Ok, the last version got a bit fancy, what with anti-aliasing and lip sync and all. This time, I've re-visited the more basic building blocks of the game to try and enhance your user experience. (how's that for a sales pitch, ey? ;) )
Please read this entire post before asking any questions. More detailed explanations are below.
RC2 changes since RC1:
* Added basic CallTips to script editor.
* Tiled sprite import now goes from left to right in rows, rather than top to bottom in columns - more logical this way.
* Renamed "Always on" and "Script only" GUI types to make more sense.
* Fixed on_event(ADD_INVENTORY) not running if the player already had one of the item.
* Fixed Undo wiping entire script if selected when editor opens.
* Fixed anti-aliased 256-col sprites being black during fade-in.
* Fixed areas of transparent sprites turning pink (RC1 bug).
RC1 changes since beta 4:
* Added GetGameOption text script function.
* Added ability to use custom image as GUI Slider tracker.
* Editor now checks whether the starting room exists before saving the game, which should hopefully help newbies.
* Fixed replay recording with animating mouse cursors.
* Fixed crash entering a very long global message in the editor.
* Fixed music crossfading while playing FLC animation.
Beta 4 changes since beta 3b:
* Added DisplayThought and SetCharacterViewEx text script functions.
DisplayThought allows you to have the character say something without their speech animation playing (or with a thinking anim playing instead if you like). This can also be displayed in a custom text window above their head.
* Added game.text_align variable to allow you to centre text within message boxes.
* Fixed game crash if you had an unterminated GUI label macro.
* Fixed crash drawing small (eg. 4x4) sprites.
* Fixed editor crash dumping game text in long path names.
* Hopefully fixed crash in Win9x when trying to drag sprites
Beta 3b changes since beta 3a:
* Fixed Player Enters Screen not getting run if a region interaction initiated the room change.
* Fixed replay playback sync error with 640x400-res games.
Beta 3a changes since beta 3:
* Implemented drag-and-drop to move sprites into different folders in the sprite manager
* Editor fatal crash message now includes debug info to help me locate problems
Beta 3 changes since beta 2:
* Added ShakeScreenBackground text script command.
* Added "If player has been to room" interaction command.
* Fixed 0x77f crash bug introduced in 2.55 beta 1.
* Editor now prompts you to rebuild the vox files if music or speech has been added to the game folder.
* Fixed walk-behind mask granularity not being updated if a background of a different resolution but same relative size was imported.
* Fixed bug with Regions running script twice if it had a Wait()
* Fixed SetMusicVolume not allowing values less than Normal.
* Fixed character light levels to use region 0 settings if off-screen, to make the character be correctly lit as they walk from off-screen.
* Fixed black on some sprites turning to transparent when ignoring walk behinds.
* Added manual page describing debugging features
Beta 2 changes since beta 1a:
* Added GetGameParameter, IsInventoryInteractionAvailable text script functions.
* Added plugin API functions GetSpriteWidth, GetSpriteHeight, GetTextExtent, PrintDebugConsole, PlaySoundChannel, IsChannelPlaying
* SetButtonPic now updates the button size to the size of the new graphic, when changing the Normal graphic.
* Mirrored view frames now work with objects.
* Fixed spurious engine crash "no such function in script" when nesting scripts inside interactions.
* Allow FileOpen to open files in sub-directories if FILE_READ.
Beta 1a fixes since beta 1:
* Fixed editor crash changing GUI background image
* Fixed region drawing problem in 640x400 rooms
Changes since v2.54:
* GUIs can now be named, and those names used in the text script, much the same way as it works with characters.
GUIs can also now be deleted, which is safe so long as you use their names rather than numbers to reference them in your scripts.
* Optimization to speed up screens with large objects, and to speed up rendering of characters.
* Added "regions" as a new room area mask type. These take over light levels from walkable areas, and also add 'Player Walks Onto' and 'Player Walks Off' interactions. Added GetRegionAt and RunRegionInteraction text script functions.
* Added support for New Game Templates, to enable the user to choose between a new game Sierra-style, Lucasarts-style, and so forth. The default blank game also now includes a simple custom inventory window.
* Increased max objects per room from 10 to 15.
* Added "Quick Save" editor option, which saves your changes but doesn't compile the game files. This is useful when you just want to quickly save your work but not test the game.
* Added option for 256-colour animating backgrounds to share the main background's palette, to eliminate flicker effect on backgrounds with more subtle changes.
* Added "Conditional - If mouse cursor mode is" interaction command.
* If you have no mod/xm music, the player is now not loaded and therefore you can use all 6 sound channels simultaneously.
* Tinkered with avi playback code a bit to try and make it more stable.
* Fixed crash trying to load a game saved in a 320x240 room when the current room was a 320x200 room.
* Fixed crash when characters went off the top of the screen.
* Fixed crash passing empty string to Display/DisplaySpeech.
* Fixed SetGUIPosition giving error message at 800x600.
[edit: * New editor executable icon, by netmonkey :) ]
GUIs
The main reason for allowing these to be named is so that you can delete them. Only delete them though if you are referring to every GUI by name in all your scripts - otherwise, the re-numbering could well mess things up.
Optimization
On most screens this will probably only be in the order of an extra 1-2 FPS, but on screens with large objects and walk-behinds it can be much more significant. The initial pier screen in KQ2VGA as the ship moves away (running at 640x400) is sped up for me from 22 FPS to 37 FPS with this update.
Regions
Why regions? Well, there were complaints from people saying that the 15 walkable areas weren't enough if you want to set up scaling and lighting areas on the same screen. The "Player stands on hotspot" interaction was also rather silly since hotspots aren't generally placed to match where the character stands.
Regions steal the light level setting from walkable areas (don't worry, all old rooms will automatically be upgraded), and they also introduce three new interactions of their own - 'Player Stands on Region', and the more useful 'Player walks onto region' and 'walks off region' - these two only happen once, each time the player enters or leaves the area.
The old "Player stands on hotspot" interaction is now deprecated, please don't use it in any new games as it may be removed completely at some point.
New Game templates
These make the whole Start New Game thing look a bit more professional, but more importantly it's now easy to add "New Sierra-style game", "New verb coin", and so forth, to help newbies.
THIS IS A BETA! MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR GAME FOLDER BEFORE TRYING IT OUT!
http://www.agsforums.com/ags255rc2.zip
As always, your feedback and testing is appreciated. As you can imagine, this version has undergone a fair few changes, so testing is the most important thing now.
nice editor icon on the new beta ;) (yes, I'm responsible for making it. :P)
How do you refer to guis by name on scripts, tho? it seems that the help hasn't been updated to include that info.
cheers for some of the stuff here ;)
That's what I call back with a bang.
I really like this template stuff :)
Quote from: netmonkey on Tue 15/04/2003 23:05:24
nice editor icon on the new beta ;) (yes, I'm responsible for making it. :P)
Hehe yes nice work, sorry I forgot to credit you for that initially :)
Quote
How do you refer to guis by name on scripts, tho? it seems that the help hasn't been updated to include that info.
Assuming that your GUI 2 is named "JIBBLE" for instance, you can do:
GUIOn(JIBBLE);
or in interface_click
if (interface == JIBBLE) {
etc - basically just use the name instead of the number anywhere in the script.
Nice stuff man... A problem that happened with me though, my backgrounds are 640x400, and the regions feature is shown in this high res. Of course since walkbehinds are 320x200 (no problem with that), the regions for each background are shrunk and offset. Trying to draw on the regions too gives an offset in a similar way.
Not explained it very well, but hopefully you should know what I mean :)
Chris, great work as always!
Regions? So that means I have to re-do my use of hotspots for automatic door sensors? Damn you, Chris! Damn you!!! ;)
Quote
* Added "regions" as a new room area mask type. These take over light levels from walkable areas, and also add 'Player Walks Onto' and 'Player Walks Off' interactions. Added GetRegionAt and RunRegionInteraction text script functions.
Regions?2? ... Now it's really back to basic ...
/me recalls something called "shadow area"...
Quote
* Added option for 256-colour animating backgrounds to share the main background's palette, to eliminate flicker effect on backgrounds with more subtle changes.
Now that's something I really want...
You never stop the good work!
Quote from: CJ on Tue 15/04/2003 23:54:06
Assuming that your GUI 2 is named "JIBBLE" for instance, you can do:
GUIOn(JIBBLE);
or in interface_click
if (interface == JIBBLE) {
etc - basically just use the name instead of the number anywhere in the script.
Oh, like characters... cool!
Yeah, Chris is back! And he's got a present for us. Shouldn't it be the other way round?
/me hands over some bread and salt to Chris.
QuoteThe default blank game also now includes a simple custom inventory window.
Now
that is something newbie-friendly. Good job!
Back to basics... these are smart new features. It's things like this that makes AGS as popular as it is... the fact that it's so useable. This is good stuff.
Cheers! :)
I can`t test it, because I have only Linux, so send the editor source code to Shawn and I`m waiting a port from him. ;)
:o Downloading now! New features looks really promising, great job!
I think I found a bug (which is also present in previous versions):
I have a GUI which shows the inventory icons and I am trying to make a coin GUI. Now I rightclick on an inventory item and on top of it the coin appears. Now the game evaluates which parts of the coin have to be disabled and which have to be enabled (e.g. when you click on a stone then "talk to" has to be disabled). The game finds out the image numbers (this works) and tries to change the CoinGUI with SetButtonPic commands in the repeatedly_execute.
This is where the bug occurs: Sometimes all works fine and the coin looks correct, but sometimes one part of the coin - the part where the mouse pointer points to - shows the wrong picture (greyed out instead of enabled). As soon as I leave the wrong-pictured GUI button with the the mouse pointer (while still holding the right mouse button so that the GUI stays visible) the wrong pictures changes to the correct one.
Since this only happens in the inventory and not in the main game window on the background I think this is a problem with opening a GUI on top of another GUI. Maybe the button picture where the mouse points to just doesn't get updated...
I hope you understood me, and by the way: Welcome back! :)
Das Jan
CJ, is there a possibilty AGS will come in "update" files? Instead of exctracting new zips all the time, can you do some sort of exe file which will update the AGS that is already on the system?
But then if there was serious problem with the update, you couldnt go back on it, and all your games would be updated with the wrong update. I like the new zips with each one.
Must say i prefer zips too.
Btw, amazing job on optimization! Some screens where i have a few quite big characters (and walkbehinds) now run almost without any slowdown!
I also love some of the new features (especially names for GUIs (much easier to remember) and 6 sound channels).
Whoa... You're back CJ... Welcome back! We've been waiting for you... :)
These new features sound really good... I'll go do some testing and report if I forgot to backup my game and the new version of AGS screws it up and I have to start again from the beginning.... :D
I think I've found a bug. I loaded one of my rooms, and then when I was using the region thing, any line I would draw would automatically shrink and move up and to the left. (Almost as if the background that the lines correspond to was half its size, but the background I see and was trying to draw the lines on was twice as big). I hope I am making sense.
Already reported that holodude, just read up. Good to see confirmation that it's not just me though.
And this is how it looks like:
(http://atticwindow.adventuredevelopers.com/Spyros/regions.gif)
top:background
middle:walkable areas
bottom:regions
Thanks for the feedback people, yes there seems to be a bug with regions in 640x400-res rooms. I'll look into it.
DasJan: could this be a problem with the game being paused (and thus greying the button out)? Are the GUIs set to "Always on" or "Script only"? Do you use any PauseGame commands in the script?
Barcik: I could, but it's only 2 MB so it's not really worth the effort. If AGS was a 100 MB download, I would make a patch for the new versions. But as others have said, this way also makes sure that you keep your copy of the latest release version as well.
Ok, beta 1a is now up, which fixes the region problem.
Unfortunately if you saved any rooms with the problem, they are corrupt permanently and you'll have to copy back your backup of that room file.
See people, this is why we always tell you to backup before using beta versions :)
Yay. Coolness.
*deletes Glumol*
Edit: By the way, I suggest you keep the "Player stands on hotspot" interaction, because it'll probably still be useful sometimes.
QuoteBy the way, I suggest you keep the "Player stands on hotspot" interaction, because it'll probably still be useful sometimes.
Not to mention a pain in the butt, if you ever decide to go back and make newer versions of your old games... it would be a lot of work to convert all the hotspot interactions into region interactions...
Perhaps the ability to cut, copy and paste (single and multiple) items in the interactions editor would make that nice and easy?
Or should I make a separate suggestion thread for that? :/
I vote for the old icon. :) (yes, I'm responsible for making it. :P )
Haha.
Anyways, is there any way to create our own templates for games? I think it would end up being a lot easier for noobies to use custom guis and things if they didn't have to insert code and all that, though it won't really promote any actual learning.
Quote from: CJ on Wed 16/04/2003 21:22:57
DasJan: could this be a problem with the game being paused (and thus greying the button out)? Are the GUIs set to "Always on" or "Script only"? Do you use any PauseGame commands in the script?
No, it has nothing to do with the pause. I don't use it and when I said "greyed out" I meant the button uses the wrong sprite as a picture. I turn the GUI on and off in the script, so it's "Script only". I don't use PauseGame. Here is a picture:
(http://www.adventure-treff.de/temp/dasjan/agsbug.jpg)
(1) This is how it looks before I click.
(2) Now I am pressing and holding the right mouse button. The GUI appeared, but as you can see the part where the mouse pointer points to (the hand) is wrong.
(3) After I moved the mouse pointer off the hand icon, all appears right. When I move the mouse back on the hand, the hand opens as it is supposed to do.
More facts: I use the global integer img_use to store the sprite index of the current button pic. It's 104 for the greyed out image, 117 for the open hand and so on. Then in the repeatedly_execute I have a
SetButtonPic(3, 1, 1, img_use);
SetButtonPic(3, 1, 2, img_use);
SetButtonPic(3, 1, 3, img_use);
I
know that img_use has the correct value (debugged) all the time, but although I set the ButtonPics in the repeatedly_execute, the correct Button pic is not shown. It seems as if SetButtonPic doesn't work under specific conditions.
Das Jan
Good work chris. Downloading now.
One comment however, whatever happened to the thing in the old roomedit where you could preview the walking animations(well it cycled through them). I found that useful, but it isnt in the windows version anymore.
Quote from: rodekill on Thu 17/04/2003 00:23:35
Anyways, is there any way to create our own templates for games? I think it would end up being a lot easier for noobies to use custom guis and things if they didn't have to insert code and all that, though it won't really promote any actual learning.
Yep, when making the game go up to Game, then near the bottom you will see Make template from this game...
Firstly let me say I have no plans to delete the "stands on hotspot" interaction, but just to be sure, please don't use it in any new games.
rode: yeah I'm sorry about that... I do actually feel bad whenever something like this happens, but it's a no-win decision because someone gets the disappointment either way. :)
As for making templates, look under "Templates, creating" in the manual index.
DasJan: starnge, I'll look into it
No prob CJ, just messing with ya.
Besides, I'm still the master of AGS IN-EDITOR ICONS! ;D
I`ve downloaded it and managed to start it under Linux. I haven`t found any problems with the new features - delete GUI and so on. But the fonts are messed up.
Quote from: rodekill on Fri 18/04/2003 03:05:32
No prob CJ, just messing with ya.
Hehe I know ;)
Quote
Besides, I'm still the master of AGS IN-EDITOR ICONS! ;D
Indeed. Rode is king!
:)
Do you have any idea when the definitive version will come out?
Is that I'm just starting to make a game, there are a lot of cool features in the 2.55 version, it seems like it'll be a lot of work to do a conversion later and I'd like to know if it's worth waiting until the 2.55 version comes out before I start doing some serious work on my game.
Thanks a lot.
As far as I'm aware, most of the updating needing to be done is carried out automatically. Take the regions system that has now taken over lighting, when loading the new version of the editor, it had no problem loading the rooms made with the old version of the editor and sorting it all out into regions automatically.
That said, I've just found another bug that seems to crash my game every time. I can't work out exactly what it is, but it happened twice in my game. The first time it happened was when I had a 'Game - Play Sound Effect' command in the interactions editor. Never happened in any previous version of the editor, and repeatedly happened with the new version. All I did to fix it was to remove the play sound interaction command and replace it with a run script command that merely had 'PlaySound(6);' in it. Worked find after that.
The second time that I still haven't figured out yet gives the same error: (prepare_script: error -2 (no such function in script) trying to run 'region2_a' (Room 11)
This happens after you 'use' a window. I've got a 'Game - display a message' command that correctly displays, then following it is a run script with the following code:
PlayMusic(6);
SetScreenTransition(TRANSITION_FADE);
Wait(200);
NewRoom(12);
It crashes immediately after the message displayed has disappeared. Any ideas, CJ?
I am downloading....NOW! It's great to see that CJ is still ontop of things in his old age. ( :P Just Kidding!)
I like the sound of this region thing! It will be much easier to create the right lighting etc.
Can the region mask be used with the shadows plugin made a while ago?
Quote from: BlackBaron on Fri 18/04/2003 19:28:15
Do you have any idea when the definitive version will come out?
No. Please don't ask for release dates, it depends on several factors and I have no idea when it will finally be released.
Just use 2.54 for now, the upgading process is automatic so it shouldn't be a problem to upgrade when 2.55 comes out.
Quote
That said, I've just found another bug that seems to crash my game every time. I can't work out exactly what it is, but it happened twice in my game. The first time it happened was when I had a 'Game - Play Sound Effect' command in the interactions editor. Never happened in any previous version of the editor, and repeatedly happened with the new version.
What was the crash? In the editor? In the engine? Do you have the crash printout anywhere?
Quote
The second time that I still haven't figured out yet gives the same error: (prepare_script: error -2 (no such function in script) trying to run 'region2_a' (Room 11)
This happens after you 'use' a window. I've got a 'Game - display a message' command that correctly displays, then following it is a run script with the following code:
PlayMusic(6);
SetScreenTransition(TRANSITION_FADE);
Wait(200);
NewRoom(12);
Can you open up the room script (from the Room Settings pane) and see what function name that script code has been placed under?
Quote
What was the crash? In the editor? In the engine? Do you have the crash printout anywhere?
During playthrough... The error says this:
An internal error has occured. Please note down the following information.
If the problem persists, contact Chris Jones.
(ACI version 2.55.534)
Error: prepare_script: error -2 (no such function in script) trying to run 'region2_a' (Room 11)
Quote
Can you open up the room script (from the Room Settings pane) and see what function name that script code has been placed under?
function hotspot3_a() and function hotspot4_a() (I have two different hotspots that do the same script, but have a different displaymessage to begin with, so they have to be two separate hotspots). Interestingly I've done a bit more testing and if your character is outside the walkable area (and therefore I assume the regions) it doesn't crash. To do this I merely skipped to the room from an earlier room with my character in a different position in the first screen. Then skipping back, moving my character back to where he would be in the walkable area and finally teleporting back to the room in question made it crash, so I'm pretty sure it's just being inside a walkable area that causes it.
Can you check the interactions for region 2 in that room, and make sure there's not a Run Script command listed there?
Absolutely no interactions whatsoever on any regions... at least not from 1-6 that I checked :)
Quote from: DasJan on Thu 17/04/2003 01:33:51
(1) This is how it looks before I click.
(2) Now I am pressing and holding the right mouse button. The GUI appeared, but as you can see the part where the mouse pointer points to (the hand) is wrong.
(3) After I moved the mouse pointer off the hand icon, all appears right. When I move the mouse back on the hand, the hand opens as it is supposed to do.
More facts: I use the global integer img_use to store the sprite index of the current button pic. It's 104 for the greyed out image, 117 for the open hand and so on. Then in the repeatedly_execute I have a
SetButtonPic(3, 1, 1, img_use);
SetButtonPic(3, 1, 2, img_use);
SetButtonPic(3, 1, 3, img_use);
It's hard to tell what the problem is without knowing more about how your GUI works. If you also do the SetButtonPics before doing the GUIOn to make the verb coin appear, does it work then?
Quote from: eVOLVE on Sat 19/04/2003 18:51:28
Absolutely no interactions whatsoever on any regions... at least not from 1-6 that I checked :)
Hmm... is it region 2 that the character is standing on when the crash happens?
Any chance you could send me the room file to investigate?
The "game template" and "gui name" features rock!!
Yeah, it would even rock more if there were made a few more templates to download ;)
Quote from: CJ on Sat 19/04/2003 18:54:53
It's hard to tell what the problem is without knowing more about how your GUI works. If you also do the SetButtonPics before doing the GUIOn to make the verb coin appear, does it work then?
I changed a bit now and it seems to work. I think now the SetButtonPic is executed and the GUIOn takes place in the next game loop, not only after the SetButtonPic in the same game loop. I still think there is a small bug with SetButtonPic but since I found a workaround it's not so important anymore.
btw: Did you consider implementing a IsInventoryInteractionAvailable or make IsInteractionAvailable work with inventory items on GUIs, too? It would make the coin GUI way more easy to use.
Das Jan
Quote from: eVOLVE on Sat 19/04/2003 18:51:28
Absolutely no interactions whatsoever on any regions... at least not from 1-6 that I checked :)
Thanks for sending the room. I tried 'using' it (hand cursor on it) and it all worked fine - it didn't crash for me.
It could be some sort of combination of the room and the rest of the game that's causing the problem.
If you start a new game, and load that room into it, does the problem still happen?
Quote
I changed a bit now and it seems to work. I think now the SetButtonPic is executed and the GUIOn takes place in the next game loop, not only after the SetButtonPic in the same game loop. I still think there is a small bug with SetButtonPic but since I found a workaround it's not so important anymore.
Hmm... strange though. Wonder what it was.
Quote
btw: Did you consider implementing a IsInventoryInteractionAvailable or make IsInteractionAvailable work with inventory items on GUIs, too? It would make the coin GUI way more easy to use.
Sounds sensible actually, I'll add it to the list.
You're correct, it doesn't seem to crash if you start a new game... so I guess the question is why is it happening just on this new version?
For anyone else with evolve's problem - we solved it over IRC, here's a fixed engine until the next beta comes along:
http://www.agsforums.com/acwin.zip
jannar: I have a few template contributions to make once this baby is released. I'm sure others have contributions as well. Proably we need a sticky or a "plugin" type page to list them all.
I can't wait until there are some templates to download. No doubt Sylpher & co will make an instagame "templates" pack. :)
Argh. Chris, I assume that PlaySoundChannel is the function that I've been bugging you for... the only problem is there's no direction in the manual on how to use it :P
Woohoo! Thanks for one of the longest script commands in AGS, IsInventoryInteractionAvailable! Very cool, I'll try it out soon!
Das Jan
Quote from: Dark Stalkey on Mon 21/04/2003 11:11:29
Argh. Chris, I assume that PlaySoundChannel is the function that I've been bugging you for... the only problem is there's no direction in the manual on how to use it :P
Nope, that's a command for plugins to use.
Contact me over IRC about your 'special requirements' ;)
Quote* Added plugin API functions GetSpriteWidth, GetSpriteHeight, GetTextExtent, PrintDebugConsole, PlaySoundChannel, IsChannelPlaying
Thank you, god!!! er.. Chris... ;D
Soon agsCreditz will be perfect!!!
Quote* Added GetGameParameter, IsInventoryInteractionAvailable text script functions.
* Added plugin API functions GetSpriteWidth, GetSpriteHeight, GetTextExtent, PrintDebugConsole, PlaySoundChannel, IsChannelPlaying
* SetButtonPic now updates the button size to the size of the new graphic, when changing the Normal graphic.
* Mirrored view frames now work with objects.
* Fixed spurious engine crash "no such function in script" when nesting scripts inside interactions.
* Allow FileOpen to open files in sub-directories if FILE_READ.
Cool changes CJ :D Special thanks for GetGameParameter() function! :)
-Cheers
Buggery Bug:
When you make a template, template.ico appears on the game's folder (the game created from the template)
I like the template feature.. I'm making one :)
Thanks Chris for all the work you're doing on AGS. ;D
I like the new features in v2.55b, regions are extremely useful (to me, anyway).
A suggestion:
Do you think you colud try and include IfPlayerHasBeenToRoom and IfPlayerHasSpokenTo functions some time in the future? I know you can script your way around these situation, but it'd just make like easier.
I don't think that's worth the effort. You can simple do this using a global int
I had that problem when I wished there was a "IfPlayer HasEverHadInventory" command...then I discovered GlobalInts, and they changed my life...well not exactly....but...they helped!.....
Underscore characters can't be used to form GUI names. Is it possible to remove this restiction or is it necessary?
I am having trouble downloading it. It downloads 84.5 Kb, then stops. :'(
If you are talking about AGS try using a download manager like FlashGet.
All the other versions have downloaded fine. Can anyone send it to me?
1. Try downloading it with FlashGet and from the mirror that is near to you. Then ask for help.
But I've never needed that before, and I have a slow internet connection. :'(
Quote
Buggery Bug:
When you make a template, template.ico appears on the game's folder (the game created from the template)
That's not a bug. It's deliberate so that you can recreate the template from the game made from the template, if you see what I mean.
Come on, if you're going to report a bug, at least report a real one :P
Quote from: aussie on Fri 25/04/2003 07:24:57
Do you think you colud try and include IfPlayerHasBeenToRoom and IfPlayerHasSpokenTo functions some time in the future? I know you can script your way around these situation, but it'd just make like easier.
If Player Has Been To Room is a possibility, because AGS keeps track of that anyway so it wouldn't be too hard to add.
"If Player Has Spoken To" is far too generic though - how do you define whether they've been spoken to or not. This is better done with variables/globalints/etc
well, I could have added "I think" to that post somewhere.. but I'm too arrogant and I always think I'm 105% right :P
Anyway, my logic was that since a new game didn't have a template icon in the folder, then a game from a user-created template wouldn't have the template either.
Wow! Lot of good things in this new version, especially this one :
QuoteAdded "regions" as a new room area mask type.
;D Thanks a lot!
QuoteHopefully fixed crash in Win9x when trying to drag sprites -- let me know if this works. I've enabled the sprite manager as a drag source (which means you can drag the sprites out, but you won't be able to actually drop them anywhere). I'm hoping this will fix the crash.
Why not allow the user to drag sprites and drop them in a different folder when he need to reorganize sprites? Just an idea. ::)
Quote from: Dorcan on Sun 27/04/2003 20:40:36
Why not allow the user to drag sprites and drop them in a different folder when he need to reorganize sprites? Just an idea. ::)
That is a feature request, and will be done at some point. This was a bug fix, which is rather more important :P
Hmmmm that sprite-dragging-crashing problem wasn't fixed yet, at least not for me. :-\
That's a shame - try beta 3a, it now includes some useful debugging output in the crash message which might actually help me locate the problem (now why didn't I put that in a long time ago...)
Okay here it is:
Exception 0xC0000005 at EIP=0x00477EBC AGSE V2.55.349
It was running on Win ME.
Damn, I can't be away for the easter holiday and 2 new betas of AGS came up.
QuoteImplemented drag-and-drop to move sprites into different folders in the sprite manager
That really rocks!!!
Thanks
Woah, seems that Easter holiday is quite long for GREEKS! ;D
Here in Bulgaria is two weeks, too. ;D
Well, actually because of SARS, the kids here had been having holidays for more than a month already, all secondary school students had just resumed school this week...
Oh this is teh tech. forum, and it's the almighty AGS release thread, let's don't continue the offtopic discussions. ;D
I love you for the new futures in beta 3a! :D
Quote from: Gilbot V7000a on Tue 29/04/2003 03:03:02
Okay here it is:
Exception 0xC0000005 at EIP=0x00477EBC AGSE V2.55.349
It was running on Win ME.
hmm... Gilbert, could you try this:
http://www.agsforums.com/agsedit.zip
and see if it helps at all.
Sorry about this, but there's no way I can test it myself.
Hmmm this time it is:
Exception C0000005 at EIP=0x00475479, AGSE V2.55.350
I'll try it at home to see if the same error is generated (for the last one in beta3a, I have exactly the same error message in both my home WIN95 comp. and this WINME comp. at work).
Quote from: CJ on Tue 15/04/2003 22:58:49
* Added support for New Game Templates, to enable the user to choose between a new game Sierra-style, Lucasarts-style, and so forth. The default blank game also now includes a simple custom inventory window.
Where is this simple custom inventory window found?
EDIT: Ah, never mind, I didn't realize you had to create a new game to get it.
I screwed something up while using the beta3. It was my fault, and I realize that. I'd like to try using the beta2, see if I could make my game work again. Could you provide the link, please?
By the way, in case you're interested, it said it had exited the game and told me the game engine had crashed, asking me to make sure it was in the proper folder (it was). As I said, this is no bug report - just my mess-up.
Quote from: Gilbot V7000a on Wed 30/04/2003 07:29:19
Hmmm this time it is:
Exception C0000005 at EIP=0x00475479, AGSE V2.55.350
I'll try it at home to see if the same error is generated (for the last one in beta3a, I have exactly the same error message in both my home WIN95 comp. and this WINME comp. at work).
Hmm, ok... could you try this build:
http://www.agsforums.com/agsedit.zip?newtry
Sorry about this, it is just trial and error as I have no idea why it's crashing under Win9x. By the way, do you get the same problem if you try and drag one of the new game templates in the New Game window? I ask because it's the same control that the sprite manager uses.
QuoteI screwed something up while using the beta3. It was my fault, and I realize that. I'd like to try using the beta2, see if I could make my game work again. Could you provide the link, please?
Even though it's your fault, can I ask what you did in case there's a way I can make it cope better in future?
Sorry, beta 2 is no longer available - if beta 3 won't load it, neither will beta 2. You'll have to continue from the backup you made before trying the beta version I'm afraid.
'read_gui: unknown version, update this program'
Hmm.. I just tried out the new version (3a, the link in the first post) and it worked the first time, loading my current game from a copied folder no problem.. close AGS, go get a drink..
now I'm back and I just tried to open my game by choosing the correct folder on the list (the copy of my game i had loaded earlier), and it gives me that message and closes. I'm using windows 2000, I haven't been following this thread, but i didn't see anything about this after skimming through all the pages, and I haven't had a problem updating my AGS games in the past.
can't be all negative with it though, awesome additions once again, being able to add more objects really helps me out.
I think I've found a region related bug. If you use a NewRoom command from a Player Steps Onto Region thingy, it appears to ignore the "player enters screen" and the "ENTER_ROOM" parts of the on_event function.
cerebrit : Check if in your game's folder is an older acwin.exe .
Chrille: well spotted, this is now fixed in beta 3b.
cerebrit: make sure you used the beta 3 AGSEDIT to load the game with, you will get that message if you try and load it with v2.54.
What I did was -
I wanted to start checkin' out the FileOpen, FileWrite, FileWriteRawLine, etc. stuff (if you go to the general forum, you may find out why ;) ).
So, in my first room after the intro, I added, on First Time Player Enters, the following code -
handle = FileOpen ("temp.tmp", FILE_WRITE);
FileWrite (handle, "test string");
FileClose (handle);
(please understand I was messin' with these for the 1st time)
and, to check if it worked, i place the following code on keycode pressed 90 ('Z') -
if (keycode==90) {
handle = FileOpen ("temp.tmp", FILE_READ);
if (handle == 0) Display("Error opening file.");
else {
FileRead (handle, file);
FileWriteRawLine(handle, file);
FileClose(handle);
}
}
Well, when I tried to test the game, it happened. Oddly enough, it goes through the intro nicely, but when the time comes for the player to actually be in control, zip. I tried changing the starting room and/or player character - no good. I AM using the cutscene commands, but I don't think they have anything to do with it, so I didn't bother taking them out.
The message says something like 'the game has crashed, you should have already had a message displayed to inform you (i never had) and make sure ACWIN is in the correct folder (it is).
Oddly enough, I can still acess the editor like nothing had happened, so if things stay like this nothing prevents me from copying stuff to a new file.
Oh, and other AGSs work - I tested it with my own templates. Similarly, the template I made from MY game (made after the s**t hit the fan) doesn't work.
No backups - serves me right!
I'm not quite clear on what isn't working for you.
When does the crash happen? When you press Z, or when it enters the room? Can you provide the complete text of the error message?
One thing that's definately wrong is this bit of script:
FileRead (handle, file);
FileWriteRawLine(handle, file);
You opened the file for FILE_READ, so you cannot write to it with FileWriteRawLine - that may be the cause of some problems.
The error actually occurs when the main character gets to a playable room (ANY OF THEM), whoever the main character IS, as soon as it enters. Intro rooms are, somehow, the exemption.
Here follow the error massage -
There was a problem running the game engine. It may have crashed, in which case should have already informed you. (It never has.) Otherwise, make sure ACWIN.EXE is in the editor directory.
If you run it outside of the editor (by running the EXE from the Compiled folder), does it do the same?
Has this only started happening since you added the File code? What if you comment out all your FileOpen/FileWrite type code, does it still do this?
Running the EXE or ACWIN does not provide the message, but it still doesn't work It doesn't actallu crash, by the way - it just exites the game.
This has only happened since I added the code, and yes, I did try removing it. Didn't work.
Also tried AGSEDIT3b - didn't work.
Would you like to upload your game files somewhere for me to take a look at?
WinME still crashes when trying to drag sprites. The new agsedit file comes along with this error message: Exception 0xC0000005 at EIP=0x00425B85, AGSEv2.55.351
The system only crashes when the focus is set to the frame that includes the drag-n-drop elements. So you can try to move the sprites as long as the focus is on the main menu or the folder tree. But after a click on the background of the sprites area or on a sprite picture the next try to drag an image causes the error.
As expected it is the same problem with dragging one of the new game templates, but only if you try to move a template right after opening the new game window. The error message never appears in case you click on the background or folder name field below first and then try to drag. You then can even go back to the main selection and select "Start a new game" again and move whatever you want - no error appears in the new game window.
I hope this all doesn't sound too confusing now...
Sure. I'm writing this at 7:50 am, and I'll go right away upload the files. Because I can have a hell of a time doing it (doesn't work properly) wait about 30, 45 minutes before checking out www.freewebs.com/skimbleshanks/
And thank you very much.
EDIT - actually, suprisingly, extraordinarily, and so on and so forth, it's already done! You can check it out now.
Oh, I just remembered - the "file" code is NOT in, but it is exactly the one I showed you a few posts earlier, so a quick copy/paste should perfectly reproduce the state of the game.
I see what you mean about the faulty script. Would this work instead? -
if (keycode==90) {
handle = FileOpen ("temp.tmp", FILE_READ);
if (handle == 0) Display("Error opening file.");
else {
FileRead (handle, file);
FileClose(handle);
handle = FileOpen ("story.txt", FILE_WRITE);
FileWriteRawLine(handle, file);
FileClose(handle);
}
}
Klaus: thanks for the info. I'm really lost as to the cause of this, so for beta 4 I'm just catching the exception and ignoring it, and hoping that will fix the problem.
redrum: thanks for that, I've found and fixed the bug for beta 4.
It was due to you having "@SCORETEXT" in a GUI Label, and the engine was crashing because you didn't have the terminating '@'. That's now fixed.
QuoteI see what you mean about the faulty script. Would this work instead? -
Yep it should do. Remember though, FILE_WRITE overwrites the current contents of the file so you'll only ever get one line in the file that way.
Okay, no crash in beta4 now, dragging a sprite just did nothing for me. ;D
Quote* Added game.text_align variable to allow you to centre text within message boxes.
Thanks CJ. Also I haven`t found any serious problems under Linux using the emulator.
Yay!!!! With this new feature in Beta 4, we can have a think bubble!
Joey
I think it would be good if you could zoom in on the backgrounds in the background editor, it would be WAY easier to do walk behinds!
Jimi, please, before you make suggestions, check the tracker....
http://www.agsforums.com/tracker.php?action=detail&id=49
And you should know better than to add suggestions to a beta thread. Its only here for bug reports, not upgrade ideas.
Like Gilbot already posted beta 4 doesn't crash under WinME when dragging sprites. But it is throughout possible to drag and drop sprites to a different folder if the focus is set to the main menu or the folder tree - that way it is working fine :)
I just finished trying to drag an image in the sprite folder to cause the editor to crash. It doesn't crash this time for me! Windows 98SE
I tried it in Win98. beta 3 crashed this one doesn't :)
Ah good, glad to hear it. But what you're saying is that drag and drop doesn't work at all if the window has the focus? Ah well, better than a crash.
Nah, not for me at least.
Maybe it's possible to add a "move to folder..." function in the right click menu? (Heh it's not important to me as I won't need to move the sprites anyway)
The drag and drop doesn't work on my Windows 2000 either, would be nice to have though.
Hm, for me (WinME 4.90.3000) it really works with this (focus) trick: Click on the folder name (eg Main) so it's blue, then drag the sprite directly to another folder (eg Defaults) without any other clicking before.
Dammit CJ! Now I'm going to have to change the name of my custom function, also called DisplayThought! :P All kidding aside, v2.55 ß4 looks awesome! Thanks! :)
Quote from: scotch on Wed 07/05/2003 13:56:00
The drag and drop doesn't work on my Windows 2000 either, would be nice to have though.
really? What, if you try and drag a sprite, nothing happens? Strange, it's worked on all the win2k/xp systems I've tested it on so far.
Tried it again.. and no, absolutely nothing happens if I drag a sprite :/
Re: the Byzantine Demo crash, it seems it's to do with having anti-aliasing turned on in the intro on Windows 9x systems. Perhaps that'll shed some more light on the error message...?
Quote from: Dark Stalkey on Wed 07/05/2003 23:24:13
Re: the Byzantine Demo crash, it seems it's to do with having anti-aliasing turned on in the intro on Windows 9x systems. Perhaps that'll shed some more light on the error message...?
Ah, that's interesting. For now the workaround is obviosuly then to disable antialiasing, but I'll look into it and see if there are any obvious problems with the code.
I've had another report of AA crashing the engine, so I might have to remove it completely to be safe.
Actually in this case Fuzzpilz said turning off the 85hz option solved it.. the other report was of turning them both off.. so it seems it's the 85hz that's causing the problem..
Hmm, that seems like there's something more random at stake here - all the 85 Hz option does is change the request to DirectX when the game starts up. It should have no affect during gameplay.
I'll look into it.
Well, it seems as though my DisplayThought problem is worse than I thought. The only way I could feasibly integrate your new function into my game is to keep Sierra style (the default in my game) while thinking, instead using a different thinking animation. My original custom function had it switch to LEC style (with outlined text above the head), display speech, then back to Sierra style.
What I was thinking instead, was to add an additional parameter that sets the style of speech for thoughts. Say 0 for default, 1 for Sierra, 2 for LEC, 3 for QFG4, etc. This way, if a game (like mine) is normally in Sierra style for talking, but I want LEC style for thoughts, I could set this additional parameter to 2.
Would this work?
thanks for the feedback, I'll certainly consider that.
The last couple of weeks I haven't really had the time or motivation to work on AGS, so I think it's best if I finish up this version and get it released.
With that in mind, RC1 is now released with a few minor changes from the last version. Hopefully if no bugs are found it can become the final version.
i'm very sorry if this has been addressed but i read through all the replies and used the useless search function and i didn't see this so here's hoping
i have a 256 colour game 320x200, i turned on AA scaled characters and dinked around, looks good so far until i switch scenes with fade in/out for my transistion
my character is completely black until it's done fading in and then it refreshes to normal aliased scaled sprite
on any other transition it works fine
here's hoping i'm not repeating someone, i don't want the comfy chair again!
eric
CJ you code faster than i can download :D.I just downloaded Beta 4 and one day later i can download RC1.. i did'nt even started up the beta :D. 3d realms could use you, since you have things done FASTER than i expected (i'm talking over duke4ever :P)
Quote from: MrColossal on Sun 18/05/2003 10:29:32
i have a 256 colour game 320x200, i turned on AA scaled characters and dinked around, looks good so far until i switch scenes with fade in/out for my transistion
my character is completely black until it's done fading in and then it refreshes to normal aliased scaled sprite
Hmm, strange... I think I might know why it's happening though. I'll look into it, in the meantime the workaround is to disable antialiasing in 256-colour games.
Quote
here's hoping i'm not repeating someone, i don't want the comfy chair again!
Hehe, I'll spare you this time ;)
Actually that's something I was afraid of, as AA will probably not work (or works poorly) in a 256 colour game if the palette is to be modified within the game, that's why I requested that the option can be locked when creating the game, so the player can never turn AA on.
I'll definately use many palette effects in my game, so I won't bother ppl playing my games asking me silly questions just because AA was turned on.
Luckily it's possible to lock this thing now, so I don't care about it.
But of course, if possible, fixing it would be a good idea, but I think this is a feature provided by Allegro, so it's not CJ who can do much to it.
Yeah this problem is because the screen is initially drawn with an all-black palette before the fadein, however antialiased sprites use the palette to calculate smoothing... but since the palette is all black that is the nearest colour it can find.
What I'll probably do is disable antialiasing for the very first frame before the screen fades in.
heh make sure people know that otherwise you'll get a ton* of people saying that there's no AA for a second
but as i said, it works just fine with instant and dissolve transitions so it's still very much useable
eric
*a ton meaning 2
is the helpfile totally updated?
This happens only in RC1 not in beta4
Lets say you have a object that uses the pink(or any other) color as it's transparent color
If you use transparency in this object , the transparency works but you can see the the pink area around the object (the pink area uses the transparency ammount of the object too).
i've just started using AGS v2.55 RC1 today and twice now after i've quit testing a game its come up "agsedit not responding" ??? i'm running (feckin) XP
i've got a feeling i'd set a hotspot wrong, should it of come up with the error window as in 2.54?
woodz
Quote from: Spyros on Wed 21/05/2003 18:14:54
This happens only in RC1 not in beta4
Lets say you have a object that uses the pink(or any other) color as it's transparent color
If you use transparency in this object , the transparency works but you can see the the pink area around the object (the pink area uses the transparency ammount of the object too).
I was just in the midst of typing this when I noticed it was already mentioned already. :) It happens when you use transparent characters, too.
Here's an example:
(http://www.davelgil.com/trans.jpg)
Thanks for the reports, I've found & fixed the pink problem and the black 256-col sprites problem for the next version.
Alright, RC2 is now up, it should fix these issues.
Anyway, there are definately going to be no more new features in 2.55. If you find any bugs please do report them, but I'd just like to get this version released.
You're my favorite programmer.. If i ever have a baby, i want you to kiss it!
Yay! Everyone sing:
We love you Cee Jay
Oh yes we do-oo
We love you Cee-ee jay
And we'll be true-oo
When you don't code for us
We're blue!
Oh Cee-ee jay we love you!
Oh yes we do!
...and:
CJ, you're OK,
CJ, you're not portuguese,
And even if you were,
You would code with ease!
I made it myself
Interface problems:
CJ, I am not sure if it's a bug, just want to inform you http://www.agsforums.com/yabb/index.php?board=6;action=display;threadid=6299 (http://www.agsforums.com/yabb/index.php?board=6;action=display;threadid=6299)
-Cheers
Thanks, I've answered that post.
CJ, are you god?
i am seriously starting to wonder...
Only on alternate Thursdays.
Chris, you said that you want to release v2.55 WITH the Linux engine, but Shawn is missing. :) Do you know where is he?
I don't remember saying that. The release will not include the Linux engine, it will be a seperate download as currently.
Shawn is around, however we'll probably just go for the final release compiled for Linux, there's not a lot of point in making every beta available, it's extra effort for him.