[Updated Problem!] Invisible Characters

[FinalSin]

I've just downloaded the newer version of AGS today, and I'm not entirely sure on what the changes to scripting are. Could someone give me a clearer picture? It was confusing enough before!

Incidentally, this might have something to do with my main problem. See, I've made my main character invisible on the first room, since it's my main menu. Only thing is, he now refuses to appear in the next room. I've done everything like I used to in the older versions, but he seems to be invisible. Any ideas?

Other questions:
1. What is the cheapest, easiest program to compile Flic animations?
2. How much does increased colour depth slow down a game?
3. How tall is Roger in pixels? I think I used to know this, but I can't seem to find it anywhere.

Thanks for your patience...

FS
UPDATE - See last post.

[Scummbuddy]

Export Roger (copy to clipboard) and paste in MSPaint, and check the image properties.

But this doesn't matter. Since you could make backgrounds that wouldn't have Roger fitting correctly to your game. I suppose, typically, he will be fine, especially since you can enlarge and shrink the characters depeding on what zoom factor walkable areas they are on, but still, draw a background, then create a character that would fit into a doorway of the room you just made.
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Increasing the color depth wont do so much to slow down the game. People generally have fast enough computers that you won't have to worry about this too much. Its more like when you have 15 objects in a room animating continously that you may experience a substantial slow down.
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Someone else may give an idea for the flic animations
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I suppose you've checked to see if the "hide player character" tick box is ticked or not in the next room? It shouldn't continue to be invisible if the next room is called, and he should be visible.
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there is a spot in the manual called "Upgrading to AGS 2.7" It is a good read for those who have just updated and need to know the new scripting conventions.

[FinalSin]

As usual, Mr. Buddy, you've been extremely useful. He's still invisible, but thanks for the tips with scaling and the direction to the new manual bit.

I'll post back here with some more invisible details if I find them.

[monkey0506]

Perhaps trying something like:

player.Transparency = 0;

I think that is how you change the transparency anyway...though I could be wrong...

[Candle]

Animation Shop in Paint shop pro can save as Flic animations.

[strazer]

You can also use the RAD Video Tools to convert a series of pictures into a flic ("List files...", save list, select .lst file, "Convert a file", "Output type...", ...).

[FinalSin]

Animation Shop in Paint shop pro can save as Flic animations.

Brilliant, all of you!

I've solved the invisibility problem - I was using a region with light levels at 50%. But I don't understand why it wouldn't work - I swear I've used it before. Any ideas? The strange thing was, it made him invisible in all the following rooms after it.

[Gregjazz]

The strange thing was, it made him invisible in all the following rooms after it.

I think you need to set the transparency back, I'm not sure if it automatically returns the transparency when you switch rooms. You probably need to set it back.

Also, the set transparency of characters isn't the best option to hide the character, although I used to use it that way. If you're using alpha blended sprites, you can't change the transparency of alpha-blended sprites, in fact, so you might want to use a different technique. What I've been doing is make a function that remembers your character position, and then moves your character out of the screen, like -50, -50. Then another function can return the character to the original position.

[FinalSin]

Actually, because I'm not completely clued up with the whole scripting thing, I just used the bog standard regions and then altered light levels to 50%. I wonder if its because the previous room I had tagged 'Hide Player Character'?

[strazer]

Was it perhaps the same problem as in this thread?:

It's the region tint that's the problem.

Look at region 0 in room 3, it's set to a Tint of (0,0,0) at 50%

However, because your game is 16-bit and the Roger sprite is 8-bit the tint cannot be applied and he's disappearing instead.

To resolve it, set the region back to have a Light Level of 100%.

If you want to use region tints/lighting, you'll need to import a 16-bit sprite instead of using Roger.

I'll look into adding some sort of check for this in the engine, because the sprite just disappearing is very unhelpful, a warning message at least would be handy.