Messages

Maybe you should use RemoveWalkableArea(1); and the Restorewalkablearea(1);
I think having the chair as part of Ego's view, not using transparency and toggling walkable areas upon sitting/standing seems the best & easiest way to go.

I'd love to help. I'm particularly inserted in "Barista" because I worked at Starbucks for almost seven years. I don't have the best quality mic in the world, but I already sent my audition, so if that quality works for you, I'd be happy to help with any role.

I started playing around with Kerkythea earlier today. It's way more fun than I thought, but is still very confusing and overwhelming. Here is my first attempt at the same room. It needs a lot of tweaking and it's going to be tricky to learn this rendering software, but it's more likely than me developing artistic talent.

I'm not totally sure I understand what you're trying to do, but let me take a few guesses.
"Any Click" on a hotspot means any click except for walk mode, I'm pretty sure.
When making your intro screen, don't use an intro screen room, use a gui. You'd have more success with using gui buttons instead of hotspots, I think.
Instead of using function room_RepExec() try function game_start() if you're trying to make a title screen. This will only happen once. Or if you're trying to do an intro cutscene inside a room then try function room_Load().

I, perhaps wrongly, was turned off initially by the demo game. Maybe it does address the capabilities and functions controlled by AGS, but I couldn't bring myself to play it very long. I'll look at it again though, if people feel it has educational potential.

[I know it is terrible]

That school was $400 dollars, lol.
I already checked my college to see if they offer Photoshop classes, but you have to have all these stupid art history prerequisites.
The first two images were me trying out different tools, but now I have an honest to god attempt. Now, before you advise suicide, let me acknowledge that I know it is terrible, but a step in the right direction. At this rate, If I can't get any better at this, I'm just gonna leave it flat. But, all good things take time and I'm willing to practice.



I added a new layer that was identical to the first and then reduced it's brightness by 50%. I used an eraser at 50% and lower opacity in order to gradient the light spot on the floor.
I did the same thing to the lantern, but then I added a new layer and started painting yellow and white highlights (with a high opacity) over the brightest spots.
I definitely over did the white on the wall, but I'm not sure how to get the right shape of the gradient. It just looks like squares of light are emerging on both directions of the wall opposed to an orb of light coming from the lantern.
When I tried to draw circles, it just looked like I was painting ON the room instead of IN it (as Lasca pointed out), but both look terrible!
Looking at it now, it could use some smudging to smooth the gradient, but since I used a darker layer, smudging would affect the base layer too. I guess I should be painting on black instead of erasing it?

It's really not an issue of "Not knowing what light looks like in a room" or having "Zero sense of perspective" It's that I don't understand photoshop tools. So, I tried to do what you guys said. Use dodge and burn and layers and transparencies and yellow brushes. I'm not looking for a quick fix. I don't shy away from work at all when I know what I'm doing. Everything I'm doing looks fake and awful. Just ignore my attempts, I'm just trying out techniques. Once I understand the basics of HOW then I can conquer the WHAT.
So, I'm just gonna take this to a photoshop forum.

Now that is a helpful tip. Thank you.

Just start drawing, there is no proper technique to use.

Ok, I tried to add some light and shadows myself and... My god. The horror.
I don't understand how to use dodge and burn over a transparent layer, but I was able to use a transparent yellow for the light source. I'm particularly perplexed by the bright spot Snarky added to the floor. Mine looks embarassing and I don't even want to post it here.

Now, this was about ten minutes of work and about thirty minutes of trying random stuff and undoing it. I know it's terrible, but I'm not sure how to get these tools to work right. How many different layers should I be using? The tools don't stack on each other very well. I feel like each time I release the mouse button I need a new layer. Should I be using only yellow and white paintbrush tools with transparencies?

I'm not sure which is worse! The second one is using transparent brushes of white and yellow using various opacities and the smudge tool. I know this isn't a GIMP help thread, but all the tutorials posted are design suggestions and not technique suggestions. Maybe someone could point me in the right direction?

That picture you did is amazing! Crazy inspiring. I'd like to figure out how to do something like that, rather than relying on Kerkythea, but we'll see how well I can get it to work. I'll definitely check out those tutorials too (when I'm not stuck at college *grumble*). Just out of curiosity, how long did that mock up take you? I think applying some of those techniques manually might be the way to go. Would it be possible to do a little video tutorial showing some of the methods that you used? I absolutely love what you did to it. I understand the core concept of how it should look now, but I'm still not sure of the techniques I need to use.

This is a really cool idea! I hope I'll be able to check in while you're on. Good luck!

I agree that the white looks like smoke, the built in light effects for Gimp are terrible.
I'm trying to make a horror game, so lighting and atmosphere are really important.
The only light source in the room is the candles (It's night, so no window light) but they are candle light bulbs (so they don't flicker).
What do you mean by "Select a main light source"? Are you saying that one lantern will be brighter than the rest?
I haven't actually used any layers to light the image. I tried a few different things, but I'm definitely a graphics noob. I can't seem to find any relevant tutorials online either.
I'll check out Kerkythea tonight. I'm surprised at how hard this is.

I'd like some opinion's on a room and some advice on how to light it.



This is my room. Right now, I use GIMP for pretty much everything, but the lighting effects look very fake and cheesy.



This is the best I've managed to do and I'm not happy with it. What are some of the methods you guys have used to add lighting effects to your rooms?

For 300 sprites per character it should take only 40 minutes or so to replace them all. It doesn't seem too bad considering the tedium of some of the stuff we do. But if you know what views you need, maybe it would be better to quick import all of the sprites into a new folder, rebuild the views and then delete all the old sprites without having to replace them one at a time?

You could make the object either a GUI or an overlay and then change the default transition type to instant and then when changing rooms use your own fade out function that uses another overlay or GUI that is black.
There's a lot of way to solve this problem, I think, but I'm pretty sure that you're gonna need to turn on instant transitions and create your own custom transition function.

Ahh! I thought you were saying that I was defining it incorrectly by placing it at the top of the script. I thought that was creating multiple instances until it eventually reset, but it was actually me using slot1screen.creategraphic over and over.
It makes perfect sense the way you just described it, because like a variable, you are changing it's state by saying what it equals. So it becomes Slot1screen(which has already been defined) = overlay.creatgraphical. This replaces the one instance perfectly. It stays on screen until I manually tell it to leave. Perfect!
I've gone from using GUI buttons, to backgroundgraphic drawing to overlays, but it finally works. Thank both of you so much! I'll cook you pasta any day.

But then it's the same problem as before. Where do I initially define the Overlay? I need to use it in several different functions.
Also, when I type Slot1Screen. all five options pop up in the auto-complete window.

Forgive the double post, but I have a new and similar problem.
I tried using Overlay instead of drawing on background and got this to work beautifully. It reads the image off the disk, resizes it, display it properly and when the player presses the next button, it removes itself. However, the weird thing is I'm not telling it to leave. Just before it does go away, I told it to take a screenshot (updating the file on the disk) and this works, however it updates the screenshot with the old screenshot overlay still on it.

Code: AGS

// main global script file
Overlay* SaveOverlay1;

//Save and Load Functions, this all works
function bSave_OnClick(GUIControl *control, MouseButton button)
{
  if (Game.GetSaveSlotDescription(1)!=null)
  {
DynamicSprite* Slot1Screen=DynamicSprite.CreateFromFile("Slot1Save.pcx");
 if (Slot1Screen==null)
 {
 SaveOverlay1.CreateGraphical(75, 85, 216, true);
 }
     if (Slot1Screen!=null)
     {
     Slot1Screen.Resize(220, 130);
     SaveOverlay1.CreateGraphical(75, 85, Slot1Screen.Graphic, true);
     Slot1Screen.Delete();
     }
  }
  else 
  {
    SaveOverlay1.CreateGraphical(75, 85, 215, true);
  }
gOptionsMenu.Visible=false;
gSave.Visible=true;
gMainMenu.Visible=false;
}

//This function needs to remove the overlay and take a screenshot
function bSaveSlot1_OnClick(GUIControl *control, MouseButton button)
{
gSave.Visible=false;
gMainMenu.Visible=true;
//I want the Overlay to delete here *Deletion Point*
Wait(1);
SaveScreenShot("Slot1Save.pcx");
SaveGameSlot(1, "Save.");
gMainMenu.Clickable = true;
}

Though nothing is currently happening in the *Deletion Point* I have tried using SaveOverlay1.CreateGraphical(0, 0, 0, true); but that does nothing and when I use SaveOverlay1.Remove(); it crashes with a null pointer reference even if I stack them like this:

Code: AGS

SaveOverlay1.CreateGraphical(75, 85, 215, true);
Wait(5);
SaveOverlay1.Remove();

which is crazy because I define it, view it, and then it tells me it doesn't exist. Even Display("Overlay valid before: %d", SaveOverlay1.Valid); causes it to crash with a null pointer reference. Yet, if the script finishes, when it gets back to the top, "main global script file Overlay* SaveOverlay1;" seems to overwrite the image and it disappears. So, it works but not correctly. I can't seem to manually remove the overlay. Maybe I'm defining it at the top of .asc wrong?

Yes, I put them in the .asc file outside of a function, but above the functions that use them. This will only create one instance, right? And is it ok that the drawing surfaces don't get released until the player pushes a GUI button later? This could mean that a couple other functions will run before releasing the drawing surfaces and potentially even trying to create multiples. I can't release the backup drawing surface until it's restored, so it could sit for a while. So it won't get written into the video memory until it's no longer needed, which does make me suspicious.

That's perfect! Thank you. My real problem was that I was trying to reference things outside of the functions they were declared in, plus my not importing them correctly. It works perfectly using the background method of

Code: AGS

DrawingSurface* surface; DrawingSurface* backup;

in the heading and then simply typing surface = whatever in each function (Not having autocomplete threw me off, it didn't look like it had imported) followed by

Code: AGS

surface.DrawSurface(backup); surface.release(); backup.Release();

  in a different function to restore it.

Though, I'm uncertain as to why the Drawingsurface.Release(); and dynamicsprite.Delete(); are necessary. The picture leaves before they load. If there is only one instance of whatever sprite and it's only loaded temporarily while they are in that room, does it really affect memory? My current method doesn't even use dynamicsprite.Delete(); but I think I should stick it in with the Drawingsurface.Release's anyway, just to be safe, but that would mean I'd have to import it in the heading as well.

I'm feeling encouraged now, so I'm going to keep playing and see if I can get it to work as an overlay so that I don't have to transparent the player or worry about objects covering the picture. But so far, when I try to create an overlay and use my dynamicsprite as the int slot AGS says it can't turn dynmicsprite into an int.

However, to be honest, I am still getting confused by what are you trying to do.
For example, you wrote:

Code: ags

 DynamicSprite* Slot1Screen=DynamicSprite.CreateFromFile("Slot1Save.pcx");
 if (Slot1Screen==null)
 {
 DrawingSurface *surface = Slot1Screen.GetDrawingSurface();
 surface.DrawImage(75, 85, 216, 0, 215, 130);
 surface.Release();
 }

Here, you check if Slot1Screen was not loaded (== null), but then use it to get DrawingSurface. This will cause game to crash, because you can't do anything with an object, which is null.

I was trying so many different things that it did get left in there, but once I got it working I switched it to this:

Code: AGS

DynamicSprite* Slot1Screen=DynamicSprite.CreateFromFile("Slot1Save.pcx");
 if (Slot1Screen==null)
 {
 surface = Room.GetDrawingSurfaceForBackground();
 backup = surface.CreateCopy();
 surface.DrawImage(75, 85, 216, 0, 215, 130); //This pulls from an error message sprite instead of the .pcx file
 }

I apologize, that code that I posted was totally wrong, it became a mess as I was trying new things I didn't fully understand. I'm a trial and error learner. Thanks for being so helpful!