Background Import Not working

learningknight · Wed 17/10/2007 23:59:54

Just getting started with AGS but having problems importing backgrounds. Drew a very nice looking background in photoshop but when I import it into the game, it appears simply as a massive gray box.

My Game Resolution is 800x600, color depth 32 for what will hopefully be a visually attractive game.

The resolution of my background (which is in .bmp format) is also 800x600 and color depth is also 32.

However I noticed that when I import the file into AGS it says (on the room editor panel) "Relative Size: 400x300", which is obviously not right, and confusing, since the figures are halved).

This seems like a beginner's idiocy but I've hunted through the manual and the forums and I can't find a satisfactory answer.

Thanks for any help.

Ashen · Thu 18/10/2007 00:16:08

It's just how the editor is (or was, up to the new betas - I guess you're using v2.72?), most coordinates (e.g. the mouse coords, Character and Object coords, etc) are calculated in 320x200 (or 400x300) format, whatever the resolution. If you were using 640x480 for your game, it'd say 'relative size: 320 x 240'; if your room was 1200x600, it'd say 'relative size: 600 x 300'. The possibilities are explained by strazer in this thread, and you can try a forum search for 'relative size' and find many, many other people asking the same thing, and getting the same basic answer: Does the background display OK when you test the game? Then that's all you need to worry about - you're room hasn't actually been resized.

If it doesn't display OK, you'll need to tell us exactly what's going wrong.

learningknight · Thu 18/10/2007 00:28:37

No, testing the game displays the image exactly as it appears in the editor: Gray. Just a big gray field filling up the entire image. Why won't the image display properly?

Let me know if there is any other info you need.

Thanks again.

Gilbert · Thu 18/10/2007 01:04:51

What image format was the background saved as? Also, can you tell us if any options were used while saving it (colour depth, etc.)?

voh · Fri 19/10/2007 02:17:45

QuoteThe resolution of my background (which is in .bmp format) is also 800x600 and color depth is also 32.

Gilbert · Fri 19/10/2007 12:20:23

In that case, try saving the image as 24bit instead, as 32bit may not work.

SSH · Fri 19/10/2007 12:22:20

I assumed that other programs can see the BMP properly, like Irfanview and Windows Photo viewer?

Dualnames · Fri 19/10/2007 23:59:07

I haven't tried changing from 16bit to 32bit. No reason to do actually. Make first sure that your backgrounds don't look good in 16bit and in lower res for your game will be very slow once you starting import scripting modules and such. Make sure you really need that reso and depth.

Lyndon303 · Fri 02/11/2007 18:02:17

Hi, I'm a complete beginner at this and, quite sure that my problem is probably solved on page 1 of the tutorial, I have had problems testing my backgrounds. I am not much of an artist, so I have saved a photograph as a 256 bmp file. How do I adjust my palette to match the photograph? Obviously, I'm in the earliest stages of my first AGS project... please help!

Khris · Fri 02/11/2007 19:03:43

Switch AGS to 16bit, save the photograph as PNG and import it.

Lyndon303 · Fri 02/11/2007 19:29:38

Thanks for the fast response! However, I am still having difficulty with testing my game. I get an error message:

There was a problem initialising graphics mode 320x200 (16bit)
(Problem:'cannot set video mode')
Possible causes:
*your graphics card drivers do not support this . Run the game setup program and try the other resolution.
*the graphics filter you have selected does not work. Try another filter.

Any ideas? cheers,
Lyndon

Dualnames · Fri 02/11/2007 21:59:54

Which version of AGS are you using?

Ashen · Fri 02/11/2007 22:12:00

I think that's an issue with your graphics card not supporting 320x200 (which it says in the error message...), and not a problem with AGS as such.
Run the Setup program (winsetup.exe, or 'Setup game...' from the File menu in the editor), and check the 'Run in a window' option. You could also use one of the Graphics filters, to make the window bigger.

This problem has been brought up a few times before, and that seems to be the fix. There's no way for you to avoid it, but it won't happen to everyone that plays your finished game (and is easily fixed if it does).

Lyndon303 · Fri 02/11/2007 22:46:46

Thanks Ashen, that seems to have worked. Just wanted to confirm in case any one else reads this topic and encounters the same problem. Now I can continue making my game about the Budapest Riots last year!