Suggestion: *Optional* talking portrait

[GarageGothic]

Following up on some past suggestions (about text window placement and such), which would make the dialog/text display more customizable - I'd like to propose another change, which would take AGS games even further away from being stuck in the classic LucasArts and Sierra style.

Could the Sierra style dialog portrait PLEASE be an optional addon, rather than replacing the on-screen character talking view? My personal reason for this request, is that I prefer Sierra style speech because of the anti-aliasing, but I don't use close-up portraits. But I think it would be a helpful addition for other people as well. Maybe you don't want to bother with close-ups for very minor characters, or maybe you'd like to show the on-screen character talking and gesturing, while showing his face in close-up (I'm not sure about this, but I think some Sierra games did this).

Thanks for reading this suggestion,
GG

[Ryukage]

GG and I seem to think along the same lines when it comes to game speech.  I was just thinking that this would be a good idea.

The earlier suggestions about controlling the position of text boxes would be useful to be as well.  (Assuming I ever actually get a game off the ground.)

A couple related suggestions:

It seem to me that auto-outlined text could be anti-aliased at all times, since the outline provides a background to blend with.  The outline itself could be left aliased, but it should be possible to anti-alias the inner colored text. Unless I misunderstand why overlay text is not anti-aliased.

An option to put speech text on top of the GUI layer instead of underneath it, so that the speech text doesn't get hidden behind menus, frames, status lines, etc.

[Cerulean]

I would really like to put the text in a stationary GUI while running the Lucas-style talking animations. That is, subtitles. I'm playing "Runaway" right now (commercial adventures are alive!) and the subtitles are really working for me. They're easy to read and they don't clutter up the picture.

[Ytterbium]

Maybe you don't want to bother with close-ups for very minor characters, or maybe you'd like to show the on-screen character talking and gesturing, while showing his face in close-up

I give minor characters a blank talking view. And the times I want the actual character to gesture I tell the dialog to run a script which causes the character to perform that animation.

[Pumaman]

As Ytterbium says, the easy workaround is just to have a blank view, and assign it as the talking view of all your minor characters.

However, adding the ability to have both a sierra-style portrait and an actual talking view for the character is an interesting idea, I'll have a think about it.

It seem to me that auto-outlined text could be anti-aliased at all times, since the outline provides a background to blend with. The outline itself could be left aliased, but it should be possible to anti-alias the inner colored text. Unless I misunderstand why overlay text is not anti-aliased.

Good thinking, but I tried that - unfortunately the outline isn't thick enough and the main text still gets antialiased against the pinkness.
This could be solved by making the outline a couple of pixels thicker, but it might look a bit silly then.

An option to put speech text on top of the GUI layer instead of underneath it, so that the speech text doesn't get hidden behind menus, frames, status lines, etc.

Aye, this is on my to-do list.