two interfere: if the character is already facing EGO, the faceChar does reset its frame number to zero, which makes the idle cycle jitter.
QuoteI tend to put stuff like this in repeatedly_execute: if (someCharacter is here) FaceCharacterNonBlocking (thatCharacter, EGO). Okay, not quite the official code but you catch my idea. The point is that if said character also has an idle view, these two interfere: if the character is already facing EGO, the faceChar does reset its frame number to zero, which makes the idle cycle jitter
Hmm, since this has been a long-standing 'feature' of FaceCharacter I'm not particularly keen to change it, but at the same time I can understand that it could be seen as a bug. I'm not sure about this one.
Anyway, 2.72 Final is now up. If no major problems are found in the next week or so, this will become the official 2.72 release.
BUG REPORT in "Adjust volume with scaling" option.
When you use the "Adjust volume with scaling" option in character panel then you cannot remove it.
If you deselect this option when you came back to character panel this option is still selected.
Hi,
I get this Windows error message, when I tried to run a compiled game which has a custom icon:
QuoteThe application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000005)...
And this one:
QuoteError: too many control events, need newer version
when I tried to "Import all GUIs".
I've just read that the new version is released.
Great work.
Today I was still using RC2a, and I got this bug (http://www.cnotinfor.pt/ags/bug01.png):
QuoteException 0x00000000 at EIP=0x00000000, AGSEDIT v2.72.650, SIP=26
Then i try the new version and I got the reported by bullfrog. If I remove the icon then it works fine.
Here is a link for the icon (http://www.cnotinfor.pt/ags/user.ico)
Edit by strazer: Please post error messages in clear text so they show up in the forum search.
REport: I too tried to run a game using a custom icon- i was so keen on trying a high-colour icon. It was a custom made 32-bit (true colour + alpha channel) icon, 32x32 pixels in size, and the game didn't run. AGS told me "the engine didn't shut down properly".
removing the icon removed the problem.
using a custom icon sticking to the AGS 2.71 specifications works fine.
otherwise the new version is just as fine as 2.71, only more so. neat work.
Quote from: Besh on Tue 04/07/2006 19:51:35
BUG REPORT in "Adjust volume with scaling" option.
When you use the "Adjust volume with scaling" option in character panel then you cannot remove it.
If you deselect this option when you came back to character panel this option is still selected.
Well spotted thanks, I'll get that fixed.
QuoteI get this Windows error message, when I tried to run a compiled game which has a custom icon:
The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000005)...
QuoteToday I was still using RC2a, and I got this bug:
Quote
Exception 0x00000000 at EIP=0x00000000, AGSEDIT v2.72.650, SIP=26
Then i try the new version and I got the reported by bullfrog. If I remove the icon then it works fine.
Here is a link for the icon
Hmm, strange. I just tried out that icon and it worked fine for me.
What operating system are you guys using? Windows XP?
Windows XP SP 2
I get this "failed to initialize" error, when I'm using a 32x32 16 colours icon.
When using an 160x160 32bit icon, Windows tells me, that ".dll" could not be found.
With 2.72RC2 the icons work fine.
Windows XP SP 2.
Very strange I guess.
Hmm, ah I think this is because the Final has compressed the game EXE, and it looks like the icon replace is somehow corrupting the EXE when used with a compressed file.
I'll need to look into whether it can be fixed or whether I might have to go with an uncompressed ACWIN.EXE for the Final release.
Ok, well unfortunately it seems that it's not going to be possible to have the EXE compressed and also have the high-colour icon functionality, so I've uploaded a new build with an uncompressed ACWIN. This will fix the icon problems but unfortunately it means that the file sizes of games will now be about 500 KB higher.
I don't think that's a big deal. Game zips won't be any different...
Bug: when making a game in 640x480 resolution, the rooms nevertheless default to 320x200, and importing a 320x240 background graphic for a room doesn't help change it.
OK i got another inventory error:
QuoteAn internal error has occured. Please note down the following information.
If the problem persists, contact Chris Jones.
(ACI version 2.72.917)
Error: run_text_script1: error -6 running function 'on_mouse_click':
Error: Array index out of bounds (index: 9, bounds: 0..8 )
in Global script (line 172)
line 172: if (button == eMouseLeftInv) player.ActiveInventory = inventory[game.inv_activated];
-----------------
This happens when I add new inventory item and try to select it in game.
I figured the solution, i must restart AGS and it work normaly until I add new inventory, and than same thing happens again.
I think that AGS thinks that this "new" inventory item doesn't exists. I guess it doesn't increase bounds for inventory items until AGS is restarted. So it still think that i have total of eight inventory items instead of 9.
But isn't the first inventory item numbered 0 so if you have 9 items there's only indexes from 0 to 8?
hmm yes strange, my nineth item was screwdriver, so i guess it should have index 8 if they start with 0. Well, i guess they don't :).
I just tried this out and it worked fine. Does anyone else have this problem?
The stranger thing is that this doesn't happen always, i added some inv items few days back and it was fine, but now problem reappaered.. :/
i tried to uncheck "handle inventory clicks in script" and it works, even if i check it back again... hmm
This is my full on_mouse_click script:
#sectionstart on_mouse_click // DO NOT EDIT OR REMOVE THIS LINE
function on_mouse_click(MouseButton button) {
// called when a mouse button is clicked. button is either LEFT or RIGHT
if (IsGamePaused() == 1) {
// Game is paused, so do nothing (ie. don't allow mouse click)
}
// Inventory Stuff //
if (button == eMouseLeftInv) {
if (mouse.Mode == eModeUseinv) {
inventory[game.inv_activated].RunInteraction(eModeUseinv);
mouse.Mode = eModeInteract;
}
else player.ActiveInventory = inventory[game.inv_activated];//.RunInteraction(mouse.Mode);
}
if (button == eMouseRightInv) {
if (mouse.Mode == eModeUseinv) mouse.Mode = eModeInteract;
inventory[game.inv_activated].RunInteraction(eModeLookat);
}
/*
if (inventory[game.inv_activated].ID == 1) gExtrainv.SetPosition(131,111);
if (inventory[game.inv_activated].ID == 2) gExtrainv.SetPosition(174,111);
if (inventory[game.inv_activated].ID == 3) gExtrainv.SetPosition(217,111);
if (inventory[game.inv_activated].ID == 4) gExtrainv.SetPosition(260,111);
gExtrainv.Visible=true;
}
// end
// Closing Extrainv GUI //
if (gExtrainv.Visible==true) {
if (((mouse.IsButtonDown(eMouseLeft)) || (mouse.IsButtonDown(eMouseRight))) && (GUI.GetAtScreenXY(mouse.x, mouse.y) != gExtrainv)) {
gExtrainv.Visible=false;
}
}
*/
// end
if (mouse.IsButtonDown(eMouseLeft)) {
if (GetLocationType (mouse.x, mouse.y) != 0) { // if the mouse is over a hotspot, object, or character
ProcessClick (mouse.x, mouse.y, mouse.Mode);
if (mouse.Mode != eModeInteract) mouse.Mode = eModeInteract;
}
else {
ProcessClick (mouse.x, mouse.y, eModeWalkto);
if ((GetGlobalInt(498)==1) && ((Region.GetAtRoomXY(mouse.x,mouse.y) == region[9]) || (Region.GetAtRoomXY(mouse.x,mouse.y) == region[10]) || (Region.GetAtRoomXY(mouse.x,mouse.y) == region[11])|| (Region.GetAtRoomXY(mouse.x,mouse.y) == region[12])|| (Region.GetAtRoomXY(mouse.x,mouse.y) == region[13])|| (Region.GetAtRoomXY(mouse.x,mouse.y) == region[14]) )) SkipUntilCharacterStops(player.ID);
SetTimer(20, 15);
SetGlobalInt(498, 1);
mouse.Mode = eModeInteract; // if the mouse isn't over a hotspot, object, or character
}
}
else if (mouse.IsButtonDown(eMouseRight)) { //Look at the thing.
if (mouse.Mode == eModeUseinv) mouse.Mode = eModeInteract;
if (GetLocationType (mouse.x, mouse.y) != 0) ProcessClick(mouse.x, mouse.y, eModeLookat);
}
}
#sectionend on_mouse_click // DO NOT EDIT OR REMOVE THIS LINE
That's all rather strange ... I'll keep an eye out for it.
For now, since no critical issues with Final 2 have been found, I'll release it as 2.72.