AGS 2.61 Pre-final Edition

Started by Pumaman, Sat 28/02/2004 23:04:11

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Pumaman

Quote from: Radiant on Tue 20/04/2004 13:11:13
ME. I believe on looking closer that Alt-4 moves the cursor to the far left, etc. I am using the numeric keypad though, it hadn't occured to me yet to use the keys above the letter keys.

This is because you have numlock off, so what you are actually getting is Alt+Left, or skip word left. Turn num lock on if you want to be able to type alt codes in - but note that the script editor won't display them.

Quote
Two more tiny bugs that aren't really important
- it is not possible to display the '@' symbol on a GUI. If you do, it appears fine in the editor, but in the game it disappears along with the rest of the line. Maybe @@ or \@ could be used?

Strange, I'll look into it.

Quote
- would it be possible to add a TAB character for using in dialogs? So you can display a list in a neat way with the Display () command.

could you clarify what you mean? Do you mean some sort of '\t' escape character to insert a tab in a message?

QuoteThis one however has some importance...
- if a GUI is set to Z-order 0 or 1, it still appears over Sierra-style speech dialog boxes. Maybe you could let the editor set a Z-order for the textboxes?

This is a feature request, and is already on my to-do list. Currently GUIs are always on top of everything else on the screen.

Radiant

Quote from: Pumaman on Tue 20/04/2004 23:24:36
Quote
- would it be possible to add a TAB character for using in dialogs? So you can display a list in a neat way with the Display () command.
could you clarify what you mean? Do you mean some sort of '\t' escape character to insert a tab in a message?
Exactly. I was writing a help function for my game, and basically it goes
Display ("F5\tsave game[F7\trestore game[F9\trestart game");

Radiant

And another bunch of buglike reports of high obscurity and low importance...

- if in the global header, I import a function and specify a different number (or type) of parameters from the function definition in the global script, no compiler error is gnerated; instead the game tends to crash when the function is used.

- if I select 'recompile all rooms' and one of the rooms generates a compiler error, then that particular room will not be recompiled and an error message is displayed that doesn't actually show the room's number. If I then test the game, it will have one or more rooms that aren't recompiled.

- trivial detail: if you declare 'function thingy (void)', per C customs, any calls to the function are expected to pass one integer parameter. I figured 'void' might be treated as a parameter name instead, but a really weird compiler error is generated if I add 'if (void==0)...' to the function. :)

- am I correct to assume that any variables are initialized to zero? If so you might mention this in tha manual. If not, they should be as this tends to be what newbie programmers expect.

- MoveCharacterToObject (EGO, -1) moves the character to the top left corner of the screen, instead of doing nothing as I would expect (e.g. MoveCharacterToObject (EGO, GetObjectAt (mouse.x, mouse.y)) )

- if in the GUI editor, the first word of a label's text is too wide for the label (easily possible with @TOTALSCORE@), the label appears entirely blank (one would expect '@TOTA' or a similar fraction) (maybe in the GUI editor, @SCORE@ and @TOTALSCORE@ should be replaced by numbers so you can see what they actually look like; then in the
 pop-up window that edits individual controls, they should still show as the @SCORE@ string)

- the error message for SetGUIPosition() coordinates being out of range is incorrect, because the coordinates can in fact be set to negative values (which is a good thing, it allows you to scroll a GUI off-screen). However coordinates greater than screen height or width are not allowed (which is slightly inconsistent)

- if I import a sprite and select a file, then change the transparency setting afterwards (i.e. to lower right pixel), I must re-import the file for the change to take effect. Bug?

- why doesn't a Textbox GUI have a 'font' line in its edit popup window? It seems more intuitive than SetTextBoxFont()

- how about having the cursor arrows nudge the GUI object that is currently selected one pixel to the left/right/etc

SSH

Quote from: Radiant on Fri 23/04/2004 12:44:59
- if in the GUI editor, the first word of a label's text is too wide for the label (easily possible with @TOTALSCORE@), the label appears entirely blank (one would expect '@TOTA' or a similar fraction) (maybe in the GUI editor, @SCORE@ and @TOTALSCORE@ should be replaced by numbers so you can see what they actually look like; then in the
 pop-up window that edits individual controls, they should still show as the @SCORE@ string)

A general "preview  GUI" button would be great, as it would also show if you'd forgotten to position it correctly (which I often do) and how the fonts would actually be displayed with AA and colours.

Quote
- how about having the cursor arrows nudge the GUI object that is currently selected one pixel to the left/right/etc

And ditto for objects in the room editor
12

Pumaman

Quote from: Radiant on Fri 23/04/2004 12:44:59
- if in the global header, I import a function and specify a different number (or type) of parameters from the function definition in the global script, no compiler error is gnerated; instead the game tends to crash when the function is used.

Aye, I appreciate this should be picked up by the compiler, it's on my to-do list.

Quote- if I select 'recompile all rooms' and one of the rooms generates a compiler error, then that particular room will not be recompiled and an error message is displayed that doesn't actually show the room's number. If I then test the game, it will have one or more rooms that aren't recompiled.

Good point ... I think you might be able to see the room number in the progress bar dialog behind the error message, but that's really not intuitive.

Quote- trivial detail: if you declare 'function thingy (void)', per C customs, any calls to the function are expected to pass one integer parameter. I figured 'void' might be treated as a parameter name instead, but a really weird compiler error is generated if I add 'if (void==0)...' to the function. :)

Hehe yes I remember someone reporting this before - I'll make a "void" parameter give a compile error.

Quote- am I correct to assume that any variables are initialized to zero? If so you might mention this in tha manual. If not, they should be as this tends to be what newbie programmers expect.

Global variables are, local variables are not, much like 'C'. However, I'll see how much work it would be to initialize local variables to 0 as well.

Quote- MoveCharacterToObject (EGO, -1) moves the character to the top left corner of the screen, instead of doing nothing as I would expect (e.g. MoveCharacterToObject (EGO, GetObjectAt (mouse.x, mouse.y)) )

Fair enough, I'll get it fixed.

Quote- if in the GUI editor, the first word of a label's text is too wide for the label (easily possible with @TOTALSCORE@), the label appears entirely blank (one would expect '@TOTA' or a similar fraction) (maybe in the GUI editor, @SCORE@ and @TOTALSCORE@ should be replaced by numbers so you can see what they actually look like; then in the pop-up window that edits individual controls, they should still show as the @SCORE@ string)

Yeah, this is something I keep meaning to fix - I'll add it to my list again.

Quote- the error message for SetGUIPosition() coordinates being out of range is incorrect, because the coordinates can in fact be set to negative values (which is a good thing, it allows you to scroll a GUI off-screen). However coordinates greater than screen height or width are not allowed (which is slightly inconsistent)

This behaviour is by design - negative values are allowed so you can scroll a GUI in, but values over the max width/height are not (you can still scroll a GUI in since they specify the top left corner) to stop people getting confused by the 320 vs 640 co-ordinates.

Quote- if I import a sprite and select a file, then change the transparency setting afterwards (i.e. to lower right pixel), I must re-import the file for the change to take effect. Bug?

The top of the Import Image window says "After selecting your settings, you must import the source again". Perhaps it needs to be more obvious, though.

Quote- why doesn't a Textbox GUI have a 'font' line in its edit popup window? It seems more intuitive than SetTextBoxFont()

It does; I'm not entirely sure what you're trying to say?

Quote- how about having the cursor arrows nudge the GUI object that is currently selected one pixel to the left/right/etc
And ditto for objects in the room editor

Good ideas, they've been suggested before, I'll make sure they're on my to-do list.

Anyway, thanks for all your comments - people can tend to ignore all these little things that don't seem important, but it's good to get them fixed :)

Scummbuddy

#105
Uh oh.

When I was copying over copys of my old version games, from beta 3, i loaded one game, saved it, loaded a second, saved it, and when i loaded the third game, I got the message:
-------------
(Exception 0xC0000005 at EIP=0x0142308A, AGSE v2.61.488)
-------------

Plus, I was not able to Ctrl-C this message, I had to copy it the old fashion way.

Any ideas?
(edit* i loaded up that third game, and it ran with no problems. I suppose it just has to do with me loading up games, instead of shutting down the editor)
- Oh great, I'm stuck in colonial times, tentacles are taking over the world, and now the toilets backing up.
- No, I mean it's really STUCK. Like adventure-game stuck.
-Hoagie from DOTT

strazer

I've found another problem.
Because it worked so nice last time, I've put together this demo game.

Basically, if you have region that is supposed to take the player to a new room when walked onto, but the player is currently following another character, the new room gets loaded but EGO is nowhere to be seen.
A few seconds later the game quits with
"Error: MoveCharacter: character not in current room".

Pumaman

Scummbuddy: I tried loading some differnet games into the editor one after each other but I couldn't reproduce the problem. HAs it happened again since?


strazer: thanks for the bug report. The question is, what should happen in this situation? If you move the player to a different room, but they're following another character, what would be the sensible thing to happen? Should they automatically be moved back to the previous room in order to continue following?

strazer

That's an excellent idea. Yes, I think that would be the best way.

Pumaman

Actually that could get a bit messy - how about if NewRoom just doesn't do anything if the player character is currently following another?

strazer

Is it possible to ignore NewRoom commands only if they are issued from regions?
All other NewRooms would abort the following and take the player to the new room?

Radiant

Quote
Quote
- if I import a sprite and select a file, then change the transparency setting afterwards (i.e. to lower right pixel), I must re-import the file for the change to take effect. Bug?
The top of the Import Image window says "After selecting your settings, you must import the source again". Perhaps it needs to be more obvious, though.
Could you make it so that clicking a different type of 'transparent pixel' just immediately re-imports the source? That wuold be most intuitive I think.

Quote
Quote
- why doesn't a Textbox GUI have a 'font' line in its edit popup window? It seems more intuitive than SetTextBoxFont()
It does; I'm not entirely sure what you're trying to say?

I meant a GUI marked as 'textbox', not a label on any GUI. I'll double check but I believe it only has an Xsize and Ysize parameter.

Oh wait, there's another upgrade! Cool!


strazer

QuoteCould you make it so that clicking a different type of 'transparent pixel' just immediately re-imports the source? That wuold be most intuitive I think.

I second that.

And yes, a "Font" setting for Text windows would be nice.
Because if, for example, you want the dialog options to look like speech lines and you change the normal font with SetNormalFont, the Text windows look different too, since they use that font as well.

Pumaman

Quote from: strazer on Mon 26/04/2004 05:42:00
Is it possible to ignore NewRoom commands only if they are issued from regions?
All other NewRooms would abort the following and take the player to the new room?

Hmm, it's an interesting idea but I don't really like adding inconsistent behaviour like that - it tends to confuse people and lead to problems that can be hard to track down.

Is the best option for the game to exit with an error message in this situation, so that the game author has to decide whether to stop following or ignore the NewRoom?

QuoteCould you make it so that clicking a different type of 'transparent pixel' just immediately re-imports the source? That wuold be most intuitive I think.

Yeah, that's a good idea. Or at least pop up a message box asking the user what to do.

QuoteI meant a GUI marked as 'textbox', not a label on any GUI. I'll double check but I believe it only has an Xsize and Ysize parameter.

Ah I see yes, sorry I misunderstood. I'll add it to my list.

Robert Eric

Chris, do you have anywhere in your to-do list a simple sprite editor that can be activated by right-clicking on the sprite, clicking Edit, and having a nice little window that lets you edit the sprite right there with simple features like color selection, plotting a single pixel, flood filling, then saving it, loading another in it's place to be edited there, or saving it to disk?
Ã, Ã, 

Pumaman

No, sorry but I'm not planning anything like that. It's almost as easy just to right-click, Copy To Clipboard, then paste into a graphics package and edit it there.

SSH

#116
No-one seems to have noticed the editor plug=in new feature! This looks great. Finally we can do all those things that CJ is too lazy busy to implement...!

EDIT:

Quote
"Next, still with the class selected, look down the properties list for "Instancing". This is initially set to "2 - PublicNotCreatable", which means that other applications can't create the object. We need to change it to "5 - MultiUse", so that the AGS Editor can load the plugin."

This step of the tutorial is impossible with the free VB5 download... any ideas anyone?

Also, any plans to add more than the dialog system to this API, CJ?

12

Kinoko

Nothing terribly constructive to say, except -thankyou- for the view preview, and repeatedly_execute_always functions! This solves a lot of problems for me in future game making.

Scorpiorus

Quote from: SSH on Tue 27/04/2004 09:09:27No-one seems to have noticed the editor plug=in new feature! This looks great.
Indeed, that's great feature to have. Now editor addons will be much easier to implement. Also high thanks for extra operators and all that useful plugin API functions. :)

~Cheers

ca0mgr

I'm so rusty with VB. Could you give me a hand with this. It should be along these lines:

   Dim a As AGSDialogTopic
         
   a = editor.Dialogs.NewTopic()
   a.newOption ("option 1")

which doesn't work. The following does:

call editor.Dialogs.NewTopic.newOptions("Option 1")

What am I doing wrong?

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