Adventure Game Studio

Community => Adventure Related Talk & Chat => Topic started by: DrKay on Sat 05/01/2008 11:24:30

Title: Appropriate Background Maker?
Post by: DrKay on Sat 05/01/2008 11:24:30
Yes I HAVE been searching, bothon and off forums, but I can't find anything discussing or suggesting this. What programme is best used to create characters and backgrounds for a 320x200 game? I heard of artgem, but they no longer have a download.
Title: Re: Appropriate Background Maker?
Post by: Galen on Sat 05/01/2008 11:30:09
There is a pinned topic under one of the boards that lists paint programs:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=32234.0

I'd advise just using Ms Paint to start off with.
Title: Re: Appropriate Background Maker?
Post by: DrKay on Sat 05/01/2008 11:32:23
As in microsoft paint? But then when I convert it into a reasonable size, it turns really tiny, too tiny to even see. If I don't then its too big.
Title: Re: Appropriate Background Maker?
Post by: Cino on Sat 05/01/2008 12:27:40
There is a zoom function in paint, use that.
Title: Re: Appropriate Background Maker?
Post by: Galen on Sat 05/01/2008 12:54:44
Make sure you canvas is set to the right size (320x240, 320x200, or 640x480 normally), then use the zoom function to get the details.
Title: Re: Appropriate Background Maker?
Post by: DrKay on Sat 05/01/2008 13:21:31
Okay thanks, but a new problem now. I already went ahead and made a background in artgem, but it won't load into AGS, or paint, I'm not even sure what sort of image file it is. Is there something I'm meant to do it make it 'done' or convert it?
Title: Re: Appropriate Background Maker?
Post by: nihilyst on Sat 05/01/2008 13:30:13
You best save it in .png-format. You can then import that into the AGS editor. But make sure you save your image in the ArtGem-format, too, since the .png-files merge the different layers into one.
Title: Re: Appropriate Background Maker?
Post by: DrKay on Sat 05/01/2008 13:48:12
OKay I managed that thanks, but now another problem. The drawing I did is too big. Sure I can use it, but it means that the avatars i use will be in bigland. I confiured in artgem to make it 320x240 (although i did that after i finished it) and I've set the palette thing to 16-bit hi-colour. what else would I be missing?
Title: Re: Appropriate Background Maker?
Post by: Khris on Sat 05/01/2008 15:13:06
I've never used ArtGem, but I'll bet there's a scaling function somewhere in the menu.
Title: Re: Appropriate Background Maker?
Post by: DrKay on Sat 05/01/2008 16:02:35
im not too sure where
Title: Re: Appropriate Background Maker?
Post by: monkey0506 on Sat 05/01/2008 20:40:27
If your canvas size is 320x240, then your characters can't take up the whole canvas. That would take up the whole screen. For such a low resolution, your characters should only be about 25x50 pixels (based off Guybrush from MI2).

Edit: It's width x height, d'oh!
Title: Re: Appropriate Background Maker?
Post by: DrKay on Sat 05/01/2008 20:56:06
No no, I said my characters would be in BIGland (meaning they are too small)
Title: Re: Appropriate Background Maker?
Post by: Galen on Sat 05/01/2008 21:22:58
Ah. Then? Erm... make them bigger?
Title: Re: Appropriate Background Maker?
Post by: monkey0506 on Sun 06/01/2008 05:01:08
Set the canvas size to about 25-30(width)x50-60(height). Then draw the characters using the FULL canvas. That should do it.
Title: Re: Appropriate Background Maker?
Post by: DrKay on Sun 06/01/2008 12:20:46
I'd rather the background was smaller, otherwise people will haave to move the character all along the sides to find an entrance/exit, which will be tedius. I want to make it so the full room can be seen.
Title: Re: Appropriate Background Maker?
Post by: Galen on Sun 06/01/2008 14:09:14
How about you take some screenshots (PrtSc key then paste into Microsoft Paint) of what you are doing? This isn't exactly a ArtGem support forum either way.

Sounds like the size of the image and the size of the game resolution are different which they shouldn't be if you really are using 320x240.
Title: Re: Appropriate Background Maker?
Post by: Dualnames on Sun 06/01/2008 16:11:47
I use MsPaint. Then add various effects using photoshop.
Title: Re: Appropriate Background Maker?
Post by: Akatosh on Sun 06/01/2008 17:42:30
Quote from: DrKay on Sun 06/01/2008 12:20:46
I want to make it so the full room can be seen.

If the game's resolution is set to 320x200, and the background's size is 320x200, the whole screen will be visible at once.
Title: Re: Appropriate Background Maker?
Post by: DrKay on Mon 07/01/2008 07:36:30
Yeah I think I accidently made the room using 640xetc.
Is there a way to downsize the whole thing to 320xetc.?
Title: Re: Appropriate Background Maker?
Post by: Galen on Mon 07/01/2008 07:38:55
Try looking in ArtGem's help files for a scale-image function.
Title: Re: Appropriate Background Maker?
Post by: DrKay on Mon 07/01/2008 08:15:19
Someone has kindly donated sprites and backgrounds to me, I will be sure to credit them when I make the game, and hopefully once I've finished it I will be more experienced.

My final issue with sprites now is making the 'View' of them. I know how to go about forming them, but when I try to make a new 'View'; I only get the blue cup, how do I replace the cup with the sprites I upload?
Title: Re: Appropriate Background Maker?
Post by: .M.M. on Mon 07/01/2008 13:02:30
First, you must have your sprites in Sprite manager. If you don't have, click on right mouse button and select Import new sprite. If you have it here just click on blue cup and select your sprite!
Title: Re: Appropriate Background Maker?
Post by: ncw14 on Mon 07/01/2008 23:59:35
i use paint but i really need an animater i cant draw for my life
Title: Re: Appropriate Background Maker?
Post by: FSi++ on Tue 08/01/2008 12:46:18
Quote from: DrKay on Mon 07/01/2008 07:36:30
Yeah I think I accidently made the room using 640x400.
Is there a way to downsize the whole thing to 320x200.?
Actually there is. In AGS a room can have resolution different from that of the game (at least you can change between scaled and non-scaled resolutions safely).

To import 640x4xx bg into 320x2xx game:
1. Room->Add new room
2. Game->Change game resolution (to 640x4xx)
3. Room->Import background (import yours)
4. Room->Save
5. Game->Change game resolution (back to 320x2xx)
6. ???
7. PROFIT!

(same goes for importing 320x200 bg into 640x400 game)
Title: Re: Appropriate Background Maker?
Post by: Rui 'Trovatore' Pires on Sun 13/01/2008 19:00:22
FSi, that trick may be at the heart of my bitter experiences of sometimes loading a saved game and getting a "You can't load this game, it was saved under a different resolution" error...

So, here's to all of you - DO NOT EVER change resolution like that nilly-willy, unless you want to rectify a mistake. Keep it all at the same res, or your player will curse you.
Title: Re: Appropriate Background Maker?
Post by: FSi++ on Sun 13/01/2008 19:38:53
Still, for really short games (i.e. me) or for non-saving rooms (i.e. ones that have "save/load is disabled" checkbox, well, checked) or even for some pricks who would like to make their game without save/load facility that's ok.

p.s. I've tested that on my test game... Here's the results:


1. Engine runs on 640x480, game saved in 320x240 room, loaded from 320x240 room - OK
2. Engine runs on 640x480, game saved in 320x240 room, loaded from 640x480 room - OK
3. Engine runs on 640x480, game saved in 640x480 room, loaded from 320x240 room - OK
4. Engine runs on 640x480, game saved in 640x480 room, loaded from 640x480 room - OK
5. Engine runs on 320x240, game saved in 320x240 room, loaded from 320x240 room - OK
5. Engine runs on 320x240, game saved in 320x240 room, loaded from 640x480 room - OK
5. Engine runs on 320x240, game saved in 640x480 room, loaded from 320x240 room - OK
5. Engine runs on 320x240, game saved in 640x480 room, loaded from 640x480 room - OK


Error appears only when the game was saved from the different ENGINE resolution (i.e. the resolution under which you PLAY the game, not the current ROOM resolution).

p.p.s. If you need my test game, it's here (http://misendeavour.com/files/resolutiontestgame.rar). Don't be too scared.
Title: Re: Appropriate Background Maker?
Post by: Rui 'Trovatore' Pires on Sun 13/01/2008 20:04:06
Oh, goodie. Then that means the issues I had with the games that had them, whatever they were, were even more obscure.