Anyone else noticed that the old lucasarts games have rigid, movie-like pannings and character movements? The Sierra games didn't, and I think that detracted a little from the cinematic approach that LEC took, whether they intended it or not.
The question is, can AGS be forced the scroll, say, two pixels, but half the speed of a normal scroll, thus the same speed is achieved at a much more rigid pace. This also applies to character movements.
I'm actually confused, could you explain further or make it simpler for me to understand. Thanks :D
No problem! ;D
If you play the early (up to Full Throttle, say) LEC games, you will notice the motions of the character movements and scrolling is rigid, unlike the typical AGS smooth-style scrolling. Compare Maniac Mansion Deluxe to the original Maniac Mansion or even the remake, and you'll notice a much more film-like quality to the scrolls and motions, thanks to the original engine. Is there a way of emulating this in AGS by making the movements jerky?
You would have to program the scrolling yourself. You will need to use some of the following (look them up in the manual):
GetViewportX();
GetViewportY();
SetViewport(int,int);
ReleaseViewport();
character[].variables (character[EGO].x and character[EGO].y)
SetTimer(int,int);
IsTimerExpired();
You'll need to set up a system so that the room scrolls towards the character at a slow speed, or only when the character is near the edge, or however you want to do it. Good luck!
Actually, thats not such a bad idea, since I recall DOTT used simmilar engine so that when the character touched about within 50pixels or so of the edge, it would slide with them, and follow them when they stopped until they were centred...
Just out of curiousity, has anybody else managed to create a new scrolling system? Wondering if it's possible to create a convincing engine, that's all!
http://a-v-o.privat.t-online.de/ags/scripts/smartscrolling.zip
Thanks for the script, this looks great for the intelligent scrolling I was mentioning, but I think this will still give a smooth scroll. The only other option would be to choke the entire game into running at half the framerate, but say, twice the speed to compensate for the slower motions.