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I was thinking about this the other day, and thought it might be useful, and I believe that it shouldn't break any games in production.

Add a new optional parameter to the StartCutscene command so it would now be

StartCutscene(CutsceneSkipType, bool confirmFirst);

by default confirmFirst is false, and therefore works as it does currently, however setting confirmFirst to true would then pause the game with a popup model asking if they really want to skip the cutscene, if they click yes, it skips as normal, if they hit know, the dialog disappears and the game continues normally.

Sometimes, especially if you have the skip set my mouse button, a player may skip a scene that may have an important clue, this would help stop that from happening.

Since AGS is going OO I thought of this during a smoke break (I do most of my thinking then).

Perhaps not true java like extention like Character2 extends Character but perhaps allowing us to attach our own functions to the Character object.

For instance I have a Util module for my game where I put Utility codes for self made functions to speed up development time. FaceDirection is in this module

Util.FaceDirection(cEgo, eDirUp);

If we could extend the functionality of current built in structs then we could make it so you could just type

player.FaceDirection(eDirUp);
cEgo.FaceDirection(eDirUp);

As far as how to do it in the editor we just put this in the header

Code: ags

enum FacingDirection{eDirUp, eDirRight, eDirDown, eDirLeft};

extention Character{
  static FaceDirection(FacingDirection dir);
}

And put the code in the global script or module (perhaps even create a new single extension file that handles all extensions for any object in the game).

Now I know this is not anything small, but the ability to extend functionality of any existing Class is one of the more powerful aspects of OOP. And I thought I'd put it out there.

When making my charfont module I noticed some behavior which I found rather odd.

In my module, I wanted the game to do a character count and place that number as the number of slots to use for the array used in the charfont module. I was told by AGS that I had to use a static variable.

This confused me for one reason, at compile time, character count IS static, unless there is some function out there that lets you create new characters on the fly, the last I checked, you couldn't do that.

So my suggestion is, for those functions that return variables that at run time, no longer change (pretty much any of the Count functions, since that number cannot be changed once the game compiles). There may be a few other functions that return items that will not change during the game as they can only be changed in the editor and not in the script.

Advantages: Allows module creators to make modules that use less memory, in the instance of my CharFont module, it would only allocate enough memory for the number of characters actually in the editor, instead of MAX_CHARACTERS.
Can also help those that make use of the Count functions in their game scripts.

Cons: Could cause some confusion as to what returns a compile time static, and what does not. Could be hard to implement code wise.

I think I explained what I mean decently enough...

Does anyone have this game... I saw it in the store for the PC the other day, and it caught my eye, I read the back about the free roaming monsters, and you not only need to manage your health, but your sanity in order to stay alive.

Such things like having hallucinations and other things as your insanity goes up, seems like a mix of an adventure game, FPS, and Survival Horror all rolled up into one.

Anyway, it looks nifty, I just wonder if anyone here has it or has played it.

Believe it or not, this has nothing to do with if I agree or disagree with them, and in many cases, I do agree with the intent of these rating systems.

But there is a problem with them.

A few weeks ago, I emailed PEGI and the ESRB on how one goes about getting a rating for an amateur game.

PEGI returned an email saying it's a service for professional developers only, it costs money, and they don't deal with amateur games.

ESRB hasn't returned my emails, and it's been over a month. I assume that it is probably the same.

So I thought to myself, why hasn't anyone developed any sort of system like this for the internet. There isn't an ethical amateur gamemaking committee anywhere. So I thought, why don't I just make my own and see if it catches on.

It's still in very early stages, and once I get all my thoughts and ideas down on paper I'll post them to my website, but the basic idea is this.

1) COMPLETELY voluntary, you only put ratings on your games if you choose to (which is kind of a given seeing that I'm not an authority).

2) If you do decide to use the rating system on your game, it does not have to be in the game (the exe or the jar or what have you). However due to the nature of games being hosted on different websites, it is highly encouraged to put the ratings on the splash screen, loading screen, title screen, or similar.

3) The rating must be clearly posted by the download link or on the page the flash/java file is embedded in.

Just ideas so far, but I like the idea of an Ethical Amateur Gaming group, and those that take the responsibility to inform internet users what content their game may have to anyone that may download it.

As far as icons, I've only worked on one as a rough draft, simple grayscale png at 48X64 pixels.
1X:

2X:


So I guess if I were to fully develop a system like this, would any of you use it? If anything I will probably use it for my own games, but just as a slice of the internet, I'd like to see what others thought.

Thanks...

Ok so I'm working on my .htaccess file... I already have my own error messages for 403 and 404... I know I probably need a 500 error, but I know I don't need to make error messages for all 21 types that I can put in my .htaccess file..

So most likely I need 401/403*/404*/500... is there any other types that you have seen that I may need to add to this?

*done already

Ok well I have a js based menu that works fine in all my shtml pages:example

However when putting the header on my wordpress and my forums the js formatting is completely hosed: forums and wordpress.

To me it seems that the css for the forums and wordpress are overriding the js settings, however that doesn't happen with my shtml file.

All of the files use includes either server side includes for my shtml, or php includes for the forums and wordpress...

I'm basically a php n00b... I've never really used it, but I can understand it enough to make small edits. CSS I know fairly well. But this issue I can't seem to figure out how to fix...

So can anyone out there with some experience give me an idea of how to fix it so that my menu formatting isn't destroyed by my wordpress and forums?

Thanks.

I'm at work, so I can't actually test anything on AGS however I have been thinking of psudocode to use to do what I want... so I'll explain.

My character carries his inventory in his body, what I would like is when inventory is chosen, either A, the camera zooms to the characters body where the INV gui will then appear (and when inv window is closed the camera zooms back to normal position). or the alternate. The character zooms to the camera getting larger and larger until he takes up the whole screen and then the gui appears.

So in other words, this is a global type zoom, usable pretty much anywere that the player can open up the characters inventory.

I have two threads of thought on this... one is to use rawdraw to zoom, as suggested on other parts of the forums, however, since there will be some manipulation in trying to move the screenshot to move the character to the center of the screen as it zooms in, it may be more difficult than needed just for a single sprite... Second issue, my character sprites are Anti Aliased... so it would generally look nasty because if I remember right rawdraw isn't antialiased.

Second thought is to have the character sprite on the gui itself, and move and resize the gui to get the same sort of effect... the issues with this approach is having 2 instances of the character on screen at once and the number of background sprites for the gui I would need to make it work nicely.

So anyway... What I have so far is (psudo code)

function ShowInv(){
//center of the screen
int centX = ViewportX +160;
int centY = ViewportY +120;
//pixel change between player and center
int deltaX = player.X - centX;
int deltaY = player.Y - centY;

Get character loop frame 0 //for sprite to manipulate

while loop // most likely to loop until final size is reached, say width of screen
increase size by X%
int spriteCentX = centX  -  get width of rawdrawn sprite /2
int spriteCentY = centY - get height of rawdran sprite/2
move toward spriteCent by 1 pixel //both x and y coords
RawDraw it
end loop
gInvGUI.Visible = true;

And basically do the opposite to close the gui up... making the gui is basically the same, except it's easier to center the thing, and every resize of the gui assigns a new background sprite to the gui.

As an idea would this work, or in your experience is something like this more difficult to code than it is worth? Have you done something like this before that has worked?

I'd like to have an idea before I get home today and start messing with it. I don't need you to code it for me, I just wonder if I'm even thinking correctly on how to even attempt this.

Thanks.

Yeah well, there has been quite a bit of discussion on religious topics... but this article caught my eye...

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14083809/site/newsweek/

should spark some MORE conversation

I've been thinking about adding a news post to the front end of my website, basically the first thing the user sees when navigating to my site. But at the same time I'd like it to be flexable enough that if I wanted I could link to it from other areas of the site to different types of new posts.

For instance, The front page would display general news anouncements. On another part of the site, they can click a link to see all the progress news posts about various game/software updates that I'm doing. And in another part of the site they can view all my ranting and raving about various random topics. Lastly I would like the formatting to be easily ediable with CSS, and by easy I mean I'd like to be documented enough so that I know exactly what I'm changing so I don't have to change something and reload a million times to get it to look correct.

I know some of you use these things, so I was wondering what do you use and why, and would it work for what I am wanting? I already created the mySQL database on my site so I just need to install the news software and go from there.

These are the easiest for me to install (since my host actually does the installation for me, I just tell it where to go and what database to use)
WordPress
b2evolution
Nucleus
Serendipity
PixelPost

PixelPost is more for photoblogs so it probably won't do what I want... WordPress, with it's cataglory feature may help me seperate post types for different parts of the site, but I don't know about it's ease of editing...

So anyway of those, which do you use, and will it work for what I want?

Bah... It seem like just when I get going on a game, and finally make some decent progress on it, real life comes and bites me on the butt.

Some may remember that I left for Iraq while working on a game, and subsequently lost that game when I returned home to find my computer so corrupted with viral infections I had to delete everything.

Well those that visit #ags know I've been working on another game some progress blurbs here (Note: I am doing a site redesign, please forgive the mess). Well I found out that I will be leaving for school back in the states at the end of August.

I may buy a laptop in the meantime, but that doesn't mean that I will even have time to work on the game.

I just find it funny that this is the second time that this has happened to me... both times on games that I meant to seriously complete.

Ok so not the most exciting title, but it's pretty much exactly what I would like to see.

Since the music list in the editor has been posponed according to the tracker, I was thinking of an alternate solution.

My problem stems is when running around on the net, I sometimes find music that hits me as, "that would go perfect at X part of my game" so I download it into a folder copy it to the music folder, rename it to musicX then go back to the origional file, call it whatever - musicX.

Otherwise when I go back later I have to check each song to figure out which one is the one I want to use... yes I know I could use a txt file to store that info, but as matter of practice I only have photoshop, AGS, this forum, and IRC open when I'm editing (makes distractions less so I work more)

Ok so my suggested solution.

MusicX*.*

Basically the editor knows it is looking for Music then digits, then when it hits the first non digit number it ignores everything until the .fileextention. This way people could label their songs

Music1 - Intro.mid
Music2 - Title Screen.mid
Music3 - Chase Scene.ogg
Music4 - game over.mid
...
Music32 - sex scene.mp3

I think you get to point. I don't know exactly how AGS parses the music files anyway, but I would guess it had something with filtering out Music seeing if what's left is a number, and then checking the file extention to assign the correct player.

This would just add an extra step of ignoring everything after the last digit after music, and now that I think about it, if ever there was a music manager added to the editor it could use the substring after music for the editor to display.

Anyway I know low priority, but hey the squeaky wheel gets the grease, so I'mma squeaking a bit.

Would it be possible to add mouseover functionality to GUI controls (or even the GUI's themselves).

The reason I ask is I had an idea for multiple GUI's in a tabbed form partially off the screen, I would like for the GUI to move positions once a tab is moused over, however since there is no OnMouseover functionality for controls I have to have them set for click.

If nobody else thinks it's a good idea, then it's no big deal, but it seems to me that it would be useful in multiple ways for multiple people.

Thanks.

Ok what I'm trying to do is when certain GUI's are up the cursor will change to the pointer. This I can get done with no problem, the issue lies with the cursor turning back into the last cursor used before the GUI was displayed.

The first thing I tried was to create my own Mouse variable, that would just store the Mouse.mode of the current mode and then give it back once the gui's are closed. This of course throws an error.

Code: ags

Mouse *lastMouse;
function repeatedly_execute_always(){
  if ((gOptions.Visible) || (gSavelist.Visible)){
    if (Mouse.Mode != eModePointer){
      lastMouse.Mode = Mouse.Mode;
      Mouse.Mode = eModePointer;
    }
  }
  else {
    if (Mouse.Mode == eModePointer){
      Mouse.Mode = lastMouse.Mode;
    }
  }
}

Cannot declare pointer to a non managed type. Ok fine.

I know about UseModeGraphic and UseDefaultGraphic, however, since the cursor mode doesn't change and I can't seem to find a way for the game to know that I'm not using the default graphic, and I want to be sure it goes back to the correct graphic for it's current mode, but only if the options and save gui are not active.

I've searched the manual, but I didn't see anything on what the enum name is to try to store the last mode as a Mouse enum value, which is what I tried to do next. I even tried to use mouse instead of Mouse, but that didn't work either.

So am I missing something? Is it not possible to store the current mouse mode in order to restore it later?

Sorry if this seems simple, but I've been messing with it for 20 minutes, it's 6 in the morning, and I haven't had any coffee yet.

Ok my game is 640X480 and I've been working on cursors for the game, I did the pointer first and it looked good at 15px by 15px and imported at 640X480. However when I did my walk cursor it seemed too small. So I tried importing both at native resolution and not at 640X480. But now the pointer cursor seemed too big, and neither looked as well polished as the smaller versions.

Well I have screenshots of the four, and I'd like to get an opinion. The cursor in question is directly in the middle of the pupil.

Don't worry about the little ship thing below it, it was just a test sprite I was using for the player character.

Posting links to keep this thread from having 4 big ass pics in it.

Pointer imported at 640X480
Walk imported at 640X480

Pointer imported at native resolution
Walk imported at native resolution

So is the walk cursor imported at 640X480 too small? or is it fine? Do you have your own cursor sizes that you use for your games (at this resolution).

Any help would be appreciated.

[DOWNLOAD HERE]

// Script header for module 'CharacterFonts'
/* 
**Ã,  Author: James Favier (Alynn the Yellow Eyed)
**Ã,  Ã, 
**Ã,  Abstract: Allows a user to set individual fonts to each
**Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  character, and display those fonts while
**Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  talking.
**
**Ã,  AGS 2.71 and higher
**
**
** WARNING:
**Ã,  Ã,  Be sure you assign font numbers that actually exist on
**Ã,  Ã,  your game, it will break otherwise. Currently there is
**Ã,  Ã,  no way to check if the font exists beforehand. If that
**Ã,  Ã,  becomes available later I will incorperate it.
**
**---------------------------------------------------------------
** Functions:
**
**Ã,  Ã, SetCharFont(Character *ch, int font)
**Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  This sets the number of the character (ch) and
**Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  assigns it the font number (font).
**
**Ã,  Ã, GetCharFont(Character *ch)
**Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Returns the font number currently in use by
**Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  the character (ch).
**
**Ã,  Ã, Say(Character *ch, String text)
**Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Works like Character.Say, but assigns the correct
**Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  font first.
**
**Ã,  Ã, SayAt(Character *ch, int x, int y, int width, String text)
**Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Works like Character.SayAt, but assigns the correct
**Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  font first.
**
**Ã,  Ã, SayBackground(Character *ch, String text)
**Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Works like Character.SayBackground, but assigns the
**Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  correct font first.
**
**------------------------------------------------------------------
**
** Version History:
**Ã,  Ã,  1.0 Released upon an unsuspecting population
**Ã,  Ã,  1.1 Should work with AGS 2.71, maxed out the number of
**Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  possible characters, now uses pointers for the characters.
**
**------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok looking over what Strazer said I took most of his ideas into consideration... Ok let's just face it I made all the changes.

Changes from version 1.0 to 1.1 are as follows...

• Uses Character pointers instead of integers for the characters.
• Compatable with AGS 2.71
• Calls are now made by CharFont and not cf

The functionality of dialogs still must be done like below if using 2.72.

Code: ags

function dialog_request (int xvalue) {
Ã,  if (xvalue == 1){
Ã,  Ã,  Game.SpeechFont = CharFont.GetCharFont(cShip);
Ã,  }
Ã,  if (xvalue == 2){
Ã,  Ã,  Game.SpeechFont = CharFont.GetCharFont(cTest);
Ã,  }
}

Or this code using 2.71

Code: ags

function dialog_request (int xvalue) {
Ã,  if (xvalue == 1){
Ã,  Ã,  SetSpeechFont(CharFont.GetCharFont(cShip));
Ã,  }
Ã,  if (xvalue == 2){
Ã,  Ã,  SetSpeechFont(CharFont.GetCharFont(cTest));
Ã,  }
}

Replacing cShip and cTest with your Characters it will work as expected.
NOTE: you will have to have a dialog_request for each character you use.

Finally your dialog should look something like this:

Code: ags

run-script 1
ship: hi!
run-script 2
test: Hello!

I'm sorry I couldn't do it within the modual itself, this makes things a bit more difficult for running dialogs. But nothing too unmanagable.

Verified that Character Fonts 1.1 is compatable with AGS 2.71 .

DOWNLOAD HERE 2.71 and Higher

I know AGS can use SCI style or TTF fonts, but has there ever been a graphics based Font plugin or modual (I searched and didn't find anything).

If not then it would be my suggestion to either allow it to happen (by AGS importing individual graphic letters, or something similar), or suggesting that someone make a modual. I'd do it myself, but I'm still learning the new AGS scripting language (last time I seriously used AGS was 2 years ago when I released the STR trailer)

The reason I ask, is while coming up with ideas for my next game, in order to make the font match the general style of the game, a graphic type font would be better, right now there is no font that I have found that fits with my game.

Well I thought about it, and thought about it, and thought about it. And I finally decided to at least TRY to make a stop motion claymation type AGS game.

I looked around and for the price Van Aken clay is considered the best for amaturish projects (or schools or whatever).

I heard of NewPlast which is the clay used with the Wallice and Grommit movies, but I have a feeling it's probably way more expensive than Van Aken.

Anyway I found a store here (just type in Van Aken at the search bar) which has tons of colors. However you can make your own colors by dropping the clay into boiling water and mixing them that way (oil based clay, so it doesn't mix with the water, I think you just use the water to keep it from sticking to the pan).

I know I'll need greed, red, blue, yellow, orange, white, back, and probably fleshtone. Mostly it will just the the characters in clay, I plan on using the D&D models and things I already have for furniture (and probably some of my daughters things too heh).

Well do you have any other colors that you think I should get as well. I'm not looking on spending hundreds of dollars on items, I want just enough to be able to work with it. Also, do you think 1 pound of each color should be enough?

Also do you know of an art supply place that is cheaper, I mean $2.37 per pound of clay is a good price, but anytime you can get stuff fer cheaper it's always better.

My idea is to create a backdrop and use my digital camera to take pictures of the characters to make the walk animations, and pictures of the individual rooms. Which will probably be made out of cardboard. (I have a bunch of large shoeboxes that could easily become the stage for the rooms. If anything it will be a fun exercise in clay animation, something I've always wanted to do, but never got to try.

I finally got my old AGS game fixed and back to me, and when I tried to view it I recieved the expected errors of needing to recompile, not having a global script, my gui's not working... Nearly all my sprites were in 2 folders instead of the 5 or 6 I had them in origionally... Again, probably a process of getting them back... That isn't a big deal... The interesting one is the error.

(paraphrased)
"There are some orphaned sprites, but they can not be recovered because you have too many sprites in the main folder"

Ok well what that said to me is, we have some sprites that aren't viewable right now, but we can't recover them until you clear out some sprites on your main file.

However in order to do this I would have to move them around and save again. My question is, will those orphaned sprites be then overwritten, since they are no longer in the editor? I haven't done the recompile of the rooms or anything, and I lost quite a bit of sprites (but luckily enough, I seem to have every one of my character sprites, which was the important part), I just don't want to lose anymore if I can help it.

I'm sure there has been one or two of you that has had to do this... and maybe you know the answer, or maybe this is a CJ issue... dunno...

Thanks in advance.

As some of you may remember, I started an AGS game like 2 years ago, and was able to release a demo just before I spent a year in Iraq, and when I got back, found my computer riddles with viruses, since my wife didnt remember to run the scanner and updater... Which meant I had to comepletely format the whole computer, I lost everything...

Well I finally found the old SkyTower Rescue compiled game, and I seem to remmeber someone mentioning about a reverse compiler or something. I'd really like to get my graphics out of it, and if I could get the whole game out it would be even better. Frankly I watched the game again, and it cracks me up... and I decided it would be a shame to let it die if there is a way to revive it.

Thanks