Topic: AGS 3.4.1 - RC 3 (new release candidate)

[NicolaGs]

I encountered weird bugs with the fullscreen switch.

With Direct3D : no issue
With the Software Renderer : when going from fullscreen to windowed, the window loses the focus and so the sound jitters (not that important... but doesn't look clean).
With OpenGL :
- windowed to fullscreen : OK
- fullscreen to windowed : frame stays in fullscreen and is only resized (the frame gets what should be its windowed size and is moved at the bottom left corner... so there's a black background above and on the right of the frame).

The OpenGL issue does not happen everytime (it works fine on my older laptop and issue has been seen on two different computers...)

Windows 7 x64
AGS 3.4.1 + pre-RC3 fix.
Game is 320x200 and displayed at screen resolution.


Edit : another observation about the OpenGL bug. I used TeamViewer to access the PCs with the issue. I tried to switch from fullscreen to windowed mode.
What was visible on the "real" screen : the game stayed in fullscreen, stick to the bottom-left border of the screen, with black bars above and on the left.
What was visible on the TeamViewer screen : the game was in a window... I can even move it and close it by clicking X button...

So it seems the game correctly switches to windowed mode but the screen is not displayed correctly.

It's the same on both PCs...

[Crimson Wizard]

I made an experimental version with separate windowed and fullscreen scaling options in winsetup:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/krukpwznaymhy0t/acwin-3.4.1--pre-rc3.zip?dl=0

I'd really like to know people's opinion on this.
Now there are two options for scaling type called "Fullscreen scale" and "Windowed scale" (also renamed some option names to make them shorter and simplier, IMO). Filter stays one for both (I guess that makes sense).

Also noticed and fixed one bug related to switching from fullscreen. Not sure if that's the one you experienced, NicolaGs, because the symptoms were different, but may be worth to test again.

[NicolaGs]

I tested it.

The "bug" related to switching to windowed mode not being in focus with Software Renderer is fixed.
The bug related to switching to windowed mode not being displayed correctly with OpenGL is still here.

I like the new options for scaling modes. It works fine and looks "cleaner" than the previous behaviour.
The option names seem fine.

[henrikes]

Tested it also, the setup looks and feels right.

The changes from fullscreen to window mode work as i would expect it to work.

One thing i wasn't expecting the fact that now we can resize the window at runtime, unfortunatly it doesnt maintanin aspect ratio

[Crimson Wizard]

One thing i wasn't expecting the fact that now we can resize the window at runtime, unfortunatly it doesnt maintanin aspect ratio

Neither did I... What OS are you running?

[henrikes]

win 10

[NicolaGs]

win 10

I don't see this behaviour in Win 7.

Edit : do you use a software that tweaks windows management ? (some can change some Windows object behaviours like minimizing every window in the tray, add or remove windows buttons...)

[Crimson Wizard]

The bug related to switching to windowed mode not being displayed correctly with OpenGL is still here.

I found something else in the code that restores windowed mode after fullscreen, but not sure if that's even relevant.
I made two versions this time for the testing; there are different arguments that may be passed to system function, but I am not sure if there's even any difference in our case:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/krukpwznaymhy0t/acwin-3.4.1--pre-rc3.zip?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yymp9ufhbj5qvpm/acwin-3.4.1--pre-rc3--variant2.zip?dl=0

(I do not have same bug with OpenGL, so cannot test this issue out directly)

[henrikes]

Here are examples of what Im saying....
Normal one


Resized window


I dont recall the previous version having the maximize button.

Edit : do you use a software that tweaks windows management ? (some can change some Windows object behaviours like minimizing every window in the tray, add or remove windows buttons...)

Not that I know of

[Crimson Wizard]

I dont recall the previous version having the maximize button.

This is something went wrong with the recent fixes I did.

AGS is currently not able to detect when the window size was changed without its consent (because it was believed that resizing is not working well with Allegro 4 library, and also I am not sure if there is a proper way to get operating system notifications through Allegro).
I do not know how it even keeps resizing game image with the window, maybe Windows 10 has a window mode when the resizing window just stretches any image drawn inside? I heard they have something like that on OSX (unless I misunderstood).

In theory I could make AGS test if window size had changed every update and resize the game accordingly... but if it does what I described above, then it probably won't help.

[NicolaGs]

I made two versions this time for the testing; there are different arguments that may be passed to system function, but I am not sure if there's even any difference in our case:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/krukpwznaymhy0t/acwin-3.4.1--pre-rc3.zip?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yymp9ufhbj5qvpm/acwin-3.4.1--pre-rc3--variant2.zip?dl=0

Unfortunately, that does not work .
The first build works like the previous one.
The second build works worse : fullscreen -> window gives a black screen, that isn't recovered by going back to fullscreen (it's only a display issue, so the game still runs, and it's fortunately easy to exit...).

[Crimson Wizard]

I want to give up and release this version. I know so little about OpenGL, that would not even know where to begin looking. I keep spending lots of time inefficiently trying to do things that I have zero expertise in, while I could do something else and get more results.
People around here should really hire someone who knows how to code these things.

AGS should have been moved to SDL2 or Allegro 5 years ago, then all this won't be even required.

[NicolaGs]

I want to give up and release this version.

It's not even an important issue. This shouldn't indeed prevent you to release a new version.

[Crimson Wizard]

I want to give up and release this version.

It's not even an important issue. This shouldn't indeed prevent you to release a new version.

I think it is, because OpenGL and switching modes is part of this release.
I hope it will work for most people for the time being, then someone will find a way to fix remaining problems.

[NicolaGs]

Yes... I meant it's not a bug that prevent AGS to run... it doesn't crash the game and it's not even visible on every computer....

[Crimson Wizard]

Another quick update, now fixed "maximize" button appearing after switching from fullscreen to windowed mode:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/krukpwznaymhy0t/acwin-3.4.1--pre-rc3.zip?dl=0

EDIT: forgot to add separate scaling options to Editor's default setup pane.

Actually, I found (and fixed) that AGS does unnecessary manipulations in winsetup too... the gfx renderer classes are initialized there under hood to read some properties from them, and when they are destroyed they try to "restore" setup window style (thinking it's the game's window) and system's display mode, even though it was never changed.

[cat]

I just upgraded to RC2 that is linked in the first post. First of all: Thank you for your hard work, guys!

I have two questions:

1) I opened and compiled an old game and get the following warning when running the game:
"Warning: this game requests a higher version of AGS script API, it may not run correctly or run at all.
The game itself works just fine, but the message box is annoying.

2) What is the best default graphic driver? Software, D3D, OGL? D3D is default now, but should I choose OGL instead for best compability?

[Crimson Wizard]

1) I opened and compiled an old game and get the following warning when running the game:
"Warning: this game requests a higher version of AGS script API, it may not run correctly or run at all.
The game itself works just fine, but the message box is annoying.

Ahhh, that's one weird bug I was planning to fix, but kept forgetting to. I will try again in following days.

2) What is the best default graphic driver? Software, D3D, OGL? D3D is default now, but should I choose OGL instead for best compability?

I guess this question is for commercial game developers, since they get most feedback on this topic. The only difference I personally noticed is that OpenGL initializes a little slower on my system.
In regards to software driver opinions seem to divide, personally I try not to use it because it runs badly with newest video card/drivers I have. But it is still the only renderer that is 100% compatible with 8-bit games.

[cat]

Ahhh, that's one weird bug I was planning to fix, but kept forgetting to. I will try again in following days.

Is there a quick workaround for this? Is there a version number hidden in one of the game files that I can edit manually to fix it?

I guess this question is for commercial game developers, since they get most feedback on this topic. The only difference I personally noticed is that OpenGL initializes a little slower on my system.

Ok, I'll try OpenGL and see what the testers say.

[Crimson Wizard]

Ahhh, that's one weird bug I was planning to fix, but kept forgetting to. I will try again in following days.

Is there a quick workaround for this? Is there a version number hidden in one of the game files that I can edit manually to fix it?

I think it goes away if you do "Rebuild all files", but that's not confirmed.
The warning itself is related to the variable in compiled data that cannot be fixed by hand (well, technically can be, but you'd need to know exact offset).