Messages

Hello, I would like to attenuate a text, I thought to put a GUI representing a halo, which would be displayed over the text. But even by changing the Z, the halo remains behind. I also tried to use another font but I can not do it, how to change the font that uses a character? All the information I found did not work.

I will assume that by "text" you mean character speech.

Please clarify what kind of "halo" effect do you have in mind, can you post an example that presents your idea? That might let us to suggest better solution.

In regards to the questions.
By default the speech text is drawn on a overlay that has the maximal possible ZOrder, you cannot set anything above it. So either:
1. Reduce this overlay's z-order to a lower value instead. You can get speech overlay using Speech.TextOverlay, but you have to do so in (late_)repeatedly_execute_always, because that's the only two functions that run during blocking speech.
2. Write a custom speech function that displays character speech on a GUI label. Then you can add any more additional effects as you like.

Character speech font is changed using Game.SpeechFont property.

I might be wrong but couldn't you use an object image instead and change the Baseline?

Room objects are within the room and not sorted with speech overlays.

Hah, that's a nicely done minimalistic game.

changing room id from the explore projects panel or from within a room from the properties panel gives a System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException ("Error: Could not find a part of the path.").

• using the current Build 4.00.00.17 v4.0.0, April 2025.
• my projects are located in folder C:\Users\Arjon\Documents\__AGS\<projectname>\

Please try this build:
https://cirrus-ci.com/task/6587169357168640

Another thing. Previously there have been editor plugin sample files on following address:
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/AGS.Plugin.Sample.zip
(this is the link from the manual)

they are no longer available. Is there any way to recover them?

Animations may also be played with sprites, that's a standard way to do that, unless it's a too complex fullscreen animation.

The loading scenes might also use a Ken Burns effect.

I had to search for this, and if I understand it right, this may be easily done by moving and scaling a static sprite around the screen, or scrolling and zooming a room camera.

If that's a "still image of the characters on the beach or getting lunch and says "loading"", then why use videos, and not a sprite?

There's a link to the old online manual:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/manual/

It's not working anymore. Would it be possible to make a redirect to:
https://adventuregamestudio.github.io/ags-manual/
?

Backwards compatibility has been a very important part of the development of AGS. It's only recently that the various developers (there's quite a few who work on the engine) have been considering removing some of the backwards compatibility in order to make the engine function better and be easier to maintain.

Dropping backwards compatibility has been suggested from the start. The problem with this project was that there were people who wanted to have a fully backwards compatible engine capable of running old games (because it was important for other systems), and those who wanted to drop compatibility completely. The ones who were writing backwards compatible engine were more active in practice, and when I joined the project I did not realize this whole issue, so went along with their chosen route, and kept backwards compatibility for way too long. This had a large negative impact on the development.

Then, I double checked that "quite a few" means "many". No, we are not "quite a few" developers, we are very few. There's literally couple of people who work more or less persistently (at least for the last several years), and then maybe 2-3 more that contribute periodically. The people changed over time, but these numbers remained same. The list of people working on AGS credits over 40 people, but majority of them have made couple of contributions over the years and never returned again.

Another update: the shaders feature is practically done, at least in the first iteration. Every drawn game object has a Shader property, also: Camera, Viewport, and Screen, so you may have shader effects on them all in any combinations. Savegames work too; furthermore, it's possible to save game with one graphic driver and load it with another, and have shader settings persist (shaders may work differently or not work at all, as with software renderer, but all the shader settings are remembered regardless).

There are couple of remaining issues, but they will have to be addressed separately.

PR with full explanation and usage instructions:
https://github.com/adventuregamestudio/ags/pull/2716
Download experimental build from CI:
https://cirrus-ci.com/task/5684067657580544

NOTE: the very first post in this forum thread contains outdated information. I will replace it tomorrow when will have more spare time.

The manual that comes with the editor doesn't appear to be working. At least for me...

This is usually caused by Windows blocking the downloaded chm file. You can fix it by finding ags-help.chm file in editor program files, open file properties and click "Unblock".

I cannot tell which exactly manual is not working, since you did not mention that, but the online manual is available here:
https://adventuregamestudio.github.io/ags-manual/

The history of major changes may be found in "Upgrading from a previous version" section:
https://adventuregamestudio.github.io/ags-manual/UpgradingFromPreviousVersion.html

-Export each layer as a .pcx (alternative is .bmp, those are the only two AGS export formats)
-Choose a specific layer to export as a walkable area mask (tiles will not be walkable, everything else will--this is required by my platformer game template I'm making)
-Convert .pcx files to .png using outside program (AGS cannot import .pcx). I don't like this step, but the alternative is exporting as .bmp, which is space-inefficient.
-Import each tile layer as an object in the room
-Import walkable area mask (which should match the "normal" ground tile layer).

I did not realize that the purpose of this is to export room images with intent to reimport them back.
Usually, with the level editor, one would expect it to save a level as a data (either in binary, or a textual format) that may be loaded in game and have level imagery recreated at runtime from the same tiles. This way:
* the workflow will speed up significantly;
* you may also have unlimited number of levels in the same room;
* you may edit the level and test run it right away from the same game.

On another hand, if you prefer to have levels as series of images that may be imported in the AGS room editor, then there are existing tools that let create such "levels". For example, there's a Tiled level editor, which, I assume, may be used for that purpose.

EDIT: Of course, none of the above excuses AGS from not supporting loading and saving PNGs at runtime, that is something that should have been added years ago, but still is not. Also, Editor could let import PCX files, since AGS engine saves these.

Question: who is trying 3.6.2 right now? I know that greg does, but is there anyone else?
I noticed that no more serious bugs were found since the last RC update (there were couple of new bugs found in earlier versions, that also affect 3.6.2, but these relate to uncommon situations), and I think that I may announce a stable release in this month.

I didn't encounter the buttons' bug with your last build ! Do you really need my game so ?

That last build posted here is not latest made, it's earlier made. The first one that I posted here was the latest made. If it has errors, then I will need to fix it.

@Baguettator , I tried testing few small games using the previous build, and could not notice any mistakes.

Is there a way to get your game privately, to let me look into these issues you had with buttons?

So should I try your last build first ?

The last link is a link to the earlier build which contains just the fix to the screenshots.
The link that I posted earlier today was a build which contains more changes, and it seems broken, as you say.

So, it's broken even more now.

Please try this, this is a earlier build made just with a fix:
https://cirrus-ci.com/task/6097909818589184

EDIT 2 : OK, it seems this temp build you sent me messes up with call functions. What happened is that clicking on some buttons that DON't HAVE onclick functions in editor calls the onclick functions of OTHER BUTTONS which don't react when I click on them.

Is there a way to get your game build again? Or can I use the one that you sent previously?
I am not sure if there's a specific scenario that I need to be testing.

But I didn't make any screenshot... From what I investigated, it happenned during a player.ChangeRoom function.

Are you using a Crossfade or Dissolve transition? they make screenshots.

The message says :
(Engine version 4.0.0.17)
Error : GetRenderTargetData failed

There's this error again! It happens when you make a screenshot of the game.
I fixed it recently, but did not realize that it's already in the release.

It's being displayed by our automatic tests too, but I don't know how come that I did not notice that!

I will have to make a urgent update.

Here's a temp build from our build server, but it has more changes, so idk if it messes anything else:
https://cirrus-ci.com/task/4615289289048064

The engine versions between 3.6.0 and 3.6.1 had an intentional master volume multiplier of 0.7. This was added by a person who prepared engine transition from old sound subsystem to a newer one based on SDL2. I think that this was an attempt to sync the sound with the pre-3.6.0 levels, but I am not sure. I did not question that at first, but later removed this factor. It should no longer be applied in 3.6.2. Please try 3.6.2 and tell if that sounds better?