I've been searching the forums and all the contents of the AGS software but can't find what i need to know, maybe i'm just missing it, or unaware of what the terminology is.
When i 'Display("....."); etc on a hotspot action, and the text appears on the screen, it follows quite a generic look and i would like to change it if possible.
I would firstly like to remove the white box on which the text is placed (I'm guessing this is the same for speech yet i haven't adding dialog to the game yet), and the black border around that, so it is just the text is placed. Then i would like to make the text white in coloured, and then eventually have a stroke around the font which i believe i can change in the font section in AGS.
Secondly, i would like to reposition all the text that is displayed so it is out of the way of the main scene, maybe at the bottom of the screen and so that i can fit 10-15 words across horizonal, instead of the small box that appears at the moment.
Thankyou.
I believe I can answer part of this!
QuoteSecondly, i would like to reposition all the text that is displayed so it is out of the way of the main scene, maybe at the bottom of the screen and so that i can fit 10-15 words across horizonal, instead of the small box that appears at the moment.
DisplayAt is your friend for this bit-- it lets you specify not only the location of your text, but also the wide of the text displayed. It's a great effect, and gives you total control over where each bit goes.
Removing the white box-- what speech style are you using?
I don't think im sure what you mean by speech style, i've only really just got into making this game and trying to get a perfect template set up so i can easily replicate everything for my game from there on in.
I would just like all my text, speech, and all writing to appear at the bottom of the page, without the white background to it.
Slightly confused, i thought that this would be a simple one.
I don't have the manual before me, but DisplayAt should put the text where you want it. In order to replace the default text GUI, you need to right-click on 'GUIs' and select 'new text GUI.' Basically you import graphics for each edge, each corner, and the middle, and you can also set the font. If you search for 'text GUI' in the manual you should find detailed instructions.
There are four speech style settings.
QuoteSpeech style - in the default Lucasarts-style speech, when a character talks, the speech text is displayed above their head in the game, and the character's talking view is used to animate the actual character.
However, if you set this option to Sierra-style then the talking view is used to display an animating portrait separately in the top-left of the screen, with the text to the right of it. This is similar to the way that Space Quest 5, King's Quest 6 and other later Sierra games worked. You can also cycle to another option, "Sierra- style with background", which is the same except a text window is drawn behind the speech text to make it easier to read.
"QFG4-style speech" uses a full-screen character portrait, like the way that QFG4 worked.
You'll probably want to use Lucasarts-style and
player.SayAt(0, 170, 320, "Blah.");
How do i set the speech style for every part of text in the game?
I have checked the contents of AGS and all it says for that in the files is -
"SetSpeechStyle(SpeechStyle)
Changes the way in which speech text is displayed. This modifies the setting originally set in the editor. SpeechStyle can be:
eSpeechLucasarts
speech text over character's head
eSpeechSierra
close-up portrait of character
eSpeechSierraWithBackground
close-up portrait + background window for text
eSpeechFullScreen
QFG4-style full screen dialog pictures
Example:
SetSpeechStyle(eSpeechSierra);
1) will change the speech style to a close up portrait of the character." 2) and does speech style mean dialog only or all text displayed in the game?
3) I'm slightly confused about what, 'a close up portrait of the character' actually means.
All i want is all text to be dislayed in the game to have a transparent background and be at the bottom of the screen. Dialog is different, i would like that above the character's heads, but all other text, like look-at and interaction text to be at the bottom of the screen.
Hope someone could enlighten me, thankyou all for your help so far, as now i understand how to move the text around the screen.
I have used the DisplayAt( x, x, x "Hello"); and that works lovely but i would like
I think your post got cut off, there.
Off the top of my head, I think there's a "speech style" setting on the Game Preferences page (or whatever it's called - the very first option in the tree).
ahh i have found where to change it and it is currently at LucasArts style, which in dialog is perfect, just red text on transparent background, but that doesn't change the text that is displayed when clickin on a Look-At item atall. I've tried on the general settings, setting the Custom Text Gui to 5, for hotspots etc, then creating a new gui with ID of 5. But it has arrows all over it. What is that all about?
I got the background transparent, using 0 (as it says 0 was transparent) but i have about 10 arrows pointing down on the screen as soon as i create a custom text gui.
Anybody help atall?
Don't use Display/TextGUIs, use Character.Say(At).
If you create a custom TextGUI, you have to set sprites to form the corners and borders. That's why you get all the arrows.
But you don't need a TextGUI, just ditch it and use .Say.
Ok, seems to make sense to me now, got a little confused with the different display commands sorry about that.
So linking in with my other topic about dialog infact, the colour i set for my character in the properties pane will be set as the colour of the font displayed whay i use SayAt aswell?
I'm guessing its being a little too demanding to have the SayAt as white text and the dialog a different colour then.
Quote from: timmle on Sun 03/08/2008 15:08:39
I'm guessing its being a little too demanding to have the SayAt as white text and the dialog a different colour then.
Can't you create an invisible dummy character, set this character's dialog to be white, and use this character for your SayAts?
That is very true, i might just do that actually, as long as making the character invisible doesn't make anyspots over the character.
Quote from: timmle on Sun 03/08/2008 15:38:58
That is very true, i might just do that actually, as long as making the character invisible doesn't make anyspots over the character.
I think there are several ways to ensure that won't happen. I assume you can just have the character not be in the room at all, thus she wouldn't have any clickable hotspots, but in case I'm wrong and you can't use SayAt with a character not present in the room (I don't know, I'm a newb myself), you can always just put the character on coordinates outside the screen (for instance; in a 320x200 game, have the character stand at 400,0 or something).
Or set the character to transparent and not clickable.