Topic: AGS Draconian Edition 3.4.11 r10 (December 31, 2017)

[Crimson Wizard]

Is there any plan of including the "256-characters SCI and WFN fonts" feature/hack into vanilla AGS any time soon? Just to know for how long I must resist the urge of breaking compatibility in my game

It was included into 3.4.0 alpha... don't know why there. Back then we did not have certain plans on what features these versions should have.

[Monsieur OUXX]

It was included into 3.4.0 alpha.

OK, I'll give it a new try. Last time, I tried 3.3.0, and it was a disaster (buggy installer, and also that annoying bug that kept telling me that the script had been modified with an external editor). Let's hope this time it will work!

[Crimson Wizard]

It was included into 3.4.0 alpha.

OK, I'll give it a new try. Last time, I tried 3.3.0, and it was a disaster (buggy installer, and also that annoying bug that kept telling me that the script had been modified with an external editor). Let's hope this time it will work!

No, 3.4.0 is much worse at the moment, because it does not include all 3.3.0 fixes we made in last few months.
I were planning to update it when I get free time off working on 3.3.0.

[Knox]

While updating 3.4 (when you have the time of course), is it long/difficult to also perhaps merge the custom resolution build into it as well?

[Crimson Wizard]

While updating 3.4 (when you have the time of course), is it long/difficult to also perhaps merge the custom resolution build into it as well?

Not so difficult, I am merging 3.3.0 to customres right now, and then merge the joint code to 3.4.0 when I got time.

Since this is Draconian thread (hint hint), I might mention that we will probably get most interesting things from Draconian to 3.4.0 too, or maybe some 3.3.1, whichever will be coming first.

[Alan v.Drake]

Since this is Draconian thread (hint hint), I might mention that we will probably get most interesting things from Draconian to 3.4.0 too, or maybe some 3.3.1, whichever will be coming first.

If only that poor developer didn't have so much work and so many projects to carry on...

- Alan

[Knox]

Not so difficult, I am merging 3.3.0 to customres right now, and then merge the joint code to 3.4.0 when I got time.
Since this is Draconian thread (hint hint), I might mention that we will probably get most interesting things from Draconian to 3.4.0 too, or maybe some 3.3.1, whichever will be coming first.

Oh yeah! 

[Crimson Wizard]

Err... I meant to say we are going offtopic here.

[Crimson Wizard]

Alan, can you give some explanation on your changes to the SetRegionTint function?
What I understand from your code, the luminance parameter basically substitutes a need to call SetAreaLightLevel. Is that correct?

[Alan v.Drake]

Alan, can you give some explanation on your changes to the SetRegionTint function?
What I understand from your code, the luminance parameter basically substitutes a need to call SetAreaLightLevel. Is that correct?

Yes, I had decided to use the fourth byte of regionTintLevel to store luminance so I would avoid causing mishaps that could break compatibility, most likely you can do better.
Brigthness and luminance had to be kept separate and I exploited the fact that the fourth parameter was a simple flag, so luminance became the value itself to check against.

- Alan

[Crimson Wizard]

Brigthness and luminance had to be kept separate and I exploited the fact that the fourth parameter was a simple flag, so luminance became the value itself to check against.

So, brightness and luminance are not the same thing? I am not aware of this.
I am trying to excerpt the code changes related to this, but not sure which are required, because I do not fully understand how this parameter meant to be used.
I mean, one thing if it may be used instead of Region.LightLevel, another if it is different thing, also may they be applied simultaneously or not?

[Alan v.Drake]

Scrap that, I failed to understand my own code. It's been well over two years since I coded that stuff (and it was havily bruteforced).

No, the issue was the saturation (the 'amount' parameter), it was originally saved into regionLightLevel. I wanted LUMINANCE/BRIGHTNESS to go into there, so I moved luminance into regionLightLevel, and saturation into the fourth byte of regionTintLevel (which was originally used with the TINT_IS_ENABLED flag to check if the tint was enabled).

I probably wanted to add a regionSaturationLevel or something, but I was a rookie at AGS spaghetticode manipulation and AGS.Native's source was not yet released.

TL;DR: saturation was saved into brightness, workarounds ensued.

- Alan

[Crimson Wizard]

Are there any games that use extended WFN fonts? Just want to test how well the WFN-256 support went into 3.3.1.

[Crimson Wizard]

Has anyone any idea which games were made using Draconian edition at all, and which features did they use? Game titles may be enough, I could ask authors directly if I knew them.
I wanted to test them against our 3.4 version to see if they are compatible.

[Armageddon]

I know that this was because it uses the gamma slider and the character scaling is fixed and he told me himself.

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=52224.0

[Crimson Wizard]

I tried to make a table of features and the level of compatibility achieved in AGS 3.4.
I will update the table as I clarify information / more features are added.
Also, to be frank, it is not easy to get all features from the list in the first post, I might read through whole thread to be sure.

Spoiler: ShowHide

There are 4 possible levels of game compatibility:
D) feature not present (in 3.4)
C) feature present, but the projects are not compatible; e.g. can't run compile Draconian project without making fixes to script/settings first.
B) feature present, but the game file is not compatible; i.e. you have to recompile your game project in new Editor first.
A) feature present and 100% compatible, i.e. you can take Draconian game file and run with the new engine without recompilation.

I am aiming at level A when possible, because we have ports and it would be nice to make them run any AGS game. Level B would be chosen if precise implementation can cause too much trouble.

For Editor-only features (UI) they are:
*d) not present;
*b) similar / alternative feature;
*a) exact feature.

Here I would aim level *B.

Draconian	AGS 3.4	Compatibility / Test results
Editor
Vertical indentation guides	Since 3.3.5	*A
Prettier folding	Since 3.3.5	*A
Added #region #endregion to the preprocessor	Since 3.4.*	*A
Obsidian-like theme for the text editor	No	-
Scripting
Support for 5 args region tinting, Region.Tint(int red, int green, int blue, int saturation, int luminance)	Since 3.4.0.4	Tests required
Character.ChangeRoom() with direction enum	Since 3.4.*	Tests required
Engine
Windowed mode gamma support	No (?)	?
256 characters WFN font support	Since 3.4.*	Tests required
Improved character walking animation at 60%-80% zoom	Since 3.3.0	A (should be)
Character linked sound panning	No	-
AdjustVolumeWithScaling now works for real	in master	A (?)
Audio not repeating after loading savegame	Probably (need to clarify)	Tests required
Fixed Scaling on D3D (with "Smooth scaled sprites" option)	No	-
Improved D3D speed at reading the screen ()	Not sure	-
VSync for D3D	Since 3.4.*	A (probably)
3 new DirectDraw filters: Scanlines 2x, TV CRT 4x and PC CRT 4x	No	-
optional acwin_perspective.exe; handles better characters direction when in perspective	No	-

[ChamberOfFear]

Exactly why isn't "Vertical Indentation Guides" and "Prettier Folding" implemented? A quick test shows me that cherry picking the commit responsible for those changes from "feature_editor_drac" into "develop-3.3.5" is conflict free. Is there something about the implementation that needs to be improved?

[Crimson Wizard]

Exactly why isn't "Vertical Indentation Guides" and "Prettier Folding" implemented? A quick test shows me that cherry picking the commit responsible for those changes from "feature_editor_drac" into "develop-3.3.5" is conflict free. Is there something about the implementation that needs to be improved?

No reason, I could simply forget about that branch.

Well, thanks for reminding. I will copy these into 3.3.5 branch.

[Dualnames]

*Character linked sound panning

This would be a nice thing to see.

[Alan v.Drake]

Lo and behold, after time untold,
the draconian edition will rise from oblivion.

Of course you'll have to wait until I catch up on all the progress from the last three years.

- Alan