SOOO this time I'm really gonna take a project on, but I'm having serious issue with the softwares. see if you guys get what i mean...
1. Is it possible to make an inventory menu like the one in Wintermute Engine? (Like, it only shows as a bar with multiple windows on it, each window have an item inside it.) That when you hover the mouse in the top of the acreen, it drops down the inventory.
2. Is it possible to import images with transparency directly? As in .PNG, without having to use pinkscreen?
3. Can I make a game with the native resolution of 640x480 windowed mode? I heard that AGS can't show this resolution.
4. About the verbcoin, I wish to know if its possible to do something like: You right-click, and it opens a verbcoin on the middle of the screen, from which you can choose two options (examinate and interact). Also if it's possible for it to highlight the selected option.
AGS is way more simple than WME, but it haves all of this stuff (High res, Quality Sound, Excelent Verbcoin and support to visually make menus and stuff, also transparency) and I dont feel confortable to stick with it, since there's almost no one in the forum, which have almost any script and support... Please answer my questions quick so I can start working asap.
A wintermute renegade ;D Congratulations, you have come to the right place! I hate sounding like some crazy ad guy, but AGS really is a good deal more user friendly ;) I agree that the build-in comfort stuff of WIntermute is nice and catchy, but you can get all of that with little effort in AGS, too. Plus, customizing stuff is easier.
To answer your questions:
1. Yes, absolutely, though you might need to do some scripting to achieve that- nothing too complicated, but still, it's not build-in. I also bet that, since you can describe what you want to have, you will find good help here.
2. Yes, but only if you are making your game in 32bit colour depth. This also allows you nifty tricks like AA sprites and such.
3. Yes. 640x480 and 800x600 are possible, both windowed and fullscreen. As of version 3 AGS also has "native coordinates" (before that, even in high res games, we had to stick with 320x240 coordinates- no longer!).
4. Yes. Such a verbcoin is already part of AGS if you chose the Verbcoin template (it's part of the download), so you won't have to script one yourself.
Hope that helps, and oh: A happy welcome to the AGS community, and best of luck with your project!
hell yeah, i couldnt stand the unresponsive community and the fact that you NEED coding to make a game in WME.
1. cool huh... any chance of someone scripting that to me?
2. i am making the game in 32, but stil i couldnt work with transparency, it just loaded with a grey filling DDD=
3. awesome, already setted the resolution =D
4. well i think it will be more troublesome, cause in WME, theres was something like that buil-in. basically three functions: take, look at, talk. i just substituted the menu skin and deleted the talk script (i'm going to add one single icon to talk, interact, manipulate, turn on and turn off) and voila, all ready.
also, info about mah project you can find here: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=35941.0
I read that, and found it very interesting- it defenitely has some great looks!
about 1: There's nothing too complicated to it, and I bet you can figure it out with some pointers to the right direction. I'd create a GUI that has an inventory window on it, and then set its VISIBILITY to "when mouse moves to top of screen". Yoy need to set the POPUP POS then, too; I recommend something like 5 or even 10 at the hight resolution you want. This is the simplest approach but might work for you. If not, further scripting ;)
about 2: I can tell you how to do it with Photoshop- create a file with transparent background, draw your sprite, and save as PNG. Then import. AGS has the habit of drawing the magic pink in the editor, but in-game, it should look fine. Personally I haven't worked with transparent/AA sprites yet, so someone else might give you better advice.
about 3: neat-o ;D
about 4: The AGS Vercoin has talk, look, use, and you can easily add to/modify those. The template is well documented, so I think you won't run into too many troubles. But do I understand you right that you want one "general interact icon"? Why a verbcoin, then, wouldn't a single cursor be more intuitive? Left-click walk, right-click look/use/talk, depending on what you click on?
Ok will investigate how to make the drop down menu.
Actually I'm not using character sprites, since I'm making an myst-like. anyway, i wanna add some itens and buttons, but it keep filling it with grey matter. does it REALLY need pink parts?
I'm considering the idea of having a single button, like the right click on monkey island: it automatically makes the suitable action for the specific object.
also, i wanna make a beautiful menu, where do i find the basic codes for.. dunno, 'clickthis.[startsnewgame]' and such?
1) Check out the scripting tutorials yourself before you start asking "can you do it for me?" It will help you in the long run and you will understand scripts that others write. And you may figure it out yourself. (Look at custom GUIs and transparent GUIs)
2) When you import the images, does it say "This image appears to have an alpha channel. Do you want to use it?" ?
4) What will be more troublesome? The verbcoin? There is one built-in into the Verbcoin template. Or are you talking of changing the mouse cursor mode to one-click mode (I think most refer to it as the Broken Sword mode)? That's also doable, with scripting of course (but you can probably find forum threads about it previously).
~Trent
ok will search about it on the forums.
yes, it says tha the image wadda wadda alpha channel
well, i will do the one-click thing... so what template suits me better?
(also, what about making a title screen, with new game, load saved gamel configuration and credits buttom? i wonder thats a pretty simple code, but i havent found it anywhere).
Did you check the sprites in-game and see if they are alpha blended?
For the clicking, it depends on your scripting ability. If you feel confident (but judging by your other questions, I'd guess not) you can pick the empty template. Or you can choose the default and change what you don't want. The one-click mode is fairly popular and "modern" (which I think is a stretch too far) so there should be plenty of help available.
For the Title screen, just do a forum search or Wiki (http://www.americangirlscouts.org/agswiki/Main_Page) search and I'm sure something popped up. I think a n00b newbie recently asked it too.
Also, I haven't officially welcomed you. Welcome! You should find the AGS forums very user-friendly IF you are kind (which you are being so far in this thread) and do a little bit of work yourself (writing a bit a script and asking for help or even just specifically tell what you need--which you have are also doing).
~Trent
Quote from: Trent R on Mon 27/10/2008 02:16:11
Did you check the sprites in-game and see if they are alpha blended?
For the clicking, it depends on your scripting ability. If you feel confident (but judging by your other questions, I'd guess not) you can pick the empty template. Or you can choose the default and change what you don't want. The one-click mode is fairly popular and "modern" (which I think is a stretch too far) so there should be plenty of help available.
For the Title screen, just do a forum search or Wiki (http://www.americangirlscouts.org/agswiki/Main_Page) search and I'm sure something popped up. I think a n00b newbie recently asked it too.
Also, I haven't officially welcomed you. Welcome! You should find the AGS forums very user-friendly IF you are kind (which you are being so far in this thread) and do a little bit of work yourself (writing a bit a script and asking for help or even just specifically tell what you need--which you have are also doing).
~Trent
will check it.
and yes, i will be polite and see what can i learn about scripting.
for the time, if it isnt asking too much, can you link me to the post/wiki/topic where this user asked about how to make a start screen?
I was wrong, he was asking about a cutscene.
For a title screen make a room,
set it as the player's starting room,
set 'show player character' to false in the rooms properties,
create objects or hotspots and add the scripts (see ChangeRoom, QuitGame, and RestoreGameDialog in the manual)
And that should basically be it. The rest is up to you ie. graphics, cutscene after that screen, so on so forth. But I'd make the bulk most of your game first, then add that stuff in as you go.
~Trent
What exactly is a bulk? I only know the bulk that refills your printer with paint lol...
Thats it tho, a cutscene. all the other cutscenes will be scrollinh text-based so for now I can walk on my own, thanks a lot for the support.
In this case, bulk means the main part.
now for the main menu, i wanted to make something like... in layers.
1. the buttons
2. the player looking through a window
3. an 480x2XXX image that would go from right to left, then, in the end, blend and restart from the begining. Also the image is a looong forest with motion blur.
i'd also like to know how can i do to make the second layer bobs sometime, like when the train changes rails or theres any elevation...
You can do the scrolling forest as a background (using SetViewport in the repeatedly_execute to scroll the screen - check the AGS demo to see how to make it loop). If the buttons are done as a GUI, they will stay stationary while the room scrolls. The window (as I understand it, you want the forest to be seen through the window) could either be a GUI with a transparent background, an Overlay or an Object - but in the latter case you would need to change its X coordinate to keep it centered while moving the Viewport around. (For the bobbing, just change the Y coordinate).
Quote from: GarageGothic on Tue 28/10/2008 16:59:27
You can do the scrolling forest as a background (using SetViewport in the repeatedly_execute to scroll the screen - check the AGS demo to see how to make it loop). If the buttons are done as a GUI, they will stay stationary while the room scrolls. The window (as I understand it, you want the forest to be seen through the window) could either be a GUI with a transparent background, an Overlay or an Object - but in the latter case you would need to change its X coordinate to keep it centered while moving the Viewport around. (For the bobbing, just change the Y coordinate).
please talk as if you were talking with a guy that knows NOTHING about coding.
Quote from: goldensox on Tue 28/10/2008 17:09:26please talk as if you were talking with a guy that knows NOTHING about coding.
I suggest you work your way through the tutorials in the manual and wait with the menu screen until you have a better grasp of how AGS scripting works.
You need a transition period like you probably had the same when you were using wintermute. As for the resolution you can now use 1024x768, thanks to Chris.
If you used wintermute a lot, you probably won't have any problem, I suggest you grab yourself a mug of tea and just go through the manual. And then try and create a short mini game.