Topics

We have an open source editor and engine, yet to date we only have an OS X runtime.

Is there anyone out there who also feels that the runtime is really only half the gem when it comes to a hardware-specific platform.
The thing I love about Apple gear is it's incredibly low-maintenance, inter-component stability at the factory level, and it runs one of the most practical to use OS's I've experienced since XP.

Working on a Macbook Pro is one thing, developing my game on it while flying from one end of the globe to the other is to be a treasured experience.
I can't surely be the only mate here with Apple gear who's torn between BootCamp, AGS game making lust, a Lion from the mountain, and an impossibly dark void inside the soul that can only be filled with a noble porting exercise.

JJS, Crimson, Electroshokker, Anyone interested in opening up a Mac branch for the editor?

[To recreate exactly:]

Game will not compile a bunch of critical functions are beneath a script with an open chunk of commented code.

To recreate exactly:
Create a script above your GlobalScript and put the following code in the header:

Code: ags

/*

Compile and... error!
I would imagine that the header i supposed to handle comment code identically to the general (asc) script.

Hey, if anyone would like a copy of the latest revision of both the SCUMMC and Glumol repositories, I have religiously maintained them here.
If any of you think it might be useful... I don't know ...for some kind of personal SCUMMâ,,¢ integration, or the like, then let me know and I'll re-host them on my own server and award you read access.

Cheers,
Sparky.

[Update:]

Hey folks,

I created a new suite of graphics for open-source AGS and would like to share them with you here in exchange
for feedback so that I can integrate them into a new revision.

Spent a long time thinking hard over the design, so please let me know if you think any of these new AGS branding
styles fit comfortably with our modern development pipeline:


Update: Okay, so I've reached a point where I wanted to accommodate the best of both previous designs into
a single one that everybody is universally happy with, but also add additional improvements as well.
I've decided to drop the white (because it was washing out the lovely blue of our cup) secondly the black was too...
well...black and I know a lot of you folks weren't too fond of the black PSP look.

So I've taken the design to a place a little closer to home. The blue is subtle enough, but lends itself to the cup and
the common AGS color scheme. Along with this, I've tidied nearly every edge, right down to the pixel and refined the
clarity considerably.

Sure am keen to hear what you guys think.  

The brand new program splash screen:


The actual splash graphic without the dynamic text to be added in Visual Studio:


New Game Wizard update:




Welcome banner:




And again, without the version branding:




Improved "New Game" banner: (8bit BMP)




And finally, the brand new program icon:




If the majority of you wanna go for it, I'll commit the bitmaps to the SVN in place of the originals.

Cheers,
Sparky.


Edit: The actual splash won't have the build number or the date of the copyright embedded in the image.
This data will be drawn as actual text over the splash on launch. I will commit the PSD, also.

[GOOD NEWS ADVENTURERS!]

GOOD NEWS ADVENTURERS!

Paul (subspark) at Screen 7 with the generous help of JJS and his wonderful PSP AGS Runtime, has ported the latest build of Indiana Jones and the Fountain of Youth to Sony's handheld device.
Enjoy the entire introduction sequence for the first time running natively on the PSP 3000 hardware.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7pFq4O3l_s


EASTER FIGHTER RELEASED!

We at Screen 7 are also proud to remind you of our 2011 new year's release, version 1.2 of the memorable Fountain of Youth Demo.

Along with some revised graphics, its most important feature is a hidden easter-egg that served to reveal a much greater release would arrive for Easter!
May we at Screen 7 proudly present:

The Indiana Jones Easter Arcade Beat-em-up!

• Challenge your friends in a 2 player match!
  
• Choose between two awesome characters. Indy and Heinrich!
  
  
  Get your fighting gear on, folks and step into the early stages of the full game's smack-out fighting system!
  Grab yourself a pair of boxing gloves and take our your Post-Easter aggression over at the Extras section now!
  
  If your not into knocking brain cells out so much, and more into preserving them, Screen 7 invites you to locate the hidden easter egg in our New Year's special edition of the Indiana Jones and the Fountain of Youth Demo.
     
  
  Cheers,
  Paul.

[0:00]

Hey there folks,
I'm having a bit of difficulty fading things in at the right time.

Put basically into a timeframe of seconds:

0:00 TitleParent fades in
0:20 TitleChild fades in
1:20 TitleChild fades out
1:50 TitleChild fades back in with new .graphic and .x properties.
2:50 TitleChild fades out
2:70 TitleParent fades out
2:80 ChangeRoom

I hope that makes enough sense.

Thanks in advance.
Sparky.

[Now my big issue:]

Hey guys, I have this annoying issue with button sounds and GUIS.

First off, I have a gMainMenu which comprises of a series of buttons that show up in room 2 (the menu screen).
Now I have this check for the speech.vox file like so:

Code: ags

if ((IsSpeechVoxAvailable() == 0) {
//show warning gui
}

I have set up the message so that you click the mouse down to hide it.

Now my big issue:
The problem is that if you click down to hide gMessage GUI where the gMainMenu lies behind, when you release again, the mouseUp sounds linked to the buttons on gMainMenu play.
I still want all the hilighting going on with these buttons when the mouse is still down after clicking away gMessage but I just want to avoid their mouseUp sounds in this one case.

In Repeatedly_Execute_Always in Global Script:

Code: ags

  if (gMessage.Visible == true) // If the message window is visible
  {
    if ((mouse.IsButtonDown(eMouseLeft) == true) || (IsKeyPressed(eKeyEscape) == true)) // If the player hits escape or left clicks mouse
    {
      if (lblMessage.Text == "The game's ~Speech Pack~ is MISSING! Subtitles have been ~enabled~.") // If the message is about a missing speech pack
      {
        dlgOption=2;
        lDialogOptions.Text="Subtitles Only";
        SubtitleSpeedLabel.TextColor=48429;
        bSubtitleSpeed.Enabled=true;
        lDialogOptions.Text="Subtitles Only";
        bSubtitleSpeed.NormalGraphic=865;
        SetVoiceMode(eSpeechTextOnly);
      }
      else // If the message is about something else
      {
      // do somthing different
      }
      // Disable The Message
      lblMessage.Text = "NULL";
      lblMessageShadow.Text = lblMessage.Text;
      // Re-Enable Menu Buttons
      if (IsLoadFrozen()) UnfreezeLoadGame();
      if (IsSaveFrozen()) UnfreezeSaveGame();
      if (IsMenuFrozen()) UnfreezeMainMenu();
      gMessage.Visible = false;               // close the message box and
      gDarken.Visible = false;
      lblMessage.Text = "NULL";
      lblMessageShadow.Text = "NULL";
      UnfreezeMainMenu();  // re-enable all buttons in  gMainMenu
    }
    // otherwise re-enable clicking in the main menu
    else {}
  }

Any help would be kindly appreciated. Also if you need any more code to try and figure out what some of the functions are doing, please let me know and I will supply it.

Cheers,
Sparky.

Hey guys,

I was trying to add a counter for players so that they must grab 2/2 items before proceeding. Once the last of the two items is collected you can no longer return back the way you came. There is no enforced specific order in which the items should be collected either which is why a simple counter should suffice.
Having said that, I'm having difficulty writing the code for it.

I've tried:

Code: ags

ChamberItemCounter +1;

...and also tried:

Code: ags

ChamberItemCounter = +1;

But all this returns an error.

I'm too uncertain to use:

Code: ags

ChamberItemCounter++;

because I'm not sure if that will keep counting and crash the game?

I know this sounds stupid. I just need a push in the right direction.

Thanks in advance, guys!
Sparky.

I would love to see a new writable property for hotspots that allow us to change their description properties during runtime.
I could have sworn this was already a well implemented feature but unfortunately for me, I was misinformed.

How I see it working is like so:

Code: ags

hDoor.SetDescription("locked door");

or perhaps even,

Code: ags

hDoor.SetDescription = "locked door";

Cheers,
Sparky.

[TopScalingLevel]

I suggest an improved scaling system for walkable areas. AGS's image based system is flexible, lightweight and easy to use. An additional tool that honors these qualities would be ideal.

I believe a gradient solution would fit these criteria. Being able to add angled gradients to walkable areas and possibly regions (continuous lighting updates?) would be a great tool for both advanced users and beginners alike.

At the least, I would like to be able to reverse the scaling values of the continuous scaling feature so that arbitrary numbers between 5 & 100 can be used to create an easy downhill scaling effect. In this case, I also would suggest that the label of the scaling value fields be changed to something more appropriate, like: TopScalingLevel & BottomScalingLevel.

Cheers,
Sparky.

[Close hotspot]

We're having a great deal of trouble with verbs in the events pane being mis-aligned to the verbs in the script.
For instance, in the events pane of a hotspot, if I choose Close hotspot, in the script it will turn up as function hHotspot1_Mode8()
If I chose Open hotspot from the events pane, in the script it will read, function hHotspot1_PickUp()

My mouse modes are preferablly as follows:
0 = WalkTo
1 = LookAt
2 = PickUp
3 = Use
4 = Unused
5 = Open
6 = TalkTo
7 = Push
8 = Close
9 = Give
10 = Pull

Any ideas for what in hark is going on here?

Cheers,
Sparky.

Okay, it seems AGS is limited to writing files to a user's Save Games directory.
While this is fabtastic for save game files, we have resource data that we want to seperate and hide from user save data.

I would certainly appreciate support for some of the common shell directories other game engines are using.
For example: http://savelocations.wikia.com/wiki/Shell_Folders#Personal

Basically put, we don't want our users tangling up our game data with their save data and making use of these stock standard shell paths makes sense to those of us who are wrting custom resource files.

Cheers,
Sparky.

I'm tired of fumbling my way around manual baseline coords. I'd like to be able to set them by clicking on the background. The same goes for WalkToPoints.
I suggest a couple of new buttons be added to the RoomEditor toolset to allow this once again.

Cheers,
Sparky.

[1]

While I'm not going to post all my code in here (too long), I've got a great module for Footstep Sounds that can be changed dynamically per region & per room.
What I can't change easily is the volume of these footstep sets. I've got three sounds.
1 = the stopping sound (Idle). 2 = walking variation A. 3 = walking variation B. I'll be adding more sounds to this variation later on.

I suggest properties become avaliable for regions so we can assign things like dynamic volume adjustments for footsteps based on character location etc.
There are other benefits of this idea pointed out below.

Cheers,
Sparky.

Okay. I admit it! I don't have a clue how the new audio system works. But for what I want to do with it, the system seems counter-intuitive.

I have a list of footstep sounds that I want to change the volume of based on which room the player is in.

Code: ags

function repeatedly_execute_always ( ) 
{
  AudioClip *idle;
  AudioClip *regularA;
  AudioClip *regularB;

  if(player.Room==4)
  {
    idle=aFootstep_dirt_B_stop;
    regularA=aFootstep_dirt_B_walk;
    regularB=aFootstep_dirt_B_walk;
  }
etc, etc, etc.

However, how am i supposed to change the volume of a collection of specific sounds (footsteps) if you have to play the sound before you can set the channel's volume. DOH! I just don't get it.

Do I write something like this?

Code: ags

  AudioChannel *FS_IDLE_ROOM4 = aFootstep_dirt_B_stop & aFootstep_dirt_B_walk_1 & aFootstep_dirt_B_walk_2 & aFootstep_dirt_B_walk_3;
  FS_IDLE_ROOM4.Volume = 25;

I'm totally confused with the whole channel thing right now and the help file does nothing to make sense of it.
I would appreciate it if someone could explain it to me in english.
Cheers guys and sorry for sounding completely fresh. It's just the audio I swear!

Sparky.

We have a text field that is a certain width that it only allows letters that dont exceed a 2 pixel gap from the border of our text box. We have a blinking cursor that we want to turn off on the last character stroke.

Is there anyway we can intercept the function that decides when to cull a character based on its relative width? For instance an "M" will be culled where an "N" will not.

Thanks in advance,
Sparky.

I think we should have the ability to change the way text boxes appear.
For one, theres an automatic limit on the length of the textbox depending on the width of the item.

Something like

Code: ags

int TextBox.MaxChar

would make it easier to build more sophisticated save/load screens for example.

Another thing that bothers the hell outta me is the old DOS style underscore that leads the input.
If this could be toggled off, we could write out own system like a blinking vertical line or something.

Anyway, just a few ideas.

Cheers,
Sparky.

As the title suggests. We're making an awesome dynamic save/load system and like many others, we have reached the limit of 30.

Increasing this limit to 50 would solve our issue however I don't really know why there still is a limit on GUI controls. They certainly must be less expensive than the infinite amount of GUIs that can be created.

Cheers,
Sparky.

I've done a few tests in AGS with windows mouse acceleration on and off.
It seems the windows setting has no effect on AGS or perhaps AGS itself has it's own internal mouse acceleration?

One simple test is to compile a high-rez game and move the mouse slowly from one end of your mouse pad to the other, measuring how far the cursor goes. Then flick your mouse from one end of your mouse pad to the other as fast as you can and see how much further the cursor goes flying.

More of an observation than anything else but I really would like to get to the bottom of this so that I can figure out how to disable the effect for finer control over our games. Particuarily low-res ones.

Cheers,
Sparky.

As the title suggests, AGS should ditch the ugly black void of space behind our otherwise beautiful alpha-blended inv icons. 
Sparky.