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When VSync is turned on, the scrolling rooms do scroll noticeably smoother. But is there a simple way to capture the real number of the cycles the game is locked to in this case (via GetGameSpeed)? The problem is that the game still returns the standard 40 cycles, though I know the refresh rate is at 85

Thanks a lot for this important update. When I release my project (which may take up to a year to complete, because I work solo with no team to speed up the process) I'll surely let you (and everyone else )know. You'll be fully credited, of course. It's the stuff worth being used!
(Here follows a sample of the text written using this module, the font itself is custom):

Well, that is just what I had in mind saying this - the AGS main core is one thing, and mp3/ogg decoders, though being part of it, are something stand-alone and independent (being third-party, that is). One way or other, it worked - there are just too many variations within seemingly rigid and consistent formats, and finding the 'good' software combination where every part fits with another often solves the problem, though finding out such a successful combination may be a problem by itself Thanks for all the effort and pains, Chris!

I've just downloaded Audacity and an 'old' version of Oggdrop. The output of either of the two eliminates my really weird problem at last it seems that AGS' free OGG decoder isn't updated as often as AGS itself, having issues with OGGs encoded with the very latest encoder versions of this format. So I consider the problem solved, having just now recoded tested everything I had trouble with. Thanks for help everyone!

Thanks for replies. Yes, i have, namely, 'tired' to decode the converted files to edit and try to find the problem source, trying every possible option while encoding - changing bitrates, encoding modes and such. I'll try Audacity (currently using Adobe Audition, Steinberg Nuendo and Sound Forge), perhaps it'll show more. And yes, OGG is far better than MP3 in every aspect. As far as I was able to determine, mp3 causes problems also because of the ID tag present in every file, even if every field of the tag is left empty - some decoders stop end rewind the sound at the very end of the file, which include the ID, and these milliticks of 'empty' bytes cause the click, which seems to be the case with the AGS engine. A question to Adamski, the lucky one : which AGS version is used and what namely is the program that your OGGs are created with? For I have tried many encoders, but the problem still persists. The new AGS 2.72 beta 4a seems to handle the sound somewhat better than previous releases, but doesn't eliminate my problem completely. Maybe I'll just use your software combination, if you reveal what it is :

I came across a certain problem adjusting the room ambient sounds. Normally the PlayAmbientSound function is to be used, and it runs nicely - BUT only as long as the sound itself is pure generic WAV (AGS doesn't seem to understand ADPCM compression or ACM-compressed WAVs). A need often arises for seamlessly looping sound, as water streaming effects and such. When the original WAV is converted either in OGG or MP3 to reduce its size, at the beginning of every new sound loop there suddenly appears a distinct pause or even a nasty click which ruins the seamless fluence of the looping. And it makes no difference what codec or software is used for conversion, so the problem must lie within the format itself. Is there any way to solve this or work it around? A game with uncompressed sound would weight tons, and a constantly clicking or stuttering ambience sounds lame

1) A one-row inventory is a good idea... for a character like Digger or Pacman, with only one item to carry but that's another sort of game. Will have to find a way. There must be a way. It may be a worthwhile idea for a future version of AGS to add left-right inventory scrolling in the script natively...

2) Just as I thought. The major difference cleared, then.

3) A good practical solution. With some minor adjustments it should work nicely with AGS 2.71 I am using now.

Thanks a lot for help!

1) Is there a simple way to script a left-to-right scrollable inventory instead of top-to-bottom? For only up-and-down scrolling functions are found in the script.

2) Is there some global variable to change the speed of GUI's greying out? To make it appear and disappear more slowly while popping up, there's hardly any difference between "GUIs grey out" and "GUIs turn off" concerning the speed of GUIs disappearance. Or it is affected by general speed setting of the game? (I do not want to use the GUI Transparency property if there is some other, more resource-efficient way).

3) Does AGS handle mouse double-clicks? If yes, then what are the corresponding script commands? The manual refers to single-click events only, or am I mistaken?

Yes, "dumb" reassigning (or re-importing) of every single sprite does it. That is why I am keeping every single graphic file which I import for further work - as a backup, just in case. Takes sometimes less time that trying to get to the core of the problem... I just wonder why it happens - everything is imported correctly and every single sprite is in its place in the GUI editor, AGS namely reassigns everything automatically by import. And then refuses to accept the results of its own work :

Making myself ready for a game creation I am now making myself acquainted with the advanced possibilities of AGS and preparing and testing ready modules and things to import and not test them in the main project in order to keep the scripting "clean".
Now I have a curious problem with my custom GUI, please explain or redirect me if this problem has already been mentioned somewhere:

- I create a Custom Text Window GUI with all 8 side and corner buttons graphics and a background image. Then I check it out - everything works fine, and export it.
- Then I start a new game using the "Default" template. The resolution and bit depth are presizely the same with the debug game the GUI was created. Then I import my exported GUI (as I would do when main work begins from scratch). Then I import the same fonts I used for text. In the editor, everything is fine - the GUI imports nicely, a new folder is created in the Sprite Manager, and in the GUI editor all sprites for tile buttons and background are reassigned according to their new numbers - everything looks as it should be. Then I tick "Text windows use GUI" and supply the number my imported GUI now has in the GUIs list. Then I create a test room, save it, and when it goes to testing, a strange thing happens - when performing the same basic actions where a message should appear, a text box is obviously drawn, and text appears, but ALL the imported GUI graphics is substituted by other sprites - namely, by the blue cup, the pink poster and the key, which appear on the edges, corners and background where imported sprites should be. I check it out again in the GUI editor - every button backround image is set correctly for a corresponding sprite. Whatever I tried it does the same thing when running the game with an imported GUI . What am doing wrong or forget to do, and what may be the problem? Any clue would be appreciated.

Came across the similar problem myself.
The size of the character on-screen depends on these main things:
- screen resolution of the game,
- relative size of the character sprite,
- scaling of the walkable area.

When, for example, the resolution is set for 640x480 and the character sprite is less than 80 pixels high, it will sure look too small. Either adjust the walkable areas scaling or import the low-res sprites for hi-res screens with "Import for 640x400" option turned OFF. The engine will then automatically double the size of the sprite on-screen, so there's no need to fiddle with the scaling for every room. "Smooth scaled sprites" is a must in that case, or low-res sprites will look too rough compared with fine backgrounds.
As AGS is a pure 2D-in-mind engine, it does not render the camera...

What is the maximum/optimal size (width) for an upper/lower side sprite in a customized text window? I have tried different sizes, and it seems to be a limit when the width exceeds 32 pixels: a tiled upper/lower border often sticks off the right edge of the text window (the tile begins on the left side or am I mistaken?) The ClipImage property in the GUI editor doesn't fix the problem. Is there some technical limit for such sprites or the only solution is to shrink the width? Screen size is 640x480.

Ah, Chris is not simply a great perfectionist, he seems to be the GREATEST of them all (but a great game deserves a great engine, no doubt about that, and AGS is a small marvel in itself for that purpose ) Backward compatibility is a crucial matter, for serious game development takes from months to years, and AGS versions change in course of that time, but what concerns me is: can it be that support of "everything at once" may lead to "bad" scripting style, when chunks of code written with "obsolete" syntax stuff will neighbor "new-fashioned" sections, which may lead to confusion of sorts, and possible runtime errors, especially with a programming rookie like me? (For a good game is impossible without scripting, even with AGS, and intricate scripting at that. I am studying it thoroughly a few weeks already, before attempting to start something wothwhile of my own, otherwise it would be only a waste of time). I mean, PERHAPS it would be better to retain backward compatibility on an "invisible" level, when the engine understands the "obsolete" script when importing a game created with a previous version, and automatically tries to CONVERT the code into new syntax, but no more allows to use the "obsolete" stuff directly when starting from scratch. In any case, that's only an IMHO, Chris doing a tremendous job to satisfy the needs of everyone who gets involved with AGS. And that's quite a number of different people who should be thankful to him as am I among many others

2.71: Two thumbs up! 2.72: promises to be even better (as it should be, with such a devoted team and its Master Chris  )
Just a small suggestion: the implementing of sub-folders for speech and music files was a great relief, could it be carried even further: a separate sub-folder for in-game sounds - in a good game they could count by dozens, cluttering the parent folder considerably. And with the new extended sound possibilities of the engine it is a thing to expect in games being created from scratch via new versions of AGS - ambience, object interaction responses etc. Maybe the imported TTF fonts deserve their own folder as well, in order to have everything sorted nicely/ It would be a minor change, but a helpful one.
Good job, Chris! An impressive start for the new year!

The version 2.71 is a great update (but will there be a final release of the scripting syntax? Features are getting obsolete quicker than some people get accustomed to them)
A question from a newbie: the Snow/Rain plugin (available for download from this site) worked fine with the previous AGS 2.70 release, but refuses to work with the new 2.71 engine. It generates no error messages (except when "Force OO-based scripting" is ticked: then "undefined object XXX" messages begin to appear, but it happened with 2.70 as well), the demo game runs nicely... except that there is no snow or rain. Is it due to the major changes in scripting from 2.70 to 2.71 or it needs the update of the plugin DLLs from the developer? I think other plugins should also be tested  for compatibility, but my question concerns for now this one. Thanks.

Hi all, I'm a new member around here

By way of a first and (hopefully) useful message,

DON'T YOU FOLKS ever mess with the hosting at Http://yandex.narod.ru It sucks, that's all there is to it. It is a Russian site, and I am a Rusiian too, so I know what I'm talking about. First, there is a 5 meg per file limit, second, the connection speed is awful slow, so any up\download would last for ages (some of my friends have their sites there and all of them complain about that too), third, it won't let you upload files in RAR archive format, so you'd need to make a workaround, fourth - the hosting is down way much too often... it isn't  the best choice.

But I have a much more decent alternative:

http://www.fromru.com

it's a free mail service, if you create a mailbox there, you'll automatically get 40 megs hosting space.

minor disadvantages:
- it is in RUSSIAN 
- the uploaded files are purged from the server automatically after some time, about a month :'(

advantages:
- it's completely free
- no file size limit - up to 40 meg per single file, maxing the hosting size itself
- fair connection speed and alternative FTP access for up/download
- the server is almost never down
- you can upload anything with any file extension

So it is a very good choice for hosting mid-sized demos and like. For a decent permanent hosting, try out

http://www.freebox.ru/

with UNLIMITED hosting size, 3rd level domain name, SSI and FTP access. Creating a site you can initially specify the "games" content category... it is Russian too, but it is FREE. If someone here considers trying something of the above, just mail me, I'll translate it for you