Messages

I've finally had the chance to use this plugin in my new project and, boy, it's awesome! Goodbye, restrictions of AGS scripts! Welcome, content that can be modified while running the game and reloaded with the press of a button (requires custom code, but still)! Thanks so much for the plugin, Denzil!

I don't know if you're still willing to maintain it after all these years but here are some things I've noticed:

EDITOR
- Renaming scripts results in duplicate files. (At least inside the editor.)

ENGINE
- Why aren't the game.variables available to the scripts?
- ags.getplayer() doesn't seem to work properly. I tried to get the current room number by calling ags.getplayer():Room() but it returned a table. Calling ags.cEgo:Room() worked just fine.


--edit--

And now suddenly, I keep getting an error that goes something like this: "[Lua] attempting to concatenate a table value". No line number, nothing. And it seems like the error happens after a successful function call from AGS to Lua and before the next call. Maybe it's a bug in the plugin? I'm out of ideas.

If it helps, I've created many different classes (table, metatable, etc.) before this but now that I'm trying to make an Inventory class, it just keeps crashing. Doesn't matter if it's a class or a plain table but sometimes I can define some functions into it and sometimes I can't. Sometimes the error goes away for a while after I comment out some class method call. Very weird.

--edit2--

Maybe it has something to do with the serialization of the Lua state? The crash has always occurred after game_start but before any other events that call the scripts. That's when the default restart point is saved, right?

--edit3--

Probably the same thing that happens sometimes with the editor. I try to compile the game and it says it can't write the exe since it's in use, even though it isn't. After one or more tries it works just fine. Just a moment ago I started the game and it crashed with the error (see above). Then I tried to start the game again. I didn't modify anything but now it started ok. So yeah, what the hell...

--edit4--

Worked around the crash by delaying script loading to the first on_event call. Saving the game produces the crash sometimes, so it's still a very big problem.

And one other thing.. How can I set ActiveInventory to null? ags.cEgo:ActiveInventory( nil / false ) crashes the game because the value isn't an InventoryItem.

Good idea, I'll put it on my list!

It's gonna take a while before I can continue working on the next version, since I'm trying to get a game project into the development phase. But since that request is pretty easy to implement, I can make a minor update sooner if you need it. Just let me know.

It's a trial of the pro version. After that it reverts to the free version.

I cant seem to see much of the game. All that comes up is a white screen and some shadowy objects. Also, the game dialogue gets displayed just fine. Other than that, I cant see anything of the game.

Thanks for the log! I think the problem is your graphics card doesn't support non power of two textures. That's why the text works and anything else doesn't. I've added this to my todo list, though I probably won't have time to continue working on this for a couple of months. Anyway, I'm glad to see the game seems to run otherwise on OpenGL 1.4 hardware, since it's only been tested on 2.0 and newer.

Well, that's new. Could you send me the log.txt file (email or pm)?

[What's New?]

Hi guys!

I've finally finished a project I started sometime last April. My goal was to make a Lua scriptable adventure game engine that I could possibly use in the future for commercial ventures. It's still a work in progress, and only the things you see in the game are implemented at this time. And before you ask, no open-sourcing is going to happen in the near future.




What's New?

- A brand new two frame talking animation!
- Crappy voice acting for testing purposes
- Crappy Finnish translation for testing purposes
- Some minor bug fixes
- Some minor enhancements

Check the config.ini file to change window resolution and translation!


The Engine

The engine uses OpenGL for graphics and a bunch of open source libraries for things ranging from window/input handling to Lua bindings. I tried to avoid any libraries that didn't allow static linking. The only exception is the audio library irrKlang, since I couldn't find a suitable permissively licensed alternative.


Download

Anyway, here's the remake of the 2008 OROW Competition winner: Download How many... (Remake). You might need to install the Visual C++ 2010 Runtime if you haven't already.



Please, try it out and check the readme for controls. If you encounter any bugs or other anomalies, send me the log.txt file so I can figure out what the problem is.

Thanks!

That's actually a very good point, Ali. Thanks, I'll keep it in mind!

[Style A]

Hello!

I'm not much of a graphical artist myself, so I thought it best to ask the experts here.

What I'm trying to figure out is some sort of an approximation for how much time it takes to make background/character art for an adventure game. I realize it depends a lot on the artist, the graphical style and the actual contents of the picture. This is just something to point me in the right direction.

Let's assume a resolution of 640x400 pixels and two graphical styles:

Style A


Style B



Background Art

Let's use this concept art as a reference for the contents and composition of a room:




Now then, how much time would it take to make (in styles A & B):

1. One 640x400 background (including design & sketching)
2. Adjust a finished background by entirely changing the lighting (eg. daylight -> night, candle light)
3. Adjust a finished background by moving the furniture around (they need to be redrawn)



Character Art & Animation

The resolution is still 640x400, so let's assume a character would be something like 100x175 pixels.


How much time would it take to make (in styles A & B):

1. One character standing frame (including design & sketching)
2. One speaking animation or some other simple animation
3. One walking animation (6-8 frames)
4. One complex animation (eg. the character drinks a pint of beer, attempts to walk a couple of steps, and falls to the floor)



The point of all this is that if I have a background/character artist who says he can do, for example, 40 hours of work, I can prioritize the work. If a background takes 10 hours and a really cool but complex animation also takes 10 hours, I could try to think of ways to lose that one background in order to have the animation that really adds to the story and mood of the game.

Why not ask my artist, you may ask. Well, I don't have an artist yet. So, basically I would use this information to get an idea of the scope of the game and the artist's workload while I'm still designing it.


Any guestimates are welcome! I'm sure they're still more accurate than what I can come up with. Thanks!

Spoiler

And yes, this is for my Summerbatch game attempt. If you're interested in helping me out with the graphics, feel free to contact me by pm. Check my previous games first, so you know what you're in for. I'm currently looking for local artists (Tampere, Finland) because then I can physically go and kick them if they're being lazy. But if that doesn't work out I'm definitely going to ask around these forums.

[close]

Well, the main thing is being able to rotate and scale them freely and smoothly.

For example, if you want something like a rotating wheel on your background, you can just make a D3D_Sprite out of an AGS sprite and render it onto the background, increasing rotation each frame. No need for an animating bg which takes up lots of memory, or a prerendered wheel animation, or a bunch of prerotated dynamic sprites which tend to look blocky and crappy.

[Restrictions:]

Hello, fellow AGSers! It's been a while since I've done anything even remotely useful for the community, so here goes...

Since scotch hasn't been active for years now, I decided to remake the Theora plugin in order to fix some things that have been bothering me. (I hope he doesn't mind.) Well, as it turns out I went a bit further and also added the possibility to create Direct3D textures and render them. And since this plugin only supports the Direct3D driver (and 32bit colours), I've decided to megalomaniacally call this the Direct3D plugin.

Restrictions:

• Games must be played with the Direct3D driver
  
• Only 32 bit colours supported
  

Main features:

• Play external Theora video files (with extremely simple obfuscation)
  
• Create textures from AGS sprites
  
• Create textures from external image files
  

Todo:

• Transparency, tinting
  
• Some kind of "free memory on room change" automation. (Because room_Leave is called before fade out, argh!)
  
• 
  

Manual/website

Download!

I made this plugin for my own needs so I really have no idea if anybody else finds it useful. If you do, feel free to post any comments, feature suggestions or bug reports.

It's not fully tested 'cause I'm a lazy sod. That's why it currently prints debug information into a debug.txt file. Send it to me if the plugin crashes your game or something weird happens. Also, no demo game available for now, sorry. There's a couple of examples in the manual, though.


--EDIT--

Source code now available!

Sure, I'm interested. Especially since I've been toying around with an idea that I was planning on making this spring anyway. Joining this batchamacallit might ensure that it actually gets finished.

Yeah, it's quite a nasty bug... http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=44614.msg596326#msg596326

Great pitch! I have thrown money at you. Am I finally cool now?

Good luck with the film!

Spoiler

No, I'm pretty sure the problem is the key. Once you've got it you can't get the dialog options that introduce the key puzzle.

After the cutscene with Joey and the old man, go back to Seagram and steal the key. Stuckness ensues.

[close]

Spoiler

I loaded a saved gamed from a bit earlier and was able to talk about the peridot with Penelope. I guess the problem emerges when you get the key before talking to Madison or Penelope about it. After that Penelope has no dialog options to choose from and you're stuck.

[close]

Finished it yesterday! Great work, Dave and everybody!

But funnily enough, on my second playthrough (commentary) I seem to be stuck...

Spoiler

I've got the Haines apartment key, exhausted all the dialog options with both Madison and Penelope, talked to Jeremy about having talked to Penelope and played with the baby but Madison just won't leave her apartment! Did I miss something or did I break everything by leading the baby out of the room before I was supposed to do so?

[close]

At least they didn't fall for that old realism killer of having a talking dragon that sounds exactly like John Hurt.

Anyway, enough about inaccuracies in a work of fiction that's not supposed to be accurate, only a reimagining of the legend. And Mr. Elephant ears is one of the best things in the show! And by that I mean he's very good, not that everything else is even worse.

The biggest problem I have with the show is that they completely flushed the character of Morgana down the toilet between series two and three. Yeah, let's just skip the inner conflict that made the character interesting and jump straight into her being a bad bad baddie with no conscience. Sigh.

[AnalogGuy]

Well, since I was lured here, hmm... I vote for AnalogGuy.

Has anybody seen my jaw? I swear it was there a minute ago.

I mean, holy crap... Absolutely incredible work, Grundislav!

Ha, thanks for the pm, Bogdan. My beta testers suck. Uploaded a new version that fixes a crash that happened when you interacted with the crane.

Spoiler

You don't need the ladder. Try interacting with the girl and she'll eventually tell you what to do.

[close]