AGS 3.0 Final - it's been a long road

[Khris]

A small issue concerning tiled sprite import:
The order is still

147
258
369

while I believe it should be

123
456
789

[Pumaman]

When you have a GUI tab open the Delete key will delete the selected control, makes sense so far.  However, if an editable field in the property or event pane has focus it is easy to get the idea that the delete key will delete whatever is selected in that field, rather than deleting controls from the GUI itself.   I suppose it's something everyone will eventually get used to but I can also see this as being an endless source of "How come stuff keeps disappearing from my GUI?" type questions in the Beginners Tech forum.

I don't really follow what you mean here. If you're editing a field in the property grid and press delete, it will delete the field and not the control. Even if the control was selected, you get an "Are you sure" confirmation message so I think it's unlikely anybody would have any mysteriously disappearing controls.

On a more 'on-topic' note, I was just thinking regarding the external sprite editing, would it be possible for to implement a sort of 'Update now' button instead of waiting for the program to be exited completely? The reason I ask is (though it's overkill to the extreme), I primarily use Photoshop (due to familiarity) which takes a while to load up. If AGS could just tell Photoshop to open the file and then I could click an 'update' button back in AGS, then I could leave Photoshop open whilst doing any sprite editing.

Hmm, something like this would start to get messy quite quickly. If AGS has to keep track of which sprites it thinks you're editing in your external program and then import them back in at arbitrary times (during which you might or might not have saved them, closed the paint program, deleted them, etc) it all just starts to get quite awkward.

For something like this I think a better feature would simply be the "re-import from source file" option that we've discussed before.

Like any good tester I've been trying to intentionally break AGS 3.0, and this is what happened when I removed all the frames from a loop while it was animating in the view window:

Thanks, I'll look into it.

Also, I found an intermittent issue with FaceLocation not working properly, though since I've proven it to be intermittent I can't really provide any cause for it, but here's an example:

Has anyone else had any problems with FaceLocation?

The preferences setting for selecting transparency color doesn't seem to actually do anything yet.  I thought it was working until I imported a gif animation that showed up as black again, so I tried switching from palette 0 to top-left and it still loaded a black background.

It only sets the default transparency type for when you start up the editor. The sprite import window still remembers the previous setting from the previous import, so the preferences setting won't have any immediate effect.

Edit 2:  I notice that the paste option does not show up initially in the right-click menu for scripts, though it does work from the menu, and once you've pasted once it seems to work fine afterwards.

Hmm well spotted, I don't think I'll be able to fix this one for 3.0 but will get it done for a later release.

EDIT: Would there possibly be a way in the next RC to load and edit room backgrounds as well?!? It would seem that most of the implementation is there, the focus just needs to be changed.

I know I keep saying this, but I really am done with adding new features now! There really will only be bug fixes between now and the Final.

There seems to be a bug when renumbering rooms where a message pops up saying that the room.asc file can't be found and then it copies in a blank one.  The original is completely gone, so I would imagine that it probably got overwritten with the blank.

Thanks for the report, I'll look into it.

There also is a problem importing non-standard room names such as  _blank.crm.  This used to work and was a workaround for "new room" not having  the ability to select a template to create the new with.   A couple of times the editor hungup and I had to kill it from the task manager.  It also locked up when trying to import a room that had no room.asc file (actually it was mis-named by accident). 

I haven't been able to replicate this, do you have any more information about when this problem occurs?

By the way, is there any way to disable auto-indentation in AGS 3.0?
I use my own custom formatting of script which always interfere with it.

Sounds reasonable, probably not for 3.0 however.

Also, I noticed pressing Ctrl-T in script editor swaps two lines around. I suspect it can now make people mess up their codes if they accidently press it instead of F5 trying to "Test game".

Hehe good point, I'll see if I can disable that.

Another thing about the frame SPD setting, would it be feasible to also display that under each frame in a loop as it used to be? It's now harder to estimate how loop will run: need to click each frame to see the delay value. And by estimate I mean it in a bit different sense that just view preview, as I, for example, need to see the exact values for each frame at once.

Fair point, this has come up before and we don't really want to be losing features from 2.72.

p.s. And where is the loop counter in debug mode gone? Again it's maybe personal by I always found that a nice built-in feature to have, especially for quick test games

Well, it was lost as part of adding D3D support and it didn't seem important enough to add it back in. Did anyone else use the loopcounter?

Out of curiosity, what control component does the AGS Editor use to display tabs if I may ask?

The main tabbing area control is a custom one that I wrote specifically for this.

Yup, v1.4 is available now. There should be no errors whatsoever anymore in it. I'll probably write some documentation you can include in the help file soon.

Thanks, I'll grab a copy of that.

A small issue concerning tiled sprite import:
The order is still

147
258
369

while I believe it should be

123
456
789

Fair enough, this is a change from 2.72 so it should be returned to its old behaviour.

[Sadistyk]

Hi there. I have a question: why can't you use the 'index 0' transparency with hi-colour games?? I used to find this very useful.

[Khris]

There is no 'index 0' in hi-color graphics (they don't use a palette to store the color of each pixel as 256col graphics do).
However, you can use teh evil pink: 255-0-255.
Use that color to draw transparent areas, then import the sprite with the index 0 setting.

[Ishmael]

Replicated something... With animation enabled I changed the loop bit in the view preview to a view that didn't have any loops, this popped up and refused to go away until I killed the editor process:

Code: ags

Error: Indeksi oli sallitun alueen ulkopuolella. Indeksi ei saa olla negatiivinen, ja sen on oltava kokoelmaa pienempi.
Parametrin nimi: index
Version: AGS 3.0.0.18

System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Indeksi oli sallitun alueen ulkopuolella. Indeksi ei saa olla negatiivinen, ja sen on oltava kokoelmaa pienempi.
Parametrin nimi: index
   kohteessa System.ThrowHelper.ThrowArgumentOutOfRangeException(ExceptionArgument argument, ExceptionResource resource)
   kohteessa System.ThrowHelper.ThrowArgumentOutOfRangeException()
   kohteessa AGS.Editor.ViewPreview.UpdateDelayForThisFrame()
   kohteessa AGS.Editor.ViewPreview._animationTimer_Tick(Object sender, EventArgs e)
   kohteessa System.Windows.Forms.Timer.OnTick(EventArgs e)
   kohteessa System.Windows.Forms.Timer.TimerNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   kohteessa System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

Basically the same thing ProgZ posted, I believe.

[monkey0506]

This would start to get messy quite quickly. If AGS has to keep track of which sprites it thinks you're editing in your external program and then import them back in at arbitrary times (during which you might or might not have saved them, closed the paint program, deleted them, etc) it all just starts to get quite awkward.

Fair enough.

For something like this I think a better feature would simply be the "re-import from source file" option that we've discussed before.

And this falls back into that 'new feature request' that you're trying to get out of this thread so we can get an AGS 3.0 Final already.

Perhaps for AGS 3.01 we can have an 'Re-import from Source' as well as a 'Open Source for editing' option? I try to keep my AGS projects under control, though the sprites I import often come from various locations (my Windows folders are quite a mess). If it's not too much to ask, the option to open the source file in the specified program would be quite wonderful.

But enough of this. On with the release so we can get started on v3.01 already.

[Ishmael]

I have no idea where to begin looking, but I noticed this:

I have an intro cutscene with a total of three consequent dialogs in it (to keep it somewhat organised), two ChangeRoom()s and some character.Walk and .Say commands among there. So nothing too fancy. The thing is, I can skip the cutscene right at the start, tho it takes almost a second to actually do so, just sitting there still untill that. But if I wait some five or so seconds into the cutscene and try to skip it, the game just hangs, with nothing happening. Used to work fine when I worked on the game with 2.72 and 2.8. And actually back then the dialogs used to run a bit more dialog_request scripts than now.

[GarageGothic]

Any chance that you have RawSaveScreen() running in the global EnterRoomBeforeFadeIn event? That function is quite slow when using Direct3D mode, so trying to skip past multiple instances of it could cause problems. Just a thought, but most likely it's something else.

[subspark]

For something like this I think a better feature would simply be the "re-import from source file" option that we've discussed before.

Or what about my suggestion Chris? I get the feeling that it was inadvertently overlooked.

It's basically what the programmer has done with Zbrush which was explained on Zbrush Central as being a reasonably wieldy task.
Is it worth your time to explore for AGS 3.01? If so, i'll post it in the suggestions thread.

Cheers,
Paul.

[RickJ]

When you have a GUI tab open the Delete key will delete the selected control, makes sense so far.  However, if an editable field in the property or event pane has focus it is easy to get the idea that the delete key will delete whatever is selected in that field, rather than deleting controls from the GUI itself.   I suppose it's something everyone will eventually get used to but I can also see this as being an endless source of "How come stuff keeps disappearing from my GUI?" type questions in the Beginners Tech forum.

I don't really follow what you mean here. If you're editing a field in the property grid and press delete, it will delete the field and not the control. Even if the control was selected, you get an "Are you sure" confirmation message so I think it's unlikely anybody would have any mysteriously disappearing controls.

I don't believe it!  The other day this happened repeatedly and reliably.  I was editing the name of event function to be called.  I selected a couple characters and pressed the delete key.  Nothing happened to the field but the control was gone and the properties grid was then tied to another component.  Now I can't duplicate it either.   

The only two things I can think of that may have changed between now and then are:

1.  I am now using RC2.  It's possible that I was using RC1 when this happened and so it's not a problem anymore.

2.  The game in which this was happening was recently upgraded from AGS 2.72,  when I tried just now to replicate this problem I created a new game from a template of the game that originally gave the problem. 

I suppose I should go back and check what happens on the original just to be sure.  I'll let you know if I find  a way to duplicate this.

I still can't believe it!! ** pounds head on table **

There also is a problem importing non-standard room names such as  _blank.crm.  This used to work and was a workaround for "new room" not having  the ability to select a template to create the new with.   A couple of times the editor hungup and I had to kill it from the task manager.  It also locked up when trying to import a room that had no room.asc file (actually it was mis-named by accident).

I haven't been able to replicate this, do you have any more information about when this problem occurs?

The room is created but the asc file is overwritten.  It's kind of similar to renaming problem but there doesn't seem to be a warning message about it.

Btw, instead of (or in addition to) bringing back that _blank feature, would it be reasonable in a future version to add an ImportAs feature that would make a copy of the room or module, get the new name from a popup dialog, and then import the copy?  Perhaps the existing "New" command could be enhanced to provide this functionality.  The only other thing one could ask is that files from both the game directory and the editor director be listed as possible imports or templates.

[Ishmael]

Any chance that you have RawSaveScreen() running in the global EnterRoomBeforeFadeIn event? That function is quite slow when using Direct3D mode, so trying to skip past multiple instances of it could cause problems. Just a thought, but most likely it's something else.

None of those around that I know of. The character does pass through a continous lightning region, though, as for graphical effects.

[SupSuper]

The new icon is GORGEOUS!
But... *nitpick*

It doesn't show up in the titlebar.

[Pumaman]

Replicated something... With animation enabled I changed the loop bit in the view preview to a view that didn't have any loops, this popped up and refused to go away until I killed the editor process:

Thanks, this is now fixed in RC 3.

I have an intro cutscene with a total of three consequent dialogs in it (to keep it somewhat organised), two ChangeRoom()s and some character.Walk and .Say commands among there. So nothing too fancy. The thing is, I can skip the cutscene right at the start, tho it takes almost a second to actually do so, just sitting there still untill that. But if I wait some five or so seconds into the cutscene and try to skip it, the game just hangs, with nothing happening. Used to work fine when I worked on the game with 2.72 and 2.8. And actually back then the dialogs used to run a bit more dialog_request scripts than now.

If you sit back and watch the cutscene rather than skipping it, does it complete successfully?

Or what about my suggestion Chris? I get the feeling that it was inadvertently overlooked

Sorry, I've been ignoring some suggestions in this thread recently. Please re-post it in the AGS 3.01 Wishlist thread if it's something you'd like to see added.

The room is created but the asc file is overwritten.  It's kind of similar to renaming problem but there doesn't seem to be a warning message about it.

Ok, well the renaming problem is now fixed in RC 3 so hopefully that should solve the problem.

Btw, instead of (or in addition to) bringing back that _blank feature, would it be reasonable in a future version to add an ImportAs feature that would make a copy of the room or module, get the new name from a popup dialog, and then import the copy?  Perhaps the existing "New" command could be enhanced to provide this functionality.  The only other thing one could ask is that files from both the game directory and the editor director be listed as possible imports or templates.

I guess there's various ways of doing this -- one would be to have a right-click "Create copy" option on rooms, or another way would be to have a Room Template option for new rooms, like the way New Games work. If it's something you'd find useful, please post in the other thread.

The new icon is GORGEOUS!
It doesn't show up in the titlebar.

This is of course a deliberate feature 
I'll look into it for the final.



Ok guys, we're at RC 3 and this really is finally it. The only thing I plan to do between this and the final version is to fix any reported bugs, otherwise it's almost time for an official release.

[Ghost]

Well, let me be the first one to congratulate. Installing- neat. Demo game- wise choice to include (but possibly not the wisest... it looks a bit garish in my jaded eyes...) Importing old 2.72 project- almost flawless.

The only thing that puts me off a little is the installation itself; I tend to have at least two copies of AGS in different directories, if only for some obscure backup purposes. Maybe an oldfashioned, alternative download would be possible?

And I admit I am a bit confused about the new Hotspot list in rooms; when I change the Hotspots name from hHotspot1 to, say, Shelf, I would expect AGS to add the prefix "h", and also to update the name in the combobox INSTANTLY. It does so, but after quitting the editor...

[GarageGothic]

I'm temporarily using a computer with Windows Vista installed (my own laptop unfortunately went the way of the dodo), and when I first installed RC3 to the default directory and tried to test the demo game, I was met by a compiler error about the folder not being accessible. I'm sure this has something to do with user rights, but I wasn't asked to elevate to admin status like other programs do.

After this, I uninstalled and re-installed to a different folder, outside Program Files, and the test ran perfectly. Perhaps the demo files need to be installed to My Documents/Program Data instead, depending on the user's Vista setup?

[Cinfa]

The only thing that puts me off a little is the installation itself; I tend to have at least two copies of AGS in different directories, if only for some obscure backup purposes. Maybe an oldfashioned, alternative download would be possible?

Sorry, but I agree with this issue. Can we have the old fashioned compressed folder? Does the editor really needs an isntaller to work (i.e. needs to set some register keys or whatever)?

[SupSuper]

I think the installer is mostly to make it look more professional and prevent typical zip-failures (running from zip, unproper extraction, etc). Not sure how much work it would be to provide both Installer and ZIP versions.

Regarding the shiny new installer goodness, I'll leave the following notes (which might not be bugs but still stuff people should be aware of):
- Do not install over an older AGS 3.x installation. The installer might not properly update all the files and you'll end up with a nicely bugged AGS.
- If you already have an AGF assocation, remove it. At least for me, the installer screwed up my existing AGF association and made it not work, so I had to manually remove it through registry and reinstall to fix it.
- The DemoQuest shortcut will bring up errors if AGS has any editor plugins (probably because the shortcut uses the DemoQuest folder as the working path and it'll try finding the plugins there and fail)

[monkey0506]

Not sure how much work it would be to provide both Installer and ZIP versions.

Unless Chris has some type of nifty system to automatically build the files into an installer when he compiles new versions of the editor, it's technically a bit more work providing an installer than just a ZIP version. It would be up to Chris whether he wants to release a ZIP version though. If he does he should probably put some ('WARNING: Not for use by incompetent fools.') disclaimer to prevent future ZIP-issues.

Personally I would find a ZIP version preferable, but as I said, it's ultimately up to CJ on this one.

However, I do have on request. Would it be possible to NOT create a Start Menu folder for shortcuts? I have AGS located at 'D:\AGS' which is where I always go if I need to get to AGS, so having a shortcut in the Start Menu doesn't really benefit me, and I try to keep my Start Menu as clutter-free as possible. Thanks either way though.

- Do not install over an older AGS 3.x installation. The installer might not properly update all the files and you'll end up with a nicely bugged AGS.

I have verified this. Attempting to install over RC2 apparently didn't work:

---------------------------
Error
---------------------------
An unexpected error occurred trying to start up the AGS Editor. Please consult the details below and post the error to the AGS Technical Forum.

System.MissingMethodException: Method not found: 'Void AGS.Types.IAGSEditor.add_GetScriptHeaderList(AGS.Types.GetScriptHeaderListHandler)'.

   at AGS.Editor.ApplicationController..ctor()

   at AGS.Editor.Program.startupTimer_Tick(Object sender, EventArgs e)

   at System.Windows.Forms.Timer.OnTick(EventArgs e)

   at System.Windows.Forms.Timer.TimerNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)

   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)
---------------------------
OK   
---------------------------

Manually deleting the files or running the installer once more and telling it to 'Remove Adventure Game Studio 3.0 RC 3' and then running the installer once more cleared up this issue.

Along the same note though, I wanted to take a look at the version of the DemoQuest now included. However, when I clicked on the "Open the Demo Game" shortcut (that I was just describing a while ago, saying that I don't need ), it didn't open the correct game project. See, I've been working with the DemoQuest files for some time now trying to reach some type of reasonable middle ground betwixt the two versions of the files that I have. One of these projects was in the folder 'DemoQuest' so AGS didn't overwrite it, it simply opened my game project.

Renaming my DemoQuest project and 'repairing' AGS (via the installer) added what is now apparently a third version of the DemoQuest project files that I can now work with...considering two of the three versions I now have don't include ANY of the mini-games and one includes some of the embedded into the main game project. My goal is to properly separate the mini-games as they should be.

- If you already have an AGF assocation, remove it. At least for me, the installer screwed up my existing AGF association and made it not work, so I had to manually remove it through registry and reinstall to fix it.

I can't seem to replicate this. My AGF association is set as follows:

Code: ags

"D:\AGS\AGSEditor.exe" "%1"

And after (properly) installing RC3 to the AGS directory, my file association works fine.

- The DemoQuest shortcut will bring up errors if AGS has any editor plugins (probably because the shortcut uses the DemoQuest folder as the working path and it'll try finding the plugins there and fail)

I can't verify this either, but that's simply because I'm not yet using any plugins (though the Audio Manager is coming along quite nicely, and I've considered it if I ever get around to starting an actual GAME project. )

Edit @GG's post below:

It's understandable how an installer could be useful, setting up registry entries and such, but I always kind of liked AGS in a ZIP file. It's just not the same in an installer.

[GarageGothic]

Personally I would find a ZIP version preferable, but as I said, it's ultimately up to CJ on this one.

I'd prefer a .zip version too. Since all the betas were posted as .zip there's little reason why an installer should be necessary (for those who know what they're doing). Perhaps the best way of limiting distribution would be just to link to a .zip of AGS 3.0 final in the beta thread, and link to the installer version on the main page and in the final release thread.

[Electroshokker]

Chris, v1.5 of the Verbcoin Template is up.

Latest discovered bug is fixed now.

I also wrote a help file you can include in the AGS help file, if you like.