AGS 3.2 Final 5 - Recession-busting edition

[Pumaman]

Ok, beta 4 is now up. This includes a couple of things that people have been asking for for a while, so I'd appreciate any feedback on whether everything works as expected.

[monkey0506]

* The generated EXE version information is now set to your Game Name and Developer Name instead of "Adventure Game Studio" and "Chris Jones"

But Chris...wasn't this the only indication (unless the author discloses the information) that the game was made with AGS? :o

* Improved graphics mode detection so that the screen doesn't keep flickering when trying to start up a low-res game full screen

Cool beans. Never bothered me too much but still cool that you "fixed" it.

* Fixed String.Format to give error instead of crash if you try to format a string longer than 3000 chars

Does this mean the limit was increased to 3000 characters for String.Format? Either way I understand that to build it longer I can use String.Append, just want to clarify has that internal limit been moved up?

[Ghost]

I sat out on the beta until now... and now I see you're using IrrKlang! There's now offically GERMAN stuff in AGS- and everyone knows that this makes it immune to gremlin attacks!


[edit]
Imported two WIPs without anything really going wrong. I've yet to try out the whole audio system advantages though.

[Pumaman]

But Chris...wasn't this the only indication (unless the author discloses the information) that the game was made with AGS? :o

Not really -- if you right-click on the EXE and do Properties, you'll still find a couple of things telling you it was made with AGS.
Originally when AGS was written, Windows 98 and 2000 didn't display the version info in the main explorer window so it was fine, but since XP came along and started showing the Company Name and Program Name in explorer, it has looked a bit silly having all AGS games claim to be made by me.

I've been meaning to fix it for a long time but only now finally had some time to do it.

Does this mean the limit was increased to 3000 characters for String.Format? Either way I understand that to build it longer I can use String.Append, just want to clarify has that internal limit been moved up?

Correct, I also used this opportunity to increase it to 3000. The only time you'll ever get near that will be if you're using Strings for something non-standard such as data storage, like you're doing

I sat out on the beta until now... and now I see you're using IrrKlang! There's now offically GERMAN stuff in AGS- and everyone knows that this makes it immune to gremlin attacks!

I'm sure that German efficiency will make AGS run twice as fast!!

[Joe]

It would be very nice the possibility of changing Objects/Hotspots name at run-time.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I'm sorry to say but the music playback in both of the latest betas is seriously messed up.  I imported one of my games from 3.2 beta 2 and the audio playback starts looping constantly at the beginning of songs.  I also tried importing the game from 3.1.2 sp 2 into the latest beta and it was even worse -- constant audio looping, songs that would start playing when performing routine actions in the game and fade out again.  I'm going to upload the pre-audio revamp copy of my game and send you a link so you can see for yourself.

[Pumaman]

Thanks for uploading. I imported your game into Beta 4 and ran it, and it seemed fine. The intro played through and then the game started and I didn't hear anything strange.

Can you be more specific about exactly when the problem happens?

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Play it until you get the bottle from underneath his bunk (turn on the nightlight first).  The music will start looping at the beginning erratically and will turn off and on when you perform actions like turning on/off the light.  It's really weird and has only been introduced in the last 2 betas and occurs when songs switch.  Also, it might not be obvious to you if you haven't heard the music before that it's repeating, but take my word for it that it is repeating after about 5 seconds of playback.  I suppose it's possible that it may not happen every time, but it's happened every time I've run it.

[Pumaman]

Ah ok, yes I think I hear it now. I'll look into it.

If you disable crossfading (which is now in the Music Audio Type properties) does the problem go away?

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Nope .  The first tune kept repeating over and over during the initial blocking dialog and then kept coming on briefly whenever I performed an action/dialog.

[Pumaman]

Ah ok, I think I see what has happened. There's a bug with the support for crossfading with old-style PlayMusic commands -- and as the crossfading was updated to the new audio system in beta 3, that explains why it broke at that point.

Please try this engine:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/acwin.zip
and let me know if it fixes the problem.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

So far that seems to have done the trick!

[Midian Design]

I tried two times, and for two times it crashed, in two different ways, this is the second one:

Error: *Tentativo di lettura o scrittura della memoria protetta. Spesso questa condizione indica che altre parti della memoria sono danneggiate.
*Attempt of reading or writing of the protected memory. Often this condition indicates that other parts of the memory are damaged.

Version: AGS 3.2.0.93

System.AccessViolationException: **Tentativo di lettura o scrittura della memoria protetta. Spesso questa condizione indica che altre parti della memoria sono danneggiate.
**Attempt of reading or writing of the protected memory. Often this condition indicates that other parts of the memory are damaged.

   in cmpString(Void* a1, Void* a2)
   in qsort(Void* , UInt32 , UInt32 , IntPtr )
   in WordList.InList(WordList* , SByte* s)
   in ?A0x4d1fa0f1.ColouriseCppDoc(UInt32 startPos, Int32 length, Int32 initStyle, WordList** keywordlists, Accessor* styler, Boolean caseSensitive)
   in ?A0x4d1fa0f1.ColouriseCppDocSensitive(UInt32 startPos, Int32 length, Int32 initStyle, WordList** keywordlists, Accessor* styler)
   in LexerModule.Lex(LexerModule* , UInt32 startPos, Int32 lengthDoc, Int32 initStyle, WordList** keywordlists, Accessor* styler)
   in ScintillaBase.Colourise(ScintillaBase* , Int32 start, Int32 end)
   in ScintillaBase.NotifyStyleToNeeded(ScintillaBase* , Int32 endStyleNeeded)
   in Editor.NotifyStyleNeeded(Editor* , Document* doc, Void* userData, Int32 endPos)
   in Document.EnsureStyledTo(Document* , Int32 pos)
   in Editor.Paint(Editor* , Surface* surfaceWindow, PRectangle rcArea)
   in ScintillaWin.WndPaint(ScintillaWin* , UInt32 wParam)
   in ScintillaWin.WndProc(ScintillaWin* , UInt32 iMessage, UInt32 wParam, Int32 lParam)
   in ScintillaWin.SWndProc(HWND__* hWnd, UInt32 iMessage, UInt32 wParam, Int32 lParam)
   in System.Windows.Forms.UnsafeNativeMethods.CallWindowProc(IntPtr wndProc, IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam)
   in System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.DefWndProc(Message& m)
   in System.Windows.Forms.Control.DefWndProc(Message& m)
   in System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   in Scintilla.ScintillaControl.WndProc(Message& m)
   in System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   in System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   in System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

I'm on Vista, game in 32bit color, 1024x768, I imported only 1 BG and 1 OGG, the first time it crashed running the game, I edited everything again from THE start, deleting everything, and it crashed while I was editing a simple Wait (100); 

[hedgefield]

* Fixed light levels >100% not working with Direct3D driver

SWEET thanks Ceej, you're the best.

[Pumaman]

I tried two times, and for two times it crashed, in two different ways, this is the second one:

*Attempt of reading or writing of the protected memory. Often this condition indicates that other parts of the memory are damaged.
Version: AGS 3.2.0.93

I'm on Vista, game in 32bit color, 1024x768, I imported only 1 BG and 1 OGG, the first time it crashed running the game, I edited everything again from THE start, deleting everything, and it crashed while I was editing a simple Wait (100); 

Do you also get these problems with 3.1.2 SP1 or is it only the latest beta that does it? That's a crash in the script editor which I haven't changed in 3.2, so there's no reason why there should be any new bugs there.

[Midian Design]

I tried two times, and for two times it crashed, in two different ways, this is the second one:

*Attempt of reading or writing of the protected memory. Often this condition indicates that other parts of the memory are damaged.
Version: AGS 3.2.0.93

I'm on Vista, game in 32bit color, 1024x768, I imported only 1 BG and 1 OGG, the first time it crashed running the game, I edited everything again from THE start, deleting everything, and it crashed while I was editing a simple Wait (100); 

Do you also get these problems with 3.1.2 SP1 or is it only the latest beta that does it? That's a crash in the script editor which I haven't changed in 3.2, so there's no reason why there should be any new bugs there.

I made a game with the 3.1.2 without problems. The differences are in the first game [jpg & mp3 16bit color] in this last [tif and ogg 32 bit color].. I added only 1 tif and 1 ogg and everytime something went wrong.

[Pumaman]

Has anyone else had any crashes like this with the beta?

[OneDollar]

I've not tried the new beta yet, but I think I've got a bug with 3.1.2 and it seems rather small to make a new thread for.

If you try and assign too long a string to a button's text property AGS will crash with "SetButtonText: Text too long, button has 50 chars max" error. However it looks like the actual limit is 49 characters.

Example:
MoneyLbl.Text = "1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789";
works, but
MoneyLbl.Text = "12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890";
does not.

[monkey0506]

Just found out AGS has (to some extent at least) error reporting. Nice job at that. You'll get something about me trying to use a renamed file in place of a valid icon. :

I know you've said before it has to be an actual icon but I was being lazy. Anyway, if you create a template with an invalid ICO file the editor crashes (at least when you try to load it directly, i.e. for testing the template). Probably not something you'd have to worry about too much...most people could probably figure out what was going on.

[Dualnames]

I consider the version to be perfect, but there's one problem. My game is on 640x480 resolution, and if I want to change the background, I can't do it properly without the following steps and all the hotspots/walkable areas/regions get delete anyway.

It says it requires a 640x400 bg, but even if I import a 640x400 it says it's not 640x400.

Now most importantly to import a background so it CAN work and not show weird, I have to change the resolution to 640x400, not resize the guis, import bg, revert to 640x480, not resize the guis again, and tada, no walkable areas, no hotspots.

The only other way, is to use draw surface, but how can I see where I'm supposed to draw the walkable areas.
I have a version indicating this problem, so contact me via pm if you need it. This happens in 3.1.2 and on this beta too. I came to notice it now though.