AGS 2.6 Final - it's that time of year

[Pumaman]

Thanks for the benchmarks everyone, we've got plenty now to work out the minimum requirements. No more fps readings necessary!

[Pumaman]

Ok, beta 6 is now here. I'd like it to be the final beta so bug reports only please.

[Fritos]

I'm not sure what I am doing wrong here, but I get this error and I don't  what parameters it may be refering to? BTW This happens in all recent Betas, but last offically worked fine under 2.56d.

run_text_script: error -1 (runtime error : wrong number of parameters to exported function 'interface click') running function interface click.


This is what I have for interface_click:

function interface_click(int interface, int button, string input) {
 if (interface == 1) {
   if (button == 4)   // see inventory
     InventoryScreen();
   else if (button == 5) {   // use selected inventory
     if (character[ GetPlayerCharacter() ].activeinv >= 0)
       SetCursorMode(4);
   }
   else if (button == 6)    // save game
     SaveGameDialog();
   else if (button == 7)   // load game
     RestoreGameDialog();
   else if (button == 8)   // quit    
      QuitGame(1);
   else if (button == 9) {
     Display ("Copyright 2003 by Dru Kaplain");
     }
     }
 if (interface == 3) {    //starts parsing, including any global commands
 Â Â Â if (button == 0)
   {string forparser,unknownbuffer;
    StrCopy(forparser,"");
    GetTextBoxText(3,0,forparser);
    InterfaceOff(3);
    Wait (1);
           SetTextBoxText(3,0,"");
    if (StrComp(forparser,""))
     {ParseText(forparser);
FileWriteRawLine (handle, forparser);
}

This happens when I try to run a script from the GUI on these specific buttons or use my text parser. I hope this makes sense?

***** EDIT ******

I figured it out! I removed the "string input" from the function interface_click and everything is fine. I'm sure it's an error on my part, just wondering why it worked fine under 2.56d? Strange!

[Gilbert]

That's probably because the script "compiler" had recented been updated to check more in the parameter restrictions, so to reduce (difficult to track down) problems caused by mistakes in scripting.

[Pumaman]

Indeed. Never add extra parameters to functions which AGS calls, because it doesn't know about them. v2.6 now detects this error whereas 2.56 let you get away with it, but it could lead to strange problems later on.

[RickJ]

Here are a couple of things that I noticed and thought you would want to know about.  They are not necessarily bugs but they are unexpected behaviors.  


1.  Letterbox and 320x240 resolution

I get an odd result when using 320x200 in letterbox or when using 320x240 resolutions.    

In both instances the resulting screen is shorter than the width of the screen and is shifted to the left margin of the screen.   When I use 32x240 without letterbox the entire widt and heigth of the screen is filled up with the display.  

My video driver mode is 1024x768 True Color.   I have am using an Intel 82810 Graphics Controller.  

I don't know if this is something with my machine or if there is something up with AGS using these resolution/modes.  Just thought I would  share my observations with you.


2.  External Editor

I have also observed and unexpected behavior when using an external editor.  When I edit a room script with an external editor, such as meta pad,  movement of the editor window erases the underlying AGS window.   I think this was the case in earlier versions as well.  If this was discussed before I appologize for bringing it up again.  



Great work Chris

[Gilbert]

1. Obviously just the common issue of monitor settings, most monters+video card combo wont display with optimal settings when it's set to a graphics mode it had never used before (except for some of the "better" cards, which can handle it with their drivers), so, just mess with the settings of the monitors (knobs/buttons, etc on it) to get it right.

[RickJ]

Gilbot:  Probably you're right.  It's just that it seems like the computer I am using didn't do this before (some versions ago) and that there is possibly something going on that may be of interest to Chris.    Otherwise your explanation is adequate and is perfectly acceptable.  Thanks.

[Gilbert]

Hmmm Some  monitors can only store the settings for a limited number of modes (eg 20 modes, modes of same colour depth and same resolution but with different refresh rates may also be considered different modes, so it may just be a problem of it running in a mode with a refresh mode never used before), so if your monitor had been set to some amount of modes in a period, it might had "forgotten" some of the settings of the modes previously set before.

[TheYak]

Other possible bug: I'm running Win 2k on work's computer, a P500 w/ a Riva 128 8M.  Any AGS game or demo will not display anything in fullscreen mode.  In windowed mode, no mouse interaction is possible.  The only exception I've found was with Scotch's tech-test demo (I believe made w/ AGS 2.6 b5), which was only able to run windowed but allowed mouse use.  

Trying to track down possible culprits within computer itself since previously-compiled games don't run, it's probably this thing's fault.

[Pumaman]

I get an odd result when using 320x200 in letterbox or when using 320x240 resolutions.

Yeah, as Gilbert says this is more than likely just monitor settings. AGS simply requests a 320x240 screen from DirectX, so it's highly likely that the monitor has never been set up for that resolution before.

2.  External Editor

I have also observed and unexpected behavior when using an external editor.  When I edit a room script with an external editor, such as meta pad,  movement of the editor window erases the underlying AGS window.   I think this was the case in earlier versions as well.  If this was discussed before I appologize for bringing it up again.  

Yeah, this is due to the way that the editor disables itself while an external editor is running. It's a bit messy I know, but not a high priority fix

Other possible bug: I'm running Win 2k on work's computer, a P500 w/ a Riva 128 8M. Any AGS game or demo will not display anything in fullscreen mode.

I'd say that's likely to be a DirectX or graphics driver issue. Work machines often don't have these components upgraded (who needs them to run Word, right ) so they will more than likely be very old driver and/or DX versions which don't run AGS well.

[Vel]

Outstanding, as ever.

[TheYak]

Other possible bug: I'm running Win 2k on work's computer, a P500 w/ a Riva 128 8M. Any AGS game or demo will not display anything in fullscreen mode.

I'd say that's likely to be a DirectX or graphics driver issue. Work machines often don't have these components upgraded (who needs them to run Word, right ) so they will more than likely be very old driver and/or DX versions which don't run AGS well.

[/size]
Nah, tried the above.  Various driver versions don't help.  Ah, well.  No fun at work, I guess.   Alright, this is odd.  As long as I run a game in a window and click-hold on the window title, the game will display (animate) properly.  I can play the demo game by clicking what I want on-screen (guessing where the cursor might be) and then dragging the title to see what happened.  

[Paper Carnival]

Wow, another release! AGS is honestly the most frequently updated game engine I have ever tried! What I like in this version is the ability to change the depth

[Pumaman]

Nah, tried the above.  Various driver versions don't help.  Ah, well.  No fun at work, I guess.   Alright, this is odd.  As long as I run a game in a window and click-hold on the window title, the game will display (animate) properly.  I can play the demo game by clicking what I want on-screen (guessing where the cursor might be) and then dragging the title to see what happened.  

What happens when you don't have the window title held? Does display just freeze at its last state, or does it all go pink, or all black, or anything?

As an experiment, could you try changing your desktop color depth (ie. from 16 to 32 or vice versa) and see if that makes a difference?

[InCreator]

Other possible bug: I'm running Win 2k on work's computer, a P500 w/ a Riva 128 8M.  Any AGS game or demo will not display anything in fullscreen mode.  In windowed mode, no mouse interaction is possible.  

It's probably your company's conspiracy against AGS or a secret project to make employees work instead making adventure games... a nice software idea, actually. Imagine "MS-NoPlay XP"...

[Scorpiorus]

Wow, new plugin API functions! thanks, CJ!
Also I like new optimization method, I'll keep it in mind

~Cheers

[TheYak]

What happens when you don't have the window title held? Does display just freeze at its last state, or does it all go pink, or all black, or anything?
As an experiment, could you try changing your desktop color depth (ie. from 16 to 32 or vice versa) and see if that makes a difference?

Display merely freezes.  If run in full-screen or before dragging title for the first time, window displays black.  Experimented already, 16-bit color, 32-bit color, 256-color & full Hz range for monitor make no difference.  Also changed display drivers once more & monitor drivers.  Maybe I'm just screwed.  

[Pumaman]

Hmm, have you been able to run any other DirectX games on that PC?

[Scorpiorus]

Possible bug with GUI buttons image missing

Replication:

-start new game and goto GUI editor
-add new GUI
-add a label (or more) to the gui
-convert the gui into text window

now check ICONBAR's buttons

~Cheers