AGS 2.56d Final is released!

[Pumaman]

Right well, there were a few minor problems with 2.56, so I thought it was worthwhile releasing a new build to correct them.

ONLY COMMENTS AND BUG REPORTS ABOUT THIS RELEASE IN THIS THREAD. PLEASE DO NOT POST SUGGESTIONS IN THIS THREAD.

Changes since v2.56 Final:
* Added GetScalingAt text script function.
* Fixed Lucasarts-style speech being wrongly offset when character is near to the edge of the screen.
* Fixed editor crash if you pressed Find Next while auto-complete was displayed.
* Changed the way region tints work, to make them more useful.
* Added RawDrawRectangle text script function.
* Added game.anim_background_speed to allow you to modify the speed at which the animated backgrounds rotate.
* DisplaySpeechAt with Sierra-style speech doesn't shrink text box.
* FaceLocation with "turn to face" now works in Enters Screen event.
* Increased max fonts to 15.
* Fixed region tint in 15-bit colour.
* Fixed crash if the player typed [ or ] into the text parser.
* Fixed region tints not being saved in save games.
* Fixed region light levels messing up in editor.
* Documented custom properties.

Full changelog since v2.55:
* Added GetCharacterProperty, GetCharacterPropertyText, GetHotspotProperty, GetHotspotPropertyText, GetInvProperty, GetInvPropertyText, GetObjectProperty, GetObjectPropertyText, GetRoomProperty, GetRoomPropertyText, ListBoxRemove, SetCharacterBlinkView, SetGUIObjectPosition, SetGUISize, SetRegionTint and StrContains script functions.
* Added Custom Properties to allow you to easily specify options for hotspots, characters, rooms, objects and inventory.
* Added option for characters speed to be adjusted in line with their scaling level.
* Added option to display multiple inventory items multiple times.
* Added option to have the text parser with dialog options, so that the player can either select an option or type something in.
* Added RGB tint option for regions as an alternative to light level.
* Added "Quick Import FLC frames" to import all frames from a FLC file in one go to the current sprite folder.
* Implemented multiple select for dragging and deleting sprites in the sprite manager.
* Added "Update translation file" option, to add new lines from the game to the translation source, whilst leaving currently translated bits intact.
* Added options to translation files, to allow changing font and text direction on a per-translation basis.
* Added preliminary support for right-to-left text writing.
* Added ability to delete sprite folders (USE WITH CARE!!)
* Added "Lock objects in position" checkbox to the GUI editor, to stop you accidentally moving objects when trying to select them.
* Added extra "Blinking" view to draw an extra animation on top of the character's speech animation intermittently while they are talking. Currently Sierra-style speech only.
* Added 'goto-previous' dialog script command to return to previous topic, and 'lose-inv' command to lose the player inventory.
* Added new "Box out" and "Crossfade" screen transitions.
* Added option for characters to turn to face their new direction when using FaceLocation/FaceCharacter.
* Added "Persistent" GUI display option, to not remove it during a cutscene with "GUIs turn off when disabled".
* Added "Auto number speech lines" to automatically give a number to all speech lines in the game.
* Added feature to detect hung scripts and abort the game (for example, scripts like while (1) { } )
* Added ability to export/import the text parser word list.
* Added MIDI controller event support, so that MIDI commands such as sustain will now work.
* Sierra-style speech now shrinks the width of the text window if the text is narrower than the screen width.
* Text parser now accepts ' and - characters, and automatically accepts plurals of all words (ie. an 's' on the end).
* Added ability to change sprite numbers in the Sprite Manager.
* Increased max sprite folders to 500.
* Increased max sprites to 15000.
* Increased max dialog topics to 500.
* Increased max cursors to 20 (though the new ones will only activate the Any Click event at present).
* Script editor is no longer a modal window (but only if it's not opened from the interaction editor).
* Changing a hotspot name now correctly marks the room as modified.
* Sprite manager now remembers which folder you were in before when selecting new item graphics.
* SetPlayerCharacter now changes the mouse cursor if an inventory item of the old character was active.
* Disabled auto-complete in the dialog script editor.
* Fixed Enters Screen Before Fadein not being run if the NewRoom was launched from an inventory interaction.
* Fixed normal mouse cursor flashing up in between messages when Always Display As Speech was being used.
* Fixed Sierra-style speech box overrunning the face if it had wide borders.
* Fixed set-speech-view dialog command not working.
* Fixed buttons in default inventory screen being drawn without transparency.
* Fixed dialog bullet getting set even if you pressed ESC.
* Fixed animated backgrounds sharing the palette, even when you told them not to. You'll need to re-import the main background in any problem rooms for this fix to take effect.
* Fixed thinking view not being exported with character.
* Fixed RunAGSGame not resetting game paused flags.
* Fixed RunAGSGame not working if mode was passed as 1.
* Fixed Rebuild VOX Files to delete the music.vox if there were previously music files, but no longer are any.
* Fixed SetSoundVolume not taking effect with footstep sounds.
* Fixed editor crash if "function" was the last word in a script.
* Fixed "player.inv[index]--;" also decrementing inv[index+1]
* Fixed SetPlayerCharacter crashing if called from game_start.
* Fixed dialog options moving across the screen in non-GUI mode.
* Fixed editor crash typing >200 characters into a label.
* Fixed text window GUI being used for dialog options instead of the specified Dialog Options GUI.
* Fixed GUI button text not being translated if the button also had an image.
* Fixed HideMouseCursor not hiding cursor while message displayed.
* Fixed FollowCharacter crash when stopping char from following.
* Fixed problem with translations where \" had been used in a string.
* Fixed dividing by zero in the script causing a fatal exception.
* You are now always prompted to save changes to a room when loading another one - the Preferences setting only affects the prompt when you choose the "Save Room" option on the menu.

http://www.cj7.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ags_256d.zip

[Fuzzpilz]

ATTACK OF THE MIRROR MEN

[Vel]

 :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o

[Spyros]

Thanks Puma "This will become the official version on the website in a few days if no bugs are found" man.

[Gilbert]

What's the difference from aRC1? Just more bug fixes?

[Pumaman]

Thanks for the mirror, Fuzz

Gilbert: The only difference is a fix for the bug that eVOLVE reported about the light levels messing up in the editor.

[eVOLVE]

* eVOLVE bows... Great features though Chris, we're alll impressed!

[edmundito]

* eVOLVE bows... Great features though Chris, we're alll impressed!

WE? I'm not.

[Pumaman]

WE? I'm not.

Well then, NO SOUP FOR YOU!!

[Vel]

CJ: Possible bug: lucas-styled speech sometimes is not displayed above the head of the character with the "DisplaySpeech" command.

[Broncomatic]

I didn't tested it, but it's great.

[Pumaman]

CJ: Possible bug: lucas-styled speech sometimes is not displayed above the head of the character with the "DisplaySpeech" command.

Can you be more specific about this? When doesn't it work?

[Vel]

It always works, but sometimes the speech is displayed in the left/right of the character insted of above his head.

[Pumaman]

Can you post a screenshot of what you mean?

It is still above his head, but to the left, or is it too far down?

Is the character close to a screen edge (in which case the text will have to be shifted across to make it fit on the screen)?

Is this a new problem or has it always happened?

[Vel]

CJ, it is still above his head, though a bit higher than before.
It doesnt matter whether the character is close to a screen endge.
and, FINALLY, I think I know what causes this problem: The speech appears where character's TRANSPARECY ends, and sometimes this is higher than needed.

[Pumaman]

and, FINALLY, I think I know what causes this problem: The speech appears where character's TRANSPARECY ends, and sometimes this is higher than needed.

This has always been the case - AGS doesn't go down the sprite image and check where the transparency ends because that would be too slow at run-time. If this is a problem, you'll need to re-import the image but don't leave any transparent space at the top. Sorry.

It works only if you're working on DOS game.

If you run a Windows game in a window, you can also use print screen.

[SSH]

and, FINALLY, I think I know what causes this problem: The speech appears where character's TRANSPARECY ends, and sometimes this is higher than needed.

This has always been the case - AGS doesn't go down the sprite image and check where the transparency ends because that would be too slow at run-time. If this is a problem, you'll need to re-import the image but don't leave any transparent space at the top. Sorry.

Maybe there could be a variable for each character that sets their text display height relative to the default position?

[Moresco]

Since nobody else has yet mentioned this, I will do so as my very first post.  In this release, in the About window, it states the date of creation as July.  This is an August release?  Just thought I'd give a heads up. Peace,

-Moresco

[ZZjZmoz]

So totally, totally awesome, puma.

Just because I want to, I am going to write a motto for AGS v2.56a.

"The all-new AGS v2.56a. Now, you only need to cut off half of your balls to make a game." How does that sound?

[Edward Becket]

Thanks... thanks for this great program and for all these updates.
I still not believe that is a free software...    

[LucasFan]

I think there is a bug. When a character is near the room edge, its speech isn't centred over its head. It's more in the middle of the room. I'm using v2.56a. I don't have that problem with AGS 2.55.

[Vel]

Yes, thats what I mean too chris.

[Ghost]

Isn't that caused by the text (being centre-aligned) being put somewhere where the longest text line can be displayed close to the upper middle part of the chara screen? I take care that there are 2 "clear" pixels above my characters heads, and that works okay 8 times out of 10.

More important: Mr. Jones, you deserve a statue. I found AGS on giga.de (very old version), then gave your homepage a visit and was hooked. I always loved adventure games (being 28, the infocom classics were among the first games I played, together with Monkey Island 1 and Zak). AGS is, in my opinion, an unbeliveable project- it always gets a bit better, a bit more comfortable, a bit more user-friendly, it has very few bugs and is still free sotware. In a world where most programs are rather expensive and are thrown on the market, using us as beta testers, your Adventure Game Studio is an uncommon delight.

Sounds schmaltz? Dang it, this program rocks! Mr. Jones, name a foodstuff of your choice and I will personally build your statue out of it!

[static]

The wrong text alignement(poor eng) has not
happened before. I have the game and the screens
to prove it. While working on my project I made a
back-up a long time ago. Now that back-up will prove
that AGS ver.2.56 has a TEXT problem.

In the old version the text is aligned just above my
character (and the other character)and everything's fine.

But in the new version: (no tricks, if needed I'll send
the opensource ver of the game*)


*obviously, only that room and only the two characters
involved will be provided due to several reasons.

For more info just ask.

Chris nice new version, but is there a way to go back
to the old one? I really need the game done soon and
with this text-bug-thingy I can't present it.
(Did I mention that this does not occur in AGS 2.55?:)

[Pumaman]

Heh, funny isn't it - v2.56 was in beta for almost two months, and yet these bugs never seem to get spotted until it's too late. *sigh*

Yes, there is a bug with the positioning of lucasarts-style text. I'll probably have to release a v2.56b to fix it, since it is quite a serious flaw.

Since nobody else has yet mentioned this, I will do so as my very first post. In this release, in the About window, it states the date of creation as July. This is an August release?

Hehe, the lengths some people will go to to find a bug

[Pumaman]

Okay, a fixed build, 2.56b is now available (see the first post in this thread).

Please download it and check that it fixes the bug (and doens't break anything else ) then I'll slap it on the website.

Thanks for the bug reporting, people.

[static]

The bug is still there. Just to prove it...



The gray text(Huh?) is greenthingy's speech.

[Pumaman]

Are you absolutely sure you're using the new version?

Press Ctrl+V in-game - what version number does it print out?

2.56b definately fixes the problem for me.

[LucasFan]

Works fine for me, too. Thx a lot Chris.

[static]

Ctrl-V displays:
2.56.625

[Scorpiorus]

Hello, CJ

Quintaros found a bug where the mouse cursor disappears after some of the screen transitions: http://www.agsforums.com/yabb/index.php?board=6;action=display;threadid=8305

-Cheers

[Pumaman]

Ctrl-V displays:
2.56.625

Ah sorry, the problem still happens if the character doesn't have a talking view. Please download v2.56c (updated link in the first post) which should hopefully finally resolve this pesky bug.


Scorpiorus: Sorry, but if it's not a new bug introduced in 2.56, could you please post it in a new thread. I really don't want to make any more changes to 2.56 as I'd like to release it as soon as possible.

[Scorpiorus]

Strange, the bug seems not to be gone. Here is a test template I made in v256c. Just walk to the left/right edges of the screen. Occurs in both dos and win versions at any resolution.

Oh, and one more minor bug with the using of text parser in dialogs. It doesn't refresh the text box if Anti-alias TTF fonts option is off.

EDIT:
I've also tried to display the dialog options using a separate GUI and it doesn't refresh no matter what the anti-alias font setting is.

Btw, choosing the user input text calls the dialog_request() function. I don't know whether it's mentioned in the manual. Oh, it is there, I have found it just now.

-Cheers

[Pumaman]

Arg you're right, the bug still affects DisplaySpeechBackground.

Right, v2.56d is up, which hopefully will finally fix this once and for all.

I think I need a vacation.

[Scorpiorus]

Right, v2.56d is up, which hopefully will finally fix this once and for all.

It works like a charm, Chris! Thank you very much!

I think I need a vacation.

Version 2.56 has a really long change-list and took much time to tune it up. We highly appreciate your work on AGS, CJ. Have a happy vacation, if you'll decide to!

~Cheers

[SSH]

I'd like to point out another bug, just to wind up CJ, but unfortunately I can't find any right now.

*SSH gives CJ an asprin

[Hobbes]

It's cool!

But, now the Lucasarts style speech gets into the four-lines variety.

Now, my memory is a bit dusty at this point. Did this happen before? I can't seem to recall it. It makes for rather cumbersome reading though, imho.

Screenshot to illustrate:

[Pumaman]

Actually yes, that's deliberate.

As part of the fix, I adjusted it a bit so that it better centres the text over the character's head.

Before, if the character was standing close to the screen edge, you could get the text stretching across a long way, and it looked rather odd. Now, if they're close to the edge, it shrinks the text width to make it more central over the character.

I'd like to point out another bug, just to wind up CJ, but unfortunately I can't find any right now.

LOL

[Monk]

DAMN YOU CJ! you rocks! this is all what i need in life!  

[Gilbert]

Pumaman, actually I think these a, b, c, d things are a bit misleading, as people may think there're new features, in my opinion SR1, SR2, etc. seems to suit better in these released (like in some of the old versions, though it's a bit M$ish ).

[Paranoia]

something weird happened, i was using help while using the editor, so i was switching windows, i tested the game, quit come back and it showed the help on the task bar but it wouldn't open the window, i shut help down, tryed again still no window, after the pc was shutdown it worked fine, its probably my screwy pc rather than the editor but i thought i'd mention it
running XP btw ...just updating to ags_256d

[Gilbert]

The help file is nothing other than an M$ reader .CHM file, so it's probably just the everyday hangup of the M$ IE browser.

[Paranoia]

yeah thats what i figured, it did it on the updated version too, i should get the all the updates but whenever i do little problems turn into bigger ones!
XP+oldish PC's doesn't mix!

[Scummbuddy]

why is this and the linuxpost no longer a sticky? Did I miss something?

[jannar85]

Because the official version has been released.
Check www.agsforums.com

[Pumaman]

As jannar says, new release threads are only sticky until the release is made official and put on the website. Sticky threads in this forum are only used to show newer versions not available from the website.