AGS stops winamp sound (+ more)

hssh · Sat 22/05/2004 19:30:04

hi, two things:

1. make available 'at least' a 800*600 mode. you cant pretend to make serious games with the resolutions available now

2. that you can setup -setup options- via scripting, like turn sound on/off. turn full screen on/off, etc. for example, the game may not be playing sounds at a moment, but if you selected 'with sound' with the sound setup utility, it turns off my winamp for no reason at all

3. a way to control volume, and a way to use win api for sounds in win version. i can not see a reason why does it have to 'hog' the sound card all for itself.

modf: (ok, so they were three things)

EDIT: change subject

Pumaman · Sat 22/05/2004 19:48:02

Firstly, please use a descriptive thread title.

1. AGS does support 800x600, are you having problems with it?

2. What operating system are you running? Windows 98 only allows one application at a time to access the sound card; Windows 2000 and XP do not have this problem.

3. There are several script commands available to change the volume. You can run Setup and change the sound card to "Default WaveOut device" to use the Win API rather than DirectX.

Hollister Man · Sat 22/05/2004 20:42:18

You mean you can't pretend to make first person shooters with the resolutions we have now.

If you read the home page it says: "Adventure Game Studio (AGS for short) allows you to create your own point-and-click adventure games, similar to the early 90's Sierra and Lucasarts adventures." Now even 800x600 is too much for a "classic" game, and no higher resolution is truly necessary.

hssh · Sun 23/05/2004 01:13:30

pumaman:

i have not tried ags yet, i have only downloaded quite a group of games and played them, and it has given me a thick to make my own game tough still thinking besides ags and flash. the reason i have as a plus to use ags is to be able to post the final game here, but you can not compare what you can do graphically in flash with ags (besides of ags being free, but i already have the license for the macromedia studio).
i have not actually seen the capabilities of ags as a programming enviroment per se, just 'checking out' as for now, but on the list of games by the bar on the left, all games i have seen appear labeled either as 320*240 or 600*400, i have not seen in those games either the ability to set up options from inside the game like setting sound volume or turning it on or off, graphic quality, or toggle full screen mode, which are quite common features, so thats why i assume they are not pressent in ags till now.
about the sound i use xp and i have a problem: when i setup a game with the separate utility with sound (normally i run them without sound precisely for that reasson), and then run the game, my winamp just stops playing. the program still runs but there is no sound comming out of it, i am not aware if that is just with winamp. i like to have background music of my own when i play, and with ags games it seems it is not possible.

hollister man:

black & white tv was great in its time also

TerranRich · Sun 23/05/2004 01:52:23

Excuse me. "You cannot pretend to make a great game in 800x600", more or less is what you said. Excuse my dilligence, but who gives a flying f*** about resolution. It's the story that matters, and character development, but that's an argument for another thread (and forum, altogether).

Also, next time please try AGS before requesting anything.

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires · Sun 23/05/2004 07:48:32

Quotei have not actually seen the capabilities of ags as a programming enviroment per se, just 'checking out' as for now, but on the list of games by the bar on the left, all games i have seen appear labeled either as 320*240 or 600*400, i have not seen in those games either the ability to set up options from inside the game like setting sound volume or turning it on or off, graphic quality, or toggle full screen mode, which are quite common features, so thats why i assume they are not pressent in ags till now.

That's a BIG no-no. Never assume anything without trying out AGS first. Everything you said can be done very easily from within the game, IF the designer so chooses. As a matter of fact, if you try out AGS, you'll find that just about everything and anything is possible. INCLUDING 800x600, if you want to go for that nice graphical presentation. AND you can have up to 32bit color. The thing is, if your game is crap, that won't do you any good. Just a warning.

Kweepa · Sun 23/05/2004 10:19:57

Hold on now - the basic facts are true enough, despite the rudeness of the messenger.
I admire CJ's ability to answer the questions in a level headed manner!
I think that's the main reason AGS is so good.

1. 800x600 is the maximum resolution. Personally I'd be happy if 320x240 was the maximum, but we've seen a few artists recently on the boards who are doing 800x600 some justice (eg stuh505, Charlos). They'd probably be just as good at 640x480, but if they're not comfortable at that resolution, let's not chase them off.

2. It's definitely not possible to script sound card usage or full screen toggle. The first seems like a weird request. I can understand wanting the full screen - windowed mode toggle, either through a GUI button or pressing Alt-Enter. Now I realise that's a complete pig to do - I've had to do it myself for a game written with SDL - but it would be a nice feature. Not as nice as AGS 3.0!

3. Perhaps sound and music could be two separate toggles in the setup utility. That's (historically) quite traditional for PC games.

Pumaman · Sun 23/05/2004 17:21:12

The functionality is available for the game designer to include a sound volume control, but many people choose not to.

You don't find many 800x600 games because it takes a lot more artistic skill to make good looking graphics at that resolution, and it increases the size of the game download quite a bit.

As for your sound problem - have you tried upgrading to the latest version of DirectX and your sound card drivers? I can leave winamp playing in the background whilst playing AGS games, with no problems.

stuh505 · Sun 23/05/2004 17:26:14

QuoteI can leave winamp playing in the background whilst playing AGS games, with no problems.

I can't $:-\$

but I'm using directx 8....I'm downloading 9 now just to see if it makes a difference...

Pumaman · Sun 23/05/2004 17:42:04

I just tried changing my Winamp Output Plugin to DirectSound rather than WaveOut and you're right, running an AGS game then stops the winamp output. I'm not sure why this is because AGS starts up DirectSound with a non-exclusive cooperative level, so it should continue playing.

Anyway, the workaround is to set Winamp to use the WaveOut plugin.

stuh505 · Sun 23/05/2004 18:16:55

ah...

what's the difference between these two options?

Pumaman · Sun 23/05/2004 18:18:08

There's two methods of sound output on Windows - WaveOut and DirectSound. If two applications try to use DirectSound at the same time, it seems to cut one of them off, though I don't know why.

stuh505 · Sun 23/05/2004 18:32:45

Media Player also cuts out with AGS...but I cannot find an option to change the output plugin. Perhaps it would make more sense if AGS could change to WaveOut, so that by default media player and winamp etc would work by default?

Pumaman · Sun 23/05/2004 19:20:55

You can do that by running the Setup program that comes iwth AGS games and changing the sound driver to "Default WaveOut device"

stuh505 · Sun 23/05/2004 19:49:23

Oh, silly me.

But now I am truly confused, because this is what happens:

Scenario 1: AGS using WaveOut, Winamp using DirectSound...winamp sound doesn't work

Scenario 2: AGS using WaveOut, Winamp using WaveOut...winamp sound does work

Scenario 3: AGS using WaveOut, Media Player...media player doesn't work

Scenario 4: AGS using DirectSound, Winamp using DirectSound...winamp sound doesn't work

Scenario 5: AGS using DirectSound, Winamp using WaveOut...winamp sound does work

Scenario 6: AGS using DirectSound, Media Player....doesn't work

In summary....Winamp ONLY works when it has the SAME output as AGS...and Media Player doesn't work regardless. This is the opposite of what you said should work...because Media Player should work under 1 of the two AGS settings...and Winamp should work on the opposite.

Pumaman · Sun 23/05/2004 21:43:50

It's possible that Winamp requests an exclusive lock on DirectSound, so when another application starts up it gets locked out.

Do you have this problem with other DirectX-based Windows games?

auhsor · Mon 24/05/2004 00:23:43

Hmm it didnt seem to work for me at first, but then I realised that you had to restart winamp for the changes to the plugin to take affect. Make sure you do this.

hssh · Mon 24/05/2004 03:06:05

before i download the utility, i would like to know:
1. is there a way to control sound volume in different sound objects or is it a global property, so they go all up or all down. (for example, background music could be turned off, or if present it would play at a constant level or a level set in intro by an options menu, but sound events would play in a volume according to scene and event)
2. somebody said it was possible to script sound usage from within the game, is it possible to 'really' toggle sound on/off and if so, releasing sound resources, or 'toggle' consists in if (!sound) {volume(0)} (*or whatever the syntaxis*, but you get the idea)

stuh505 · Mon 24/05/2004 03:17:05

QuoteIt's possible that Winamp requests an exclusive lock on DirectSound, so when another application starts up it gets locked out.

Do you have this problem with other DirectX-based Windows games?

Nope.

QuoteHmm it didnt seem to work for me at first, but then I realised that you had to restart winamp for the changes to the plugin to take affect. Make sure you do this.

Like I said, I can configure Winamp to run in the background...we are just discussing why it works with certain settings and not with others.

Also, I do not need to restart Winamp for the changes to take effect.

Quote1. is there a way to control sound volume in different sound objects or is it a global property, so they go all up or all down. (for example, background music could be turned off, or if present it would play at a constant level or a level set in intro by an options menu, but sound events would play in a volume according to scene and event)

Volume for all these things (and more) can be adjusted separately. If you have other questions like this, try going to the FAQ on the main site...there, you can view the entire AGS manual, and do a quick search to find a certain function you are looking for to see if it exists before downloading the game.

Quote2. somebody said it was possible to script sound usage from within the game, is it possible to 'really' toggle sound on/off and if so, releasing sound resources, or 'toggle' consists in if (!sound) {volume(0)} (*or whatever the syntaxis*, but you get the idea)

I'm not sure what you mean...you can turn sound/music on and off. More technical audio controls that have to do with sound drivers and stuff can be controlled by the small settings program before starting AGS, I don't think you can control these using scripting...but I also cannot see any reason why you would want to.

hssh · Mon 24/05/2004 04:36:19

Quote from: stuh505 on Mon 24/05/2004 03:17:05If you have other questions like this, try going to the FAQ on the main site...there, you can view the entire AGS manual, and do a quick search to find a certain function you are looking for to see if it exists before downloading the game.

tnx, i'll try to take that into account next time