AGS 3.2 Final 5 - Recession-busting edition

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

The rain module worked in 3.1 without any modifications so I'm not sure why it displays a large black area like that since it's just drawing lines onto the background, but yeah, removing it (and fixing some of the wonky rooms I was importing) took care of the black screen problem!

[Kweepa]

I'm not sure when this changed but in the current version, if you set the Room.BackgroundAnimationDelay to 0 it's equivalent to setting it to 1. Previously setting it to 0 would halt the animation. Some versions of my modules rely on the old behaviour.

(And setting it to -1 appears to be the same as setting to a large number - the background flips after about 10 seconds. Also, I don't see any way of setting the current background frame.)

[GarageGothic]

Also, I don't see any way of setting the current background frame.

SetBackgroundFrame(int frame)?

[Gilbert]

In fact, I've never heard of Room.BackgroundAnimationDelay until now, and it's not mentioned in the manual either (except the room's own option that you set in the editor). Is this really accessible in-game for reading or writing?

[Kweepa]

In fact, I've never heard of Room.BackgroundAnimationDelay until now, and it's not mentioned in the manual either (except the room's own option that you set in the editor). Is this really accessible in-game for reading or writing?

No, I was referring to the setting in the editor.

GG, oh. For some reason I was looking for a Room. function
That would probably fix it, if it resets the background animation countdown.

Cheers!

[Crimson Wizard]

I am studying 9-verbs template and noticed some of the properties description in the properties schema are written in German. With all due respect to Deutch language, I guess it will be more convenient for international users to have them in English 

[NsMn]

Maybe it was just a German module, template or just the word "null"?

[abstauber]

I am studying 9-verbs template and noticed some of the properties description in the properties schema are written in German. With all due respect to Deutch language, I guess it will be more convenient for international users to have them in English 

Really... well, then I'd better work those parts over
Btw. the international crowd might also appreciate a proof read manual...  :


----edit:
Alright, found it. Well, all those custom properties are not in use - it's save to delete them.
Thanks for the heads up!

For more template discussion, please have a look here
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=38874.0

[Crimson Wizard]

Well, I just hope there will be updated version of this template in final AGS 3.2 release.

[Pumaman]

I'm not sure when this changed but in the current version, if you set the Room.BackgroundAnimationDelay to 0 it's equivalent to setting it to 1. Previously setting it to 0 would halt the animation. Some versions of my modules rely on the old behaviour.

I don't think this behaviour has changed, but yes there should be an option in the editor to disable the background animating.

Well, I just hope there will be updated version of this template in final AGS 3.2 release.

Thanks for the reminder, I'll make sure to include the latest version of the template in the 3.2 final.

[Crimson Wizard]

Bug:

When renaming Global Variable, list is not automatically sorted.

to reproduce:

1. Create couple of GVs; notice they are sorted in alphabetical order.
2. Create a new GV with name alphabetically preceding existing variables.
3. Double-click on last variable and change its name to something alphabetically posterior. Click OK. Notice that list is not sorted.

[Yeppoh]

I have quite an issue with the Tint() function in this version of the engine.

Until now I scripted my game on the 3.1.2 SP1 release - using DirectX 9 - and there's a critical gameplay element involving colors. A set of characters whose colors change depending of a binary word value. There can be 4bit colors, 5bit, 8bit, 16bit or 24bit as examples from all the ones.
How the Tint() function worked in 3.1.2 was intuitive and fine tuned for this kind of work, since I only had to convert a byte word into simple RGB channels. And after some work the result turned out fine as showed for this character - who uses only one 8bit channel in this case:



But upon switching to 3.2, it doesn't work anymore :



I noticed that the Luminance value seemed to have a different behavior than previously, so I set it to 100, but didn't give the same result either :



After many testing I've also discovered that my trick doesn't work in DirectDraw mode - neither in 3.2 nor in 3.1.2. Giving the same results as the last two above.

I don't know how I could go around that while being sure that the result will be as correct as in the previous release of the AGS engine, since I don't know how the Tint() system has changed or if it's a bug.

[Pumaman]

When renaming Global Variable, list is not automatically sorted.

Thanks for the report, I'll look into it.

I have quite an issue with the Tint() function in this version of the engine.

This is because the Tint function in 3.2 has been fixed to be the same in Direct3D as it always has been in DirectDraw. AGS 3.1.x had a bug where Direct3D tinting gave a different result (as you've discovered).

However, some people preferred the "buggy" D3D method of tinting, so for a future version I'm planning to add an option to select between the two, if I can get DirectDraw to correctly mimic this type of D3D tint.

[Yeppoh]

OK thanks for clearing that out.

Meanwhile, after I ran some tests to understand the difference with the actual Tint(), I can use a RGB to HSV conversion using the "hexcone" model. The color values won't be exactly the same since I have to sample a 255 scale down to a 100 one for the luminance, but it'll be visually close enough to do the trick if nobody is so obsessive to check if the pixels match the shown numbers.

[Pumaman]

Ok, well I was hoping to get more fixes into the Final release, but I've had so little time to work on it that I thought it was better to just get something released; I don't think there are any bugs now that are regressions from 3.1.2 so it should be safe to go ahead with this release.

So, please download the Final and try it out. Assuming no big problems are found, I'll make it the Official release on the website in a week or so.

[Dualnames]

Great, backing up and testing!

[subspark]

Thanks CJ. Even if the alpha fix didnt make this revision.
Tops!  

Sparky.

[GarageGothic]

* "Export all sprites in folder" command now exports 32-bit sprites as PNGs to prevent losing alpha channel

Brilliant, this should be very useful! Any chance for PNG support for DynamicSprite.CreateFromFile and DynamicSprite.SaveToFile (the latter I guess is not that important until DrawingSurface fully supports functions can create a new alpha channel or merge two or more existing alpha channels)?

Looking forward to try the new build. Thanks CJ!

[monkey0506]

(the latter I guess is not that important until DrawingSurface fully supports alpha channels)

Urk..

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times. DynamicSprites and DrawingSurfaces do support alpha channels in every single sense that AGS supports alpha channels. The only thing you can't do is use the DrawingSurface functions to merge two or more alpha channels together or create a new alpha channel. The most you can preserve when using the DrawingSurface functions is a single pre-existing alpha channel.

..just saying.

Glad to see this is nearly ready to be unleashed upon the public.

[GarageGothic]

Ah, monkey, I knew you would drop by to point this out which was exactly why I put the modifier "fully" in the sentence. Can we please agree that "the only thing you can't do" is also a frequently requested feature?

No need to point out every bloody time that you know better, I think it's an established fact that you do