Sierra style speech - position, colours, etc.

[Ultra Magnus]

Howdy.

I'm looking to somewhat customise the Sierra layout in version 3.1.1.
I've searched around here, and on the wiki, and found nothing helpful.

First, some screens...
 

Is there a way to specify a portrait's vertical position? I found the code to move it horizontally but couldn't find anything for the y axis.
As you can see, I managed to get the character where I want her by just adding a bit of empty space to the top of her sprite (through trial and error), but this still leaves the text at the top of the screen.
Is there any way I can move the text down so it's next to her?

Also, if using a text window, is there a way I can change the text colour within it?
I found out how to change the outline, but can't find anything about the core font.
(I know I chose the wrong colour pink for the text window, but that's an easy fix.)

Also also, you can see in the above screens that the character's sprite has a terrible jagged edge in Sierra mode that's properly anti-aliased in LucasArts mode on the exact same picture.
Is this par for the course? Is there any way to fix it?

So, in summary, I'd like to have the text where the mailbox is, pink on black, preferably in a text window, and ideally together with the LucasArts-style quality picture.
Is there any way to do all/any of this?

Final question: Is there a way for the program to tell if someone's talking or not?
I want to have different coloured text/GUIs for each character (plus a default for the narrator), so can I maybe put something like...

Code: ags

if (charactertalking=cStephanie) {
  SetGameOption (OPT_PORTRAITPOSITION, 0);
  SetTextWindowGUI (5);
  game.text_colour=13;
}

...in global for each character instead of having to change them each time someone talks (and then back again when they finish)?

Thanks in advance.
J.

[SSH]

Take a look at the Hypertext.Say function in my Hypertext module and you'll see that I effectively have to completely reimplement the dialog display system... so maybe you can modify my code to give you what you want?

[Ultra Magnus]

I just quickly skimmed your documentation for that module, and I already found "The rgb arguments let you set the text colour" and "You can also set the Y position of the text for Sierra speech only" so it looks like it will be very helpful indeed.

Thanks heaps.

EDIT:
Nah, I'm getting nowhere with that. It's proving to be way above my head.
I'd be extremely grateful if somebody more knowledgeable than I could maybe take a crack at it.

[Dualnames]

Wasn't there a GUI Portrait Position module by SSH? Haven't checked it but I recall it was using a GUI so it will be able and easy for you to set position of that gui.

[Ultra Magnus]

Wasn't there a GUI Portrait Position module by SSH? Haven't checked it but I recall it was using a GUI so it will be able and easy for you to set position of that gui.

Okay, cool. I'll look into that.
Thanks.

Are there any other suggestions out there (for any of the points in the first post)?

[Ultra Magnus]

Sorry to bring this up again, but something weird has started happening with one of my characters' portrait views.



This is obviously what it's supposed to do...

...and it works for all but the one character.

As far as I can see, the settings are the same.
Does anyone know why this is happening, and maybe how to fix it?

[Ultra Magnus]

You can override it with SetGameOption(OPT_PORTRAITPOSITION, x).

Thanks.
It would have taken me ages to figure that out on my own. :