Messages

Finally trying to get caught up with the latest -- yes, please do put the playambientsound with  locations back!  I just spent a whole bunch of time modifying a room to use this feature (kind of like an audio maze).

Assuming the weather doesn't turn lovely again, will try to test Pig Flu with my neverending Darkdevil game this week.

Anyone going? I guess since it starts tomorrow, you may already be here, if you are....

FYI, my exchange print for the show is one of my Darkdevil County rooms -- the village of Gnomish Hills.  Will post on my blog at some point, and will get back to finishing the *?!!!**ing game Soon.

I have the problem quite often, though I've never gotten an exception message.  I often have to kill the program with task manager.  I run XP SP3 with McCafee and Windows automatically updated.  I have 512 meg memory, 120 DPI screen mode.

I get it in windowed and fullscreen mode too.  Then it seems to go away for awhile while I'm testing, then suddenly it freezes again.  I've never created a game below level 3.0 -- the freeze has happened in every version I've used, however, in both the development environment and compiled and run outside it.

I always figured it had something to do with my old computer or my virus protection, since I'd seen nothing reported in any of the forums.  It happens with the "quit game" function, closing a window with the windows x, and also alt-x.  No one who ran my Darkdevil County demo complained about it (tho there were't a lot of testers), so I figured it had to be me.

I think I've also had the problem running the new King's Quest I (tho I might be misremembering).

Thanks. It works now. I missed this in the help file.

This is a fragment of one of the options in my dialog dDuo:

Code: ags

@4
DUO: I really need to get out of here before dark.  I need to get to a meeting at the Hungry Boar.
  if (dKyle.HasOptionBeenChosen(1) == true ||
  dKyle.HasOptionBeenChosen(2)) {
    player.Say("The Hungry Boar? I'm going there with my friend Kyle tonight.");
    player.Say("He gave me a flyer for it."); 
    cDuo.Say("Do you trust him?");
    confirm_action = dYesNoMaybe.DisplayOptions();
    if (confirm_action == 3) return;
    else {
      ...[lines of code]...
    }
  }
return
@5
stop

dialog YesNoMaybe is just what it sounds like, and it returns "confirm_action" correctly.  However, the statement "if (confirm_action == 3)" always returns to an unrelated dialog in slot 0.  If options 1 and 2 are chosen and it drops thru to the dialog system return, all is fine.

So I guess it's mixing up the dialog version of the return statement and the scripting version.  I can work around this, but thought you should know.  FYI, "confirm_action" is global, defined in globalscript, imported in the header.

Have been frustrated at times by what seems like an artificial distinction among sounds -- has meant having to duplicate something in sound and music or hacking stuff together in Audacity if I wanted to loop or control volume better.  Would love to be able to queue and layer anything via channels or otherwise.

Would like full property panes for all sounds/music/speech -- ability to put name, description, duration, source, custom property, etc. (I haven't used the addon sound module yet, so this may already be available).  Also, mark a sound/music as "include in compiled file" vs
. "put in separate file".

Channel object vs. sound object -- would love both (somewhat like views and characters -- sounds have channels).

Better control of sounds etc. as events and rooms are exited and entered would be great -- especially duration/fading/adding silence.

That's all.

Dialog folders!

I'm glad you put this new (3.12 final) out there.  I'd been using 3.12 RC1, had just created a new room (my first in many releases!) and found many problems with highlighting/erasing hotspots, walkables, walkbehinds, etc.  I'd been about ready to post some bugs when the new version appeared.  Thanks!

So far, the latest ("Final") seems to have fixed the marking/unmarking problems I'd had.  Will be working on the room today and will report back as soon as I can if I find anything new.

What a lovely Christmas gift!  And my computer that had been out for repair has been returned to me just in time to test the new version.  Tested the blank line in dialog problem by removing all of the offending "return" statements etc. and it all works beautifully.  You're incredible and deserve to drink a lot of beer.  Now it's on to bigger and better (at least, different) problems with my stupid game!

Thanks for addressing the blank line thing.  Unfortunately, I am without a computer I can use to test the game right now (am using a public computer while mine gets fixed again).  Will check it out as soon as my system is returned to me (maybe Friday or this coming Monday).  Until then, Happy Christmas to all who believe in Santa.

Is just easier for me to live with the warnings for now.  Seems like something Chris might want to fix at some point.  I can't be the only one with this problem. THanks for looking at it.

// Dialog script file
@S  // Dialog startup entry point
PLAYER: Let's see... where do I want to go?
return
@1
new-room 12
return

@2
new-room 8
return

@3
new-room 13
return

@4
stop


****************
This generates 3 warnings.  If I remove the offending 3 return statements (after the new-room statements) I get the red-circle-with-x errors instead, so the game can't be created.  UPDATE: I think it might be a whitespace thing -- I removed the blank lines and don't get the error messages when I recompile after removing the returns. This still not good, since I like to use a lot of whitespace, comments, etc. in my code.  Could get tricky, since the new way of handling dialogs uses leading spaces to figure out whether it's "dialog" or "script".

Errors for 3.1.1 Final:

Ok, the .mp3 problem has been solved, but one other problem persists.  A few weeks ago I posted the problem about getting warnings/error codes in the dialogs with "unnecessary" returns following goto-dialogs (UPDATE: also happens with new-room).  Decided to clean up the code a bit and removed the return statements. 

This is what I now get -- red circle-with-x errors, not warnings.  I put the offending "return" for Dialog 9 line 22 back to show what I was trying to correct.  If I remove it, I get the error message as well, and the game won't compile.

Dialog 0(26): Script commands can only be used in the area between a @ entry point and the closing return/stop statement
Dialog 0(36): Script commands can only be used in the area between a @ entry point and the closing return/stop statement
Dialog 5(51): Script commands can only be used in the area between a @ entry point and the closing return/stop statement
Dialog 8(7): Script commands can only be used in the area between a @ entry point and the closing return/stop statement
Dialog 8(10): Script commands can only be used in the area between a @ entry point and the closing return/stop statement
Dialog 9(22): The command 'return' will be ignored since the script for this option has already finished
Dialog 10(20): Script commands can only be used in the area between a @ entry point and the closing return/stop statement
Dialog 11(14): Script commands can only be used in the area between a @ entry point and the closing return/stop statement
Dialog 24(24): Script commands can only be used in the area between a @ entry point and the closing return/stop statement

With my Darkdevil game, I hear no music running with the latest (rc2) version.  I will do more testing later, but thought you should know initial trial.  I've been having a few problems with my computer lately, but I can play both the mp3 files and the .ogg files in the game thru audacity.  The sound files seem to play ok, just not the music.

Don't know whether the same problem was in the rc1, since because of the comma error problem with the dialogs I never had a successful, runnable compile.

How I executed it:  just downloaded the new exe and ran the installer.  I have 3d drivers 800 px. I use 120 dpi and XP Professional with 3.0 upgrade and all the latest drivers (I think).

UPDATE: I removed the lines that were causing RC1 to fail and have the same problem with music not playing in that version too.  Music plays fine elsewhere and in all the other games I have, and in my current online demo, etc., so don't think it's anything to do with my computer. Also, ambient sounds play fine, and all the playsounds are fine.  Just seems to be the music.

UPDATE2: .mid and .ogg files play just fine using playmusic. It's just the .mp3 files for playmusic.  If I play the same mp3 file using playsound, it works.

Yes, I know how to fix the run-script thing, thanks. He'd asked me to post the compile errors I received and the lines causing them.  I assume he's looking for a certain amount of backward compatibility.  It will take a long time for me to move all my dialogs (I'm pretty wordy) into the new format, plus there's a lot of possibility for redesign now -- doing stuff while talking! 

This was the only place I'd used global ints, tho, since when new to AGS it was one of the first dialogs I'd done and was following the doc. Don't know whether others have made use of them in this manner.

Here's the entire dialog in question.  Lines 18 and 26 get the red-x error message when I compile with the new 3.1.1 rc 1.  With the new dialog features don't have to do this any longer, but anyway....

// Dialog script file
@S  // Dialog startup entry point
PLAYER: Lina!
LINA: Magwyn?  What are you doing here?
PLAYER: I just gave blood.  How could you forget?
LINA: I don't understand.  Forget what?
PLAYER: I got a message from you, saying it was urgent.  I came right over.
LINA: I didn't send you a message.
return
@1
PLAYER: That's odd.  I heard your brother got shot up pretty bad in that skirmish,
PLAYER: ... so I figured --
LINA: Please!  Enough about the war!  It's all I ever hear!
LINA: If the clones want their independence,
LINA: I say fine!
LINA: I'm leaving.
PLAYER: Lina!
set-globalint 0, 0
run-script 4
stop
@2
LINA: To visit Kyle, of course.
PLAYER: Don't you ever think about anything other than guys?
LINA: Never!
LINA: It's much better than thinking about -- I'm sorry...
set-globalint 0, 1
run-script 4
PLAYER: Lina! I'm sorry!  I forgot about your brother!



stop
///////////////////////////////////

Sorry to hear your "resting" period will soon be over.  Mine continues (unless anyone knows of a job for an old-school C programmer with VB skills, lite HTML..)

UPDATE: did quick compile of Darkdevil County and got tons of error messages:

Dialog 0(26): The command 'return' will be ignored since the script for this option has already finished
Dialog 0(36): The command 'return' will be ignored since the script for this option has already finished
Dialog 5(51): The command 'stop' will be ignored since the script for this option has already finished
Dialog 7(18): set-globalint must supply global int number and new value
Dialog 7(26): set-globalint must supply global int number and new value
Dialog 8(7): The command 'return' will be ignored since the script for this option has already finished
Dialog 8(10): The command 'return' will be ignored since the script for this option has already finished
Dialog 9(23): The command 'return' will be ignored since the script for this option has already finished
Dialog 10(20): The command 'return' will be ignored since the script for this option has already finished
Dialog 11(14): The command 'return' will be ignored since the script for this option has already finished
Dialog 24(24): The command 'return' will be ignored since the script for this option has already finished

I did nothing to any of the scripts or dialogs since 3.1 RC2.  Not really sure what these messages mean or what I should do to fix them.  Will I have to convert all the dialogs to using the new methods?

ORIGINAL MESSAGE: You're too quick for me!  One more art project to deliver, and then it's back to Darkdevil County.  Am downloading latest release now. Now that election in US is over, time to obsess about something truly meaningful <ggg>

I'm against ANY kind of marriage <ggg>.

Hello from Chicago, home of Barack Obama!  Was there at the celebration in Grant Park on Election Night, and it was such a joyful thing to see entire families and groups of friends of all races and colors and ethnic backgrounds celebrate together, hugging and dancing and taking pictures of each other.  What you saw on TV can't even begin to explain it.  Someone said it felt like we had just ousted a dictator.  We get so cynical at times we forget what pure joy can be like, especially after knowing how so many in the world have thought what jerks we Americans are. 

Obama as the Page 3 girl?  Have long said (and have been teased about a lot) that he's the sexiest man alive. Met him at a parade about five years ago and nearly melted.  Weird ears, but oh, man, the intensity is incredible.

Haven't always agreed with his votes as the Senator representing my state, Illinois, and am sure I'll disagree with him as president, but I can't imagine he'll get so insulated in his office that he'll be oblivious to critcism.

So I guess it's back to the real world of adventure gaming for me again.

RC2 fixes the "chopping off in character screen" problem I had that seemed to be related to 120 DPI setting.  Thanks!  I can see my character's feet for the first time!

Haven't had a chance to do a complete run thru of my hi-res game demo yet. Darkdevil County will rise again soon, I promise.