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Sorry for the late reply. Here's one of the functions. I have this section with personality cartridges which can be switched between a couple robots which makes the robots go through the same speeches based on the cartridge. This is the shortest such function. Commenting all of these out fixed the unknown character error, but still gave me the zero content file. I've already got what I need out of that add-on, but I hope this helps!

Code: ags

function cartclose(GUI* closeme, CartLocations ct, Character* bot)
{
      if (!chk_flag(l4tracker, l4botboom) && (which_cart(ct) == 0))
      {
        bot.Say("Personality cartridge[not found![ [ ");
        bot.Say("Defaulting to[self-destruct mode in...[ [ ");
        bot.SayBackground("10...");
        cyclecount2 = 10;
        l4tracker = add_flag(l4tracker, l4botboom);
        cyclecount = 0;
        return;
      }
      if (chk_flag(l4tracker, l4botboom))
      {
        cOva.Say("I better just put this back first,[rather than try to outrun an explosion[in heels.");
        cOva.ActiveInventory = carts[carttaken].inv;
        closeme.Visible = true;
        mouse.Mode = eModeUseinv;
        closeme.ProcessClick(closeme.X+1, closeme.Y+1, eMouseLeft);
      }
      closeme.Visible = false;  
}

It generates an unknown character error, as it can't find a char named after the pointer I used in the functions. That said, it doesn't seem to matter, since even if I delete the functions entirely, I get no error messages but get an empty file.

I will check out the plugin, thanks!

Hi!

The voice actor script export isn't working for me.

First, it gags on my functions that use a pointer to assign speech to the passed character. But if I create a placeholder character with that name to avoid the unknown character error, it appears to function normally, declares success, but the file is only the very first line, the one that says:

*** All text lines, in order of appearance in the scripts ***

Even I outright delete the offending functions rather than make a placeholder char, it only gives me a 1kb file with that first line.

Thanks in advance!

I want a character's sprite to be overlaid with an animated energy effect akin to old cable TV static, but one that is dynamically masked to their body so the static effect plays uninterrupted regardless of what the char is doing. Feels like there should be a way to do this using the char's current graphic as a dynamic sprite mask but I'm not even sure where to start.

Mask resolution is 1:1.

I did try release, but I thought once released I couldn't use it again and would need to declare a whole new surface with a different name, like merging an object with the background.

At any rate, the version I made with the objects works and allowed me to have them move in a different way that works better. Thanks for all the help though!

room is 1280x800. I have it working now. I bypassed tweens and moves altogether and just handled all the movement directly in a loop.

the original version using the draw surface looked like this:

oLad1.Graphic = 978;
oLad1.SetPosition(39, 19);
oLad1.Move(51, 559, 5, eNoBlock, eAnywhere);
DrawingSurface *surface = Room.GetDrawingSurfaceForBackground();

while(oLad1.Moving)
{
  L++;
  if (L == 9) //puts rungs 45 pixels apart
  {
    surface.DrawImage(oLad1.X, oLad1.Y, 978);
    L = 0;
  }
  Wait(1);
}

Moves the first rung like it's supposed to be the others aren't drawn in til it exists room_afterfadein

>First of all, in order to update the game screen the script should return to the engine.
If you are doing something in a loop, then call Wait(1) to let engine update and render.

I tried that and it didn't work. The function doing this is afterfadein.

I've got my array of objects doing ALMOST what I want, but new problem!

I'm using object.Move to animate them sliding along the rails, from 39,24 to 51,554, no block, eanywhere... but it doesn't go in a straight line. It goes MOSTLY straight but then has to correct with a 6 pixel jump right at the end, which ruins the effect. I guess I'm going to have to use a linear tween.

Is move only capable of straight lines if the ratio of x travel to y travel works out to an integer?

I tried it with the drawing surface and it works really well except for one thing... it doesn't update the surface til it exits the function its in, so it draws all the rungs at once.

Then I tried it with overlays but the issue there is I can't do it with a while loop. With the idea to move the rung and drop a copy of it every 50 pixels along a line:

oRung.Move(100,700,5,eNoBlock, eAnywhere);
L+= 10;
while (oRung.Moving)
{
  Overlay* OL1 = Overlay.CreateGraphical(oRung.X, oRung.Y + 21, 978);
  L = 0;
}

I'd need to be able to put them in an array.

But objects are already in an array.

So either I do it with objects or move the surface drawing function to rep-exec for the room. Hmmm...

Thanks for the help (and, indeed, ALL your help!) I think I'll try the drawing surface just to learn how to use it but if I don't get it within an hour, resort to objects.

What I wanted to avoid was having to deal with making 18 additional objects in the editor, honestly. Possibly skill issue on my part, I admit, but I find myself wishing I could just declare a bunch of objects in script.

Here's a bit more detail:
This is for an access ladder on the side of a spaceship. Initially, it is just two rails, with the rungs able to slide up and down the rails but all clustered at the top of the rail, out of reach. Once activated, the rungs move down the rails as a cluster, with each rung stopping at its designated location. So I need to be able to move a "rung cluster" sprite along a path, "dropping off" an individual rung sprite every n pixels. Once in place, they stay there, and the placement is always the same.

Easy enough to do with objects, but there's 18 of them so I thought I'd see if there was a more efficient way.

I did look at drawing surfaces. I guess I would use DrawImage to place the sprites, but there doesn't seem to be a way to move a sprite within a drawing surface, so I guess I would have to erase and redraw? So maybe the clustered rungs, the moving part, have to be a separate object, and I use DrawImage to drop a rung sprite at certain locations as that object moves?

The effect needs to be permanent, but as long as it plays correctly once, I can replace it with a static sprite when the player leaves, since the arrangement of these things is always the same.

Hiya!

Need to do something similar to footprints where repeated copies of a sprite are left permanently across the screen. It's not actually footprints, but that was the best analogy I could think of. Something moving along and leaving sprites in its wake that stay where they're put.

Is there a way to do this with drawing surfaces or dynamicsprites or something that will save me making an object for each 'footprint' or something like that?

I was initially thinking merge into background, but that also deletes the object.

This is not a regular "missing loop" error, this is a unhandled exception in the engine, which must not happen.

I have gotten this error from missing loops, or at least, similar situations with facedirection which were all fixed by addressing the loop issue. In fact I don't think I've ever seen a missing loop error, just this.

A character only had a right-facing idle but can face left or right to talk. If I talked to her from the left while idling, it called facedirection to turn her left and I got an unhandled exception. I'll start documenting those if I see more.

every time this has happened to me its because the character is using a view that doesn't have an up loop

walk can live with that, face can't

Is there a way to get room objects or chars to show over-top of guis, short of making them into other guis or buttons on the same gui?

I'm using an object to animate my character's hand pushing buttons on several screens but one of them uses gui buttons for health bars (essentially) and they show over top of the hand.

Yes. The text always reads "Judgeytron 4000 - scanning".

Can't reproduce. May have already fixed it and just don't remember. Tidied up the code in that room anyway.

Added some hotspot hitboxes to the keycards.

If you would like, please let me know how you'd like to be listed in the credits

[/quote]

Very nice work. This is a lot to show for two months of effort.

After about a half hour of testing, I would say this is a fun, good looking game.

The interact cursor hotspot in the center feels a little off to me, I would prefer the finger tips be the active spot of the hand icon.

There are some walkable areas that could be touched up, such as next to the empty podium and trying to enter the gift shop using keyboard movements.

I don't think it's necessary to display a message "keyboard movement switched to arrows/wasd" when the other is used.

Overall, this feels like a great game with healthy portions of originality and homage to the past.

Unless dingo's kidneys look great, this does not look like that. I'd say full steam ahead!

Thank you! I guess I should update that first post though, because what you're seeing here is about 7 months work, and when I post the latest in a week or so, just over a year!

I guess you're right about the kb message.

There was a reason I made the hand icon the way I did. I think it felt a little off scrolling between them since the hotspot for the others is in the lower middle. I'll play around with it.

I think I addressed both of those walkable areas since that version, especially the gift shop

If you'd like to continue testing I can ping you when I drop the next update and list you in the credits if you like.

Thanks again all!

I've been using other free sites, and if it's creative commons 0, you can use it with no attribution, though it can be nice to attribute anyway.

WHat I did was add a full track list to credits and then whenever my MC uses her glasses to look things up (they're essentially i-glasses) it shows the current track. Formatting I was asked to use is

'Track name' Author Name, author site if feasible

Thanks so much! I can't help but wonder what version was even up there! Ironically I don't think it has the new animations yet. Soon! Hope you won't feel unduly pressured if I ping you when the next version is up. I'm dying for more input on the next planet!

>Ova is waving the...

That's definitely a bug. I can't recall if it's one I addressed. Be curious to see if it still happens in the next version. She was doing the little jig back and forth and the text in the corner wasn't updating?

>to use bigger hotspots for the small objects.

I've actually already done this for a lot of them. Were there any that stood out?

You can change the delay for each individual frame in a view.

I think the problem with her arm is, that the back arm movement is less smooth than the front arm. It almost looks as if she is pushing something forward.

I could add a 1 frame delay to individual frames, and doing that with 2 frames per loop would synch it up with the L/R, but this doesn't avoid the other problem. If I add a delay to only 2 frames, she'll have a weird stutter step, and if I add it to every frame, then it's way too slow. As number of frames per loop goes up, the clumsier frame delay changes become.

What I need is to be able to add 0.2 frame delay per frame, but you can't do that. Ideally I would have adjusted the base game cycles from 40 to 60 when I started so I'd have finer control, but at the stage of development I'm at, it's way too late to do that.

The timing of front/back and side walkcycle don't match. Make sure you adjust the frame delay accordingly in AGS. I find this rather annoying in games, especially when combined with a walking step sound.

Part of that might be me screwing up with the gif maker, but it's also because left/right is 12 frames and up/down is 10. I wanted L/R to be as smooth as possible, but when I went to do 12 frame versions of U/D I found it was too many. Unfortunately you can't adjust frame delay for movement differently for different directions, and even if you could, at this many frames, the only real options are frame delay 1 or frame delay 2, so it's not particularly useful tool for making small adjustments. I don't think it's especially noticeable in-game but I'd be very curious to hear your thoughts when I put up my next version.

The walkcycles are pretty good, but i wonder why her arm movements in the profile walk are so different. Her left arm is moving much further forwards and lesser backwards.

It was intended to be because she's cheating slightly towards the audience as opposed to being viewed directly from the side (You can take the guy off the stage...) The thing that bothers me about the arms that I don't seem to be able to fix is that her upstage arm sort of "teleports" behind her body on its backswing, but I found if I didn't do that, it was indistinct against her torso. Next ego gets different color sleeves!

Thank you both for the feedback!

These are so good! Is there a game these are for that I can follow?

Thank you!

Yes, there is. Accrual Twist of Fate (the main character is a space accountant, hence the pun.)

I really should make a post in "in development" for it but I'm forever wanting to get juuust a bit more done first!