How to make hotspots visible over objects

[Yami]

Hello!

I looked through the forums and manual but can't seem to find the answer to this one -- if it's out there and I missed it, my apologies!

I just started working in AGS and have been setting up a main menu. I have one "Menu" room and I'm using one animated (60 frames) screen-sized (320x200) object as the menu background. I've been adding hotspots but they're not visible overtop of the object, so I can't see where I placed them unless I move the object out of the way. This happens with non-animated objects as well.

Any tips you can provide would be much appreciated!!

[eri0o]

hi!

If by visible you mean in game, you need to make the object you want to use as background as non-clickable. In it's properties grid, set it's clickable property to false.

If by visible you mean in the room editor, on top, on the bar, there's an eye like button you can use to control layer and element visibility.

[Yami]

Thanks for your reply, eri0o!

Yea, I mean visible in the room editor. Thanks for the info about layer/element visibility! Is there a way to have the hotspots and the object visible at the same time? It seems that if I have both set to visible, I can't see the hotspots (since the object is visible overtop of them).

Thanks again for your help!

[eri0o]

I don't think it's possible... I would suggest picking up a useful frame of this object and setting it as the room background while you edit the room - so you can set the object visibility to 0 and still have some feeling of where things are.

Alternatively, it's possible to edit the room masks in a different image editor (e.g.: Aseprite) and then import it back to AGS.

[Crimson Wizard]

Here's the recent article in the manual about the room editor:
https://adventuregamestudio.github.io/ags-manual/EditorRoom.html

Note that although it's possible to make half-transparent hotspot mask, it's unfortunately not made possible yet to draw objects as half-transparent.

[Yami]

Ah, I see. Thanks, eri0o! Your suggestions are all great -- I will give those a try and see what works best. Also, thanks Crimson Wizard! I guess the better question would have been whether an object could be made half-transparent, like a hotspot. Thanks for clarifying that it's not currently possible -- good to know!