Messages

@Monsieur OUXX, I can see the difference between "light grey" and "dark grey" even on your picture, so that might be difference in monitor gamma level.

I agree that the constrast between character background and main background is way too low. Different colors and/or grid lines will improve the look greatly.

Is there any plan of including the "256-characters SCI and WFN fonts" feature/hack into vanilla AGS any time soon? Just to know for how long I must resist the urge of breaking compatibility in my game

It was included into 3.4.0 alpha... don't know why there. Back then we did not have certain plans on what features these versions should have.

Reuploaded beta 10 again, it has three more bugs fixed.

[Window.]

I decided to make up a summary of the plans for the custom resolutions build in regards of the display modes. Many of the following is already featured, other things are yet to be implemented.
It would be nice to know opinions - does this all sounds proper?

The display mode is specified by the combination of the following parameters:

1. Original game resolution, or Viewport size.
2. Window size or fullscreen resolution ("window size" for simplicity).
3. Viewport position and scaling. I am calling the resulting rectangle a "Render Frame", or "Drawing Frame", internally.

Here's basic illustration to how it works:

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When the window is created, the game view is positioned/scaled inside according to some rules, making a "render frame".

Window.
The window is defined by size (width * height).
Window may be:
- fullscreen;
- plain window with border and caption (classic windowed mode);
- desktop-sized borderless window; although covering all screen, this is not an exclusive fullscreen mode and it may be generally easier for graphics card to handle one (although the rendering may be sometimes slower relative to fullscreen).

Window size can be determined either by directly setting width & height, or by following scaling filter settings.
In the latter case the window size will be recalculated as a (game size * scaling level), so the window is trying to match the supposed game view size.
Separately there's an option to Keep desktop ratio: as an alternative this mode will recalculate window size, but then correct it to make it match your desktop resolution's aspect ratio. This option have meaning only for fullscreen.
The desktop-sized borderless window is always the same resolution as the desktop.

Game viewport position.
Render frame is defined by scaling and positioning inside the window.
The scaling is a combination of selected graphics filter and a final stretching (applied only when necessary) done in a way specific for every driver (e.g. nearest-neighbor for software driver).

The render frame may be positioned in three different ways:
- Center: the scaling filter is applied (if any), then the result is centered inside the window. If no filter was selected, the game will appear unscaled*. This may cause black borders appear around the game view.
* "Unscaled" game will look larger or smaller depending on desktop resolution, also if a fullscreen mode is used, you will receive different visuals depending on fullscreen resolution. But technically it is the graphics card and/or monitor that scale the picture on their own.
- Stretch: the scaling filter is applied (if any) and then the result is stretched or squeezed to fill precisely the window. This may cause visuals to degrade, if the window size have different aspect ratio than the game size (the game may appear stretched horizontally or vertically).
- Proportional stretch (aka "Best fit"): the scaling filter is applied (if any) and then the result is stretched or squeezed to fill the maximal available space inside the window, while maintaining the original game's aspect ratio. This may cause either horizontal or vertical black borders appear (but not both).

Following are illustrations to these three options:

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WinSetup usability.
The average user usually won't care about how these things work internally, he will want a simple dialog to set up visuals he wants. The question is how to present him all these options.
This is what I came up with so far (WARNING: this is a dirty mockup):

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First the user choses the window mode: fullscreen / windowed / fullscreen window (better name anyone?).
Then user decides to either set precise window resolution or game scaling.

A. If user wants to set window resolution, a resolution list activates.
The "Keep game ratio" check serves as a switch between "stretch" and "proportional stretch" modes.
Filter selection is active, but the scaling level is not enabled for filters that support free scaling level (like nearest-neighbor and anti-aliased-nearest-neighbor), because the stretching will be done to max allowed by window size anyway.
Setting filter to "None" will basically make game appear centered in the window, if it fits, or scaled down proportionally if it does not.

B. If user wants to set scaling filter, a resolution list is replaced by a read-only label, that will display the calculated window resolution.
The "Match desktop ratio" check is self-explanatory.
Filter selection is active and a scaling level can be set either to one of the predefined values, or to custom level (if filter supports this).



The configuration file may still be edited by hand, or by custom setup program, to set more exotic combination of options.
The options are following:

Spoiler

gfx_driver - defines driver id

gfx_mode - defines the base mode
  gfx_mode=fullscreen
  gfx_mode=windowed
  gfx_mode=fullscreen_windowed

window_def - defines how window is determined
  window_def=resolution
  window_def=scaling

window_width - set window width
window_height - set window height

gfx_filter - defines the filter name

gfx_scaling_both - custom scaling multiplier
gfx_scaling_hor - separate horizontal scaling
gfx_scaling_ver - separate vertical scaling

match_desktop_ratio - defines whether window's aspect ratio must match desktop ratio

game_frame - defines the positioning of the render frame inside window:
  game_frame=center
  game_frame=stretch
  game_frame=proportional

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Bitmap loading function returns error even if succeeded, so DynamicSprite is never initialized .
Fixed now, will update beta soon.

"The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen".

Links:
1. Word "league".
2. Captain Nemo

Tyshalle, Default template is suggested for games with classic Sierra interface, it may have things superfluous for the style you're aiming (like verbs panel).
There are two templates that already have the "two-button interaction" interface, you probably could use them instead:

Lightweight BASS template:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=48441.0
More extended template with extra functions:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=48638.0


To answer your question:

The problem comes in when I try to interact with the inventory. I would like left clicking on the inventory item to switch to the Use Inventory mode, while right clicking on the item would be the same as looking at it. Currently, right clicking on an inventory item does nothing at all, and left clicking on it also does nothing at all.

First, you need to make sure that the option in General Settings "Inventory" -> "Override built-in inventory window clicks" is on (True).
Second, for clicks in inventory you should check special "eMouseLeftInv" and "eMouseRightInv" buttons.

A-and reuploaded beta 10 again.

Oh dear... I somehow did not notice.

It appears that the change that fixed the panes flickering prevents the pane to update its visuals in time. You have to save the game / switch panes to make it update the view.

Zelig now have less suspicious look, while Mrs. Lauder is like an angered Hindu goddess .

Isn't that new Shivah demo a special build for iOS? Maybe it is not even supposed to run on other platforms due change in UI or something?

EDIT: Oh, nevermind, noticed the thread: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=49522

An online chess game using Wyz's Sockets plugin, anyone?

Made a quick fix and re-uploaded beta 10. If you have already installed it, please consider to re-download.
The bug was related to paths containing unicode characters, engine appeared to fail working with them properly again (as it did back in the days of early 3.0), now fixed.

[AGS 3.3.0 BETA 10 released (engine version 3.3.0.1148)]

AGS 3.3.0 BETA 10 released (engine version 3.3.0.1148)
-------------------------------------------------------
A very small update, mostly fixing various bugs, both old and new ones.

-------------------------------------------------------
Changes from BETA 9:

Features:
- Speech overlays now support alpha blending; (God, I hope that's the last of them, and I did not miss anything else )
- Windows version will now write crash dump on "out of memory error" to help diagnose the situation if this occured due bug in the engine.

Bug fixes:
- Fixed script window flicker that occured when the script was first time modified and when it was saved (regression);
- Fixed occasional crash that could occur when creating new room (regression);
- Fixed occasional crash that could occur when copy/pasting text in the script;
- Fixed moving room objects with keyboard in Room Editor did not work properly for hi-res games which used low-resolution coordinates setting (regression).
- Fixed DynamicSprite.CreateFromFile() function (regression).
- Fixed superfluous string buffer growth in the engine, that could eat all your memory in some cases (regression);
- Fixed side-borders that were not applied properly at newer (larger) widescreen resolutions;
- Fixed custom dialog options clickable area by correcting its horizontal coordinate range.

Compatibility:
- Fixed <=2.72 games crash that occured if character view missed "Up" loop (unlike 3.+ games, older ones had a fallback to use "Down" loop in such cases).


Download links (also updated at first page):
EXE:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/betas/AGS-3.3.0-beta10.exe
ZIP:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/betas/AGS-3.3.0-beta10.zip

New audio system does not use room volume setting - at all.
The question is why the old commands do not work in certain rooms. What settings do you have there and how it works in practice?

although i don't understand very much now what is it good for if it just changes the window size while the game view has its own setting..

There are three settings:
1. Game size, which determines the base size of the game view.
2. Window size.
2. Final game view size inside the window, which determines how game view is positioned in the window. This one cannot be set directly, but calculated from number of parameters, like scaling filter, "renderstyle" option, etc.

Imagine there's a 320x200 game, and you have a 1920x1200 desktop. If you will run the game in the window using its base resolution then the window will be too small on your large monitor. Here is where scaling comes, to scale the game up to certain degree. For example, you can scale game x6, and the result will be exactly your desktop resolution, thus game will cover the whole screen.
Now, if the game is not 320x200, but 320x240, scaling to maximal size will make game appear stretched horizontally, because its size has different ratio than your desktop size. Here is where "renderstyle" comes: instead of stretching the game view to maximal possible, "renderstyle=2" stretches it proportinally, possibly leaving black borders around.

In this case the "rectangle" (4:3) game on the widescreen monitor will look like this:

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And the "wide" (16:10 or 16:9) game on the 4:3 monitor will look like this:

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[Radiant]

Radiant, I am sorry, I found I made the widescreen borders fix wrong, my previous change made it calculate incorrect wanted resolution.

This is an updated version:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/qyejemmk5i50ov7/acwin.7z

Now I was able to test it on my own computer too (because it suggested correct size, that was supported by my driver).

what i meant is if i use a background of the same resolution as i set in "acsetup.cfg", but its not the resolution that is set in the general settings, the background and sprites got distorted (e.g.: even in window mode it did show just a part of the background and upscaled version of sprite). However i tried it now again with 1600x800 resolution and in window mode it worked fine but with fullscreen renderstyle=2 it stretched the width of the view beyond my display while the height was shorter then height of my display, it worked as a scrollable background.

Wait...umm, I am not sure I understand this right.
If you mean that in general settings you have one resolution, like 800x600, and in "acsetup.cfg" you set higher resolution, like 1280x720, and have a room background 1280x720, then that room will indeed become a scrolling room, and only 800x600 part should be displayed at all times.
The resolution you type in "acsetup.cfg" does not change anything to game or room size, it is simply a size of the window. The viewport size (the visible piece of the game) should always stay the same - equal to game size as set in general settings.

In case I am mistaken, can you give more details, like which resolutions do you set everywhere? Also screenshots may really help.

Very well. In that case, please ignore that suggestion for 3.3.0 and consider it as an optional setting for 3.4.0 instead.

But it is a bug - I can't count how many times it's irked me playing a game and having the character explode into a million subpixels every time they scale. I don't think it looks good at all. I guess there could be an option in the config file if people really want it (hirescharacters=true?), but the regular operation of the nearest neighbour filter shouldn't do things like that.

No, no, I believe Radiant is speaking about different thing:

Another graphical glitch: if a GUI button is set to "no clipping" then images can indeed appear bigger than the button itself. However, text will not. When using truetype fonts that are slightly bigger than the button, this looks fine in the editor but is clipped in the game.

The character problem is different, this is something I noticed too in some games, and it looks very weird indeed.

if i use other resolution than one of the those available in the editor it rescales the background and sprites in the view

Well, it should do that, except when renderstyle is 0 and no scaling filter selected.

renderstyle=2 at 1280x720 fullscreen mode stretches the view in both dimensions not keeping the proportions. (my monitor's res.-1920x1200)

1280x720 and 1920x1200 have different aspect ratios; if you run 1280x720 fullscreen on 1920x1200 monitor, it will become distorted.
Try setting your native desktop resolution in setup:

Code: text

renderstyle=2
screenwidth=1920
screenheight=1200