AGS 3.3 Wishlist

[Matti]

Just some minor things that would be nice:

- pixel-perfect detection for buttons (not just objects and characters)

- "apply to all" possibility (or better yet a checkmark) for importing alpha-sprites. It's annoying when you always have to tell AGS to use alpha channels, when indeed you're only using alpha-channel sprites in your game

- possibility to "import whole sprite" with the enter key instead of having to click it

Oh, and it would be nice to have the possibility to make more than one screenshot, also, saving it as a .png would be cooler than having it as a .bmp

EDIT: Another thing would be the ability to declare arrays via the global variables pane.

[Joe]

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

[ravenfusion]

I'd like an option that allows you to inset outlined fonts, so that the outlines overlap.

i.e


atm, you can only do this with automatic outlines.
(AGS doesn't compensate for the outline font being taller/wider than the speech font)

[Khris]

Oh, and it would be nice to have the possibility to make more than one screenshot, also, saving it as a .png would be cooler than having it as a .bmp

Code: ags

//above on_key_press
int scrnshot;

//inside
  if (keycode==434) {  // F12
    scrnsht++;
    SaveScreenShot(String.Format("scrnshot%03d.pcx", scrnsht));
  }

I'd like an option that allows you to inset outlined fonts, so that the outlines overlap.

If the letters of the font don't have margins on both sides, that's what you'll get.
E.g. look at Back Door Man.

[Matti]

Ha, that was easy. Thanks, Khris.

[NsMn]

Speaking of Outlines, it would really be good if the colour of the outlines can be different, depending on the font (like the outline font or style).

And - if someone didn't said this yet - it would be best if there could be alternate things that can happen to a button if it's clicked or on mouseover, ie. change the button's text color instead of just using a different graphic. Besides, it still isn't possible to set the button text color in the script yet.

[ravenfusion]

If the letters of the font don't have margins on both sides, that's what you'll get.
E.g. look at Back Door Man.

Only works with automatic outlines.

There's no way to compensate for those extra 'margin' pixels when you're using an outline font.

[Matti]

Besides, it still isn't possible to set the button text color in the script yet.

What?

int Button.TextColor;

[NsMn]

Well, I thought that would work in the NEWER AGS 3 Versions, but according to Babar, it still doesn't there.

[Matti]

Just tested it and it works perfectly (AGS 3.1.2 SP1).

[Babar]

Not text colour. What I said is that there was no Button.Color.

[NsMn]

Okay... I'm convinced 

Anyway, the text still allways move if the button is clicked. And that's dumb.

[Jim Reed]

Gui popup x position for those pesky guis that pop up from the side.

Export/import walkable areas, hotspots, regions in runtime.

Overlaping of walkable areas.

Room.GetDrawingSurfaceForForeground()

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

This is something I've been thinking about for a long time and feel would be a much-needed and valuable improvement to the engine and editor:

layered walkable areas with regions that respond to npcs.

Specifically, I'd like to see walkable areas become layers that can co-exist on top of each other in the editor but not interfere in any way in the game.  You'd make layer one , draw your regions that work with it (some kind of layer drop down for the region would work) and such and then assign that layer to the player; you'd make another region for someone walking around in a circle and assign that to an NPC along with regions for him/her to react to.  These changes alone would make what is currently upwards of an hour job (depending on how complicated I make an npc's behavior) into something utterly trivial and incredibly versatile.  I'm not sure exactly how much re-working would be involved; I realize the current walkable area systems aren't designed to overlap, but aside from changing their behavior you'd already have the characters more or less ready to go since they have all the behaviors of players aside from reacting to regions, which has been requested several times over the years, anyway.

At any rate, I think it would greatly improve the way npcs are handled in the game and give people a lot more to do with them before resorting to a repeatedly_execute function and if statements and random number results!

[Joe]

An option for room editing to select the objects you want to see or not while editing

[Scavenger]

Just a few ideas I've been kicking around. Might make some into plugins or modules if they're impractical or impossible to implement.

I'd like to see better 8bit palette support with sub-palettes for sprites so that we can change their palette values without changing the sprite itself. It'd be useful for tinting and lighting a sprite without messing around with fiddly palette handling, and an easy method for making random people without importing massive amounts of sprites. SCUMM had it, I believe, and OHRRPGCE has a good implementation. True, they were limited to 16 colours per sprite, but how many do you generally need for 256 colour games?

Alternatively, I'd like to be able to control individual characters' and objects' Light Levels in script, rather than purely on a region basis.

Implementation of a more versatile .mod player would be nice, too. Mikmod's the one I've been looking at - it can change the volume of individual channels, leading to a nice iMuse kind of effect.

On the plugin front, I'd like to see hooks for when sprites are being blitted to the drawing surface. We have sprites that can be changed when they're loaded, but I've noticed that I can't have translucent chararcter or object sprites since the interrupts don't cover when a screen is halfway blitted with characters (meaning that trying to change the sprite will result in them being ). I'm pretty sure that sprites are blitted in from top (back) to bottom (front) so just adding in that hook will give a lot more freedom.

Also:
- Non-blocking Dialog and Display GUIs. I'd love to get my hands on something that automatically renders like they do with the same ease, but at the moment I can't get the dimensions of Display boxes while they're open, thus making translucent backgrounds to them a rough and often inaccurate business.

- Option to not have an outline in a dialogue parser (the door dialog in DWEF shows this, I didn't really want the outline to happen.)

- Changing of the game palette when changing the background frame, if they have different palettes happens before or after the image has changed, not at the same time, leading to some distracting flashes. Is there any way to fix this in the engine?

[Stacy Davidson]

I've seen a lot of discussion on widescreen resolutions, and this is definitely a topic that concerns me, as I'd like to be able to offer the best gameplay experience possible to people with modern machines, and these days just about all the monitors you find are 16:10.  However, I do see the problem with alienating those with older monitors, and 1024 is definitely the best overall option out there there, because pretty much any machine made in the last 8 years or so will at least have that.

Can you answer me this one question, though: say there is a 1280x800 mode implemented, and my game is designed for that resolution.  When the player with an older 1024x768 SVGA system fires it up, could that 1280 game be scaled down and have black bars added to the top and bottom of the screen?  Or would a 1280 game simply be an impossibility for a 1024 user?

The black bars for widescreen monitors in 4:3 mode is a fantastic addition, BTW. Thanks for implementing that!

Thanks!
-s

[Jim Reed]

Force feedback and joystick support. =D
Yeah, right!

Sprite skewing and similar effects (stretch a sprite to 4 points). Pretty please!

Draw textured triangle/circle/rectangle?

Motion blur?

Screen effects, sharpen, modify gamma, guassian blur, bumpmap, dilate, erode, etc.

Integral fps counter.

Font editor.

While you're at it CJ, tell santa that AGS community says hi! =D

[Matti]

Integral fps counter.

If you want to display/see the fps, use the debug() command (see manual).

[Jim Reed]

Ah, my mistake, I usually use a custom function picked up ages ago on the forums, that serves nicely.
Btw, can you use that without the debug mode enabled?