Transitions

[Edward Becket]

Hi folk,
i have a question... how is possible (if is possible) create a new kind of screen transition? I want to make one similar to that of Zak McKracken, with a black square that became more and more large and than reopen on the new screen...

How?

[Scummbuddy]

Draw a really big animation in, like Paint, and then run the animation right before you leave the room.

[MillsJROSS]

Scummbuddy here is right. You make an animation, import it into the engine and run it before you leave a room and upon entering a room. This, however, would take up a good amount of space on your game.

I've been thinking about this a bit, myself. Some new transitions would be cool, and it would also add a professional look to our games. It would seem to me, then. That someone could possibly make a plug-in for transitions. I, however, do not have the skill, nor know if indeed this can be done for sure. The question that comes to mind...when switching rooms, would you have to open both rooms, if say you wanted a horizontal line going accross the screen and everything it passes shows the next room? This could slow the engine down a bit, but again. I'm not sure.

-MillsJROSS

[Edward Becket]

The idea of tha animation is not a good one.
I think that this "sistem of transition" should be implemented by the creator of AGS. So i don't think that there will be any delay in the game (the present soft transition with transparence from screen to black should weight more) neither any large amount of bites spent in that. In substance it should be a codified program.
I think that this can be applied in the next version of AGS or, even better, like a pathc or external program.

(I hope you understand me...)

[Pumaman]

Currently the only way to add transitions to AGS is for me to implement them directly, or for a plugin to do the job.

It is possible to simulate as Scummbuddy says, but that can be slow and add size to your game.

I'll add a black box transition to my to-do list, because it has been requested a few times.

[Edward Becket]

But is not possible to realize the transitions via script? Without any animation/bitmap?

[Pumaman]

It may be possible, using the on_event  for ENTER_ROOM and LEAVE_ROOM and using the Raw Drawing functions to accomplish the transition.

However, I don't think anyone has tried it yet so I can't give any advice at this stage I'm afraid.

[Spyros]

I think sylpher has made a demo with many transitions (squares, circles, move screen left/right etc) using RawDraw functions but the problem was that the draw functions draw behind the objects/characters and it didn't look good

[Pumaman]

ah yes of course, good point.

[deltamatrix]

if you use a plugin to perform a transition. Wouldn't you have to call the function with script everytime you change rooms?

If so, it would be nice if there was an special API function that could be called automatically.

[Pumaman]

The plugin API includes provision for the plugin to be automatically called on a fadeout and fadein, so no you wouldnt' have to keep calling with the script.

[MrColossal]

that was me, i made the transitions with raw draw

i guess i'll just post the source and everything, i don't have to time to run through it cleaning it up so i'll just post it and you can figure it out

it's really easy

i'll do that tonite

eric