AGS 3.0 Final - it's been a long road

[Ghost]

But why would we have an IDE then in the first place? The way it works now, you can launch AGS and create a good part of the game in there, without having to switch, import, compile and seek files. And the scripting syntax for dialouges, to name an example, is totally readable, slightly more complicated than reading a dialogue in a novel. Why taking out of an IDE what belongs there?

[naltimari]

Why taking out of an IDE what belongs there?

I'm not advocating to *remove* the dialog IDE, I just want that editing dialogues is *possible* outside the IDE. This way, there could be dialog editors, even graphical, much better than the one present in AGS.

[Kweepa]

No plugins. Here's the contents of the ags directory:
10/08/2007  12:44p                  90 connectionmap.xml
10/08/2007  12:44p                  90 connections.xml

What are these XML files? Probably nothing important, but do you have some sort of background program fiddling with running applications?

These are created by AgsEditor.exe when it starts up. Should I be worried? Here are the contents:

connectionmap.xml

Code: ags

<?xml-version ='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<ConnectionMapList varName="connectionmaplist" />

connections.xml

Code: ags

<?xml-version ='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<ConnectionDefList varName="connectiondeflist" />

[subspark]

This way, there could be dialog editors, even graphical, much better than the one present in AGS.

Chris already said he would revise the Dialog system a couple versions from now. Besides, I think AGS has come a long way on its own without external editors. If we break that tradition now, then AGS will be less likely to improve in the areas that are taken on by plugins. Wouldn't you rather AGS itself evolve to be the best it can be on its very own?

Thats just my opinion, however.

Cheers,
Paul.

[Gilbert]

I tend to agree a bit with you, but isn't providing more possibilities and means of setting up/controlling things (like using a third party sprite manager, dialog editor or a script editor, etc.) the point of incorporating the editor plugin API?

Using editor plugins just opens up possibilities to alternative ways of doing things, whenever people want to, and should not affect development in AGS itself (if that happens just give money to CJ and force him to work ).

[subspark]

Well as long as CJ keeps moving forward regardless of what plugins can do then I'm content. 

Cheers,
Paul.

[subspark]

Hey Chris, these graphical artifacts have been bugging me since 2.8 alpha 1.0.

The symptoms are displayed in red:
http://www.shuugouteki.net/paul/Development/visual_artifacts.gif

I have a native desktop resolution of 2560x1600 running on a 30 inch Apple Cinema Display. I am about to upgrade to quad SLI for work but am currently running a GeForceFX 8800GTX.

Cheers,
Paul.

Edited by mod: Changed large image to a link to avoid messing up the forum.

[Gilbert]

Hmmm Have you tried changing the font size in your desktop setting?

(In fact since I'm not using English windows, the AGS editor never displayed text perfectly for me anyway.)

[Pumaman]

These are created by AgsEditor.exe when it starts up. Should I be worried? Here are the contents:

Hmm how strange, it seems to have done this on my machine as well. I hate it when libraries like .NET just randomly start creating files without asking you... I guess they're harmless.

I just want that editing dialogues is *possible* outside the IDE. This way, there could be dialog editors, even graphical, much better than the one present in AGS.

Well, I think this sort of thing would be better provided through a plugin.
I'm not against having a /compile switch, but for now it's not a priority.

these graphical artifacts have been bugging me since 2.8 alpha 1.0.

Looks like you've got Large Fonts turned on. At the end of the day to make all the editor panes and dialogs adaptable to any system font size would take a lot of work, and I'm not sure that it's worth it. I'm slightly surprised that it has done this though, I thought that it would keep to the initial fonts that I compiled the editor with.

[Pumaman]

Ok, beta 14 is now up, which fixes various issues. There are still a few things outstanding, such as the return of the view preview, which I'll get done for the next release.

[subspark]

to make all the editor panes and dialogs adaptable to any system font size would take a lot of work,

Oh I'm begging you CJ. The only way for me to make anything out on my screen is to have my fonts at 120dpi. I'm not asking you to arrange a separate layout for each font size, just an additional one for the 120dpi setting.

I'll check out beta 14 now.

Thanks so much,
Paul.

[monkey0506]

* Added ability to start editor loading specific game from the command line (this will be tied into a registry association in an installer in a later release); and added /compile switch to load, compile game and exit

You could have explained what the command line argument for loading a specific game was...

Clearly you just pass the path to the Game.agf file, but there may be some bugs in the way it's working. I tried:

D:\AGS 3.0\Beta 14>agseditor.exe TestGame\Game.agf
D:\AGS 3.0\Beta 14>agseditor.exe .\TestGame\Game.agf

Both of which resulted in an error saying:

---------------------------
Adventure Game Studio
---------------------------
An error ocurred whilst trying to load your game. The error was: Could not find a part of the path 'D:\AGS 3.0\Beta 14\TestGame\TestGame\Game.agf'.



If you cannot resolve the error, please post on the AGS Technical Forum for assistance.



Error details: System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException: Could not find a part of the path 'D:\AGS 2.8\Beta 14\FSM\FSM\Game.agf'.

   at System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String maybeFullPath)

   at System.IO.FileStream.Init(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, Int32 rights, Boolean useRights, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, FileOptions options, SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES secAttrs, String msgPath, Boolean bFromProxy)

   at System.IO.FileStream..ctor(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize)

   at System.Xml.XmlDownloadManager.GetStream(Uri uri, ICredentials credentials)

   at System.Xml.XmlUrlResolver.GetEntity(Uri absoluteUri, String role, Type ofObjectToReturn)

   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.OpenUrlDelegate(Object xmlResolver)

   at System.Threading.CompressedStack.runTryCode(Object userData)

   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.RuntimeHelpers.ExecuteCodeWithGuaranteedCleanup(TryCode code, CleanupCode backoutCode, Object userData)

   at System.Threading.CompressedStack.Run(CompressedStack compressedStack, ContextCallback callback, Object state)

   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.OpenUrl()

   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Read()

   at System.Xml.XmlLoader.Load(XmlDocument doc, XmlReader reader, Boolean preserveWhitespace)

   at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(XmlReader reader)

   at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(String filename)

   at AGS.Editor.AGSEditor.LoadGameFile(String fileName)

   at AGS.Editor.Tasks.LoadGameFromDisk(String gameToLoad, Boolean interactive)

   at AGS.Editor.InteractiveTasks.LoadGameFromDisk(String gameToLoad)
---------------------------
OK   
---------------------------

Apparently the game's folder is being doubled up this way (i.e., the editor is looking for "D:\AGS 3.0\Beta 14\TestGame\TestGame\Game.agf" instead of just "D:\AGS 3.0\Beta 14\TestGame\Game.agf")...but using:

D:\AGS 3.0\Beta 14>agseditor.exe ..\TestGame\Game.agf

Resulted in this error:

---------------------------
Adventure Game Studio
---------------------------
Unable to load the game '..\TestGame\Game.agf' because it does not exist
---------------------------
OK   
---------------------------

Which makes since seeing as the game's folder is in the AGS directory, not a level above it.

The only way I got the command line to auto-load the game was by providing the full path:

D:\AGS 3.0\Beta 14>agseditor.exe "D:\AGS 3.0\Beta 14\TestGame\Game.agf"

Which worked successfully.

Also had fun realizing that:

D:\AGS 3.0\Beta 14>agseditor.exe "D:\AGS 3.0\Beta 14\TestGame\Game.agf" /compile

Doesn't work...the proper syntax for the compile switch is:

D:\AGS 3.0\Beta 14>agseditor.exe /compile "D:\AGS 3.0\Beta 14\TestGame\Game.agf"

Also I wanted to ask: Could shortcuts automatically be created in the game folder (perhaps optionally by an editor preference)? You said that this will later be tied into a registry association...does this mean that we will see the emergence of an 'AGSGame' type file which will be associated with this command line loading? Either way it would be much appreciated.

* Fixed line wrapping losing a character if a single word was too wide to fit in the available space

Thanks! This is certainly a very welcome change. This behaviour has bothered me somewhat in the past and I'm glad to see it fixed.

[SSH]

Thanks for the update, CJ. Here's some more wishes for the AGS fairy

1. A way to navigate between properties with the keyboard: TAB or ctrl-tab or pgup/pgdown or arrow keys or something should let you move up and down between properties of something in the editor so that it works more like a spreadsheet. Its a reall pain swapping between mouse and keyboard if you're editing lots of properties (i.e. moving all the controls in a GUI down).

2. In the GUI part of the game tree diagram, could we click a plus to expand the GUI to have a list of all the controls inside and select controls by clicking on them there?

3. Selection of multiple GUI controls at once to allow them all to be moved with in the GUI as a unit?

[Pumaman]

You could have explained what the command line argument for loading a specific game was...

Well I wasn't really expecting anyone to try and use it at this stage, it was more on there for completeness!

Clearly you just pass the path to the Game.agf file, but there may be some bugs in the way it's working. I tried:

You have to pass the full path. The only purpose of this command line is to allow it to be set up as a file association in explorer, which will automatically pass the full path in.

Thanks for the update, CJ. Here's some more wishes for the AGS fairy

Thanks for the suggestions, they all sound reasonable -- but I'm trying not to get carried away with adding stuff at the moment, and instead try to bring it to a stable codebase to release 3.0.

[monkey0506]

Well I wasn't really expecting anyone to try and use it at this stage, it was more on there for completeness!

You have to pass the full path. The only purpose of this command line is to allow it to be set up as a file association in explorer, which will automatically pass the full path in.

Fair enough. I just much prefer the ability to quickly open up one specific game. Especially in cases where I may open older copies of the same project and then end up editing the wrong one because I'm not paying attention to the directory shown in the 'recent games' list.

[Ubel]

I think this is a bug. When I try to compile my game I get an error message saying "Invalid GUI number set for Dialog Options GUI". Right now the Dialog options GUI is set to 0 in the General Settings, which I thought meant that it would use the default black dialog GUI. This happened in beta 14.

Edit: It may be good to note that there are no GUIs in my game right now.

Edit2: Yes, I noticed that right after I created a new GUI the problem disappeared.

[SupSuper]

* Added ability to start editor loading specific game from the command line (this will be tied into a registry association in an installer in a later release); and added /compile switch to load, compile game and exit

You could have explained what the command line argument for loading a specific game was...

(...)

Also I wanted to ask: Could shortcuts automatically be created in the game folder (perhaps optionally by an editor preference)? You said that this will later be tied into a registry association...does this mean that we will see the emergence of an 'AGSGame' type file which will be associated with this command line loading? Either way it would be much appreciated.

As complicated as Pumaman made it sound, it just means that you can now associate AGS with AGSGame files. Try dragging one of them onto AGSEditor.exe. Or to associate them yourself, try opening one of them and tell Windows to open them with AGSEditor.exe (in the future, an installer will do this for you)

And now you know the behind-the-scenes workings of file associations!

[monkey0506]

Actually no, the AGSGame file type is no longer supported (AGS 3.0+). Also I've tried setting up a file association with the AGS 3.0 editor, but I have thus far found it impossible to do so. I'm familiar with file associations, but as far as I can tell you can't assign one for the way the editor currently expects the command line argument.

[Ubel]

I found another small bug. When choosing the background image for a GUI slider, there is no button there that leads you to the sprite manager, only the text area where to input the sprite number.

[Electroshokker]

Not necessarily a bug, but a bit annoying:

When setting up custom properties, I have a "Description" string of 170 characters. Basically 2 lines of text.

It fits the properties box quite nicely and no error is displayed. However, when I try to build the game, the editor gives me an

Unexpected error: String is too long:

error.

Could you increase the string lenght for the description field in custom properties (to, say, around 200 characters, which should fit nicely in the box. Maybe a little experimenting with strings can give you the optimal string lenght).

While I'm sure this is no issue for most game developers, if you are creating a template those descriptions will come in handy for whomever starts using the template.