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I was wondering if there's any way to check for Caps Lock being on/off (like you can check for Shift being pressed)?

I've been trying to find some public domain recordings of Mozart operas for a game I'm planning (whether I get them or not can affect whether the game is even made, so this is kinda important). I haven't been succesful in finding anything online, but I found a cd at my local library of an opera performed back in 1937. So I'm wondering, would this make it public domain, or does the people who reissued it own the rights to the cd recording?

And what about public domain films? I have a list of films that ARE in the public domain, but my only copies of them are recorded from TV or purchased on VHS/DVD. Do I need to own an actual cellluloid print of the movie to be able to use it in a game, or would it be legal to scan it from the tapes?

I'm having a problem with antialiased ttf fonts. Whenever antialiasing is turned on, antialiased label or button texts will move down a couple of pixels (I'm not sure whether this is the case for RawDrawing of antialiased fonts as well). The height of the shift seems to vary depending on the size of the font, but I've experienced texts that jump 4 or 5 pixels whenever antialasing is turned on/off. This makes it impossible to  align certain texts precisely.

Also, the shift isn't an exact number of screen units, so it isn't possible to take precautions such as just moving the text 1 or 2 units upwards if the text is antialiased.

(The problem is very obvious in my game, as it has an option to toggle anitaliasing in-game, and the whole options menu jumps down whenever it's activated. But unless you force antialiasing always on or off at game start, anybody could experience it by using the setup program)

I was wondering if there's any way of calling a room object by it's o-name in the global script? I have some code that I'd like to use for several rooms but only call for the ones where it's necessary. But of course AGS doesn't know where it will be used, so it fails to compile due to an unknown o-name referred.

I can use object

• commands, but it would be easier if the object didn't have to have the same number for every room.
  
  I'm considering using a repeated GetName(object) at the start of every room script to compare the name and pass the object number to a global variable, but is there any easier way?

Is there some logical reason why some of my textboxes doesn't run their Activate script when the enter key is pressed? One of them works perfectly, but the other two simply don't register the enter key being pressed. I even put a really simply action in their script, just to see if ANYTHING would happen, but not even a simple display-command could be triggered.

They do react to typing and backspace, but pressing enter does nothing, even if their set up to run a script.

Could it have something to do with other text boxes, even though they are on completely different GUIs and aren't visible at the time? The one working is the first text box I set up, if that has anything to do with it.

Would it be possible to implement horisontal/vertical sprite flipping at runtime, writing it to a temporary sprite slot? I could really use this feature.

Seeing as the debug function does display the FPS count, would it be possible to add a command to get this as an int (for detecting performance issues and turning on/off visual effects accordingly)?

Is there any workaround for repeatedly_execute_always being halted while dialog options are shown? I CAN keep it running despite all other text windows and popup modal GUIs, but the built-in dialog options kills it?

Is there any logical explanation for there not being any unhandled event WHAT/TYPE combinations for:

Pick up nothing
Cursor Mode 8 on nothing
Cursor Mode 9 on nothing

I know how to script around it, so it's no biggie. But it seems like a weird thing for the function to be incomplete like this?

I have a function where I need to align the last part of a save game name exactly no matter the length of the first part. I thought it could be done by adding spaces (checking for string length, then adding " " until it's correct). Of couse you need a font where all the letters/symbol/space are the same width, and I've found one that behaves like that in Word as well as in Photoshop.

BUT, when I import the ttf font in AGS, all of a sudden the space DOESN'T take up the same width as the other characters!

Is this an AGS thing, or should I keep on trying some other fonts? (I also tried with the SCI fonts, without any success). Is there anyway I could modify the font to get it to work?

We have Normal, MouseOver and Pushed graphics, but it would be really nice if you could also set a DisabledGraphic for GUI buttons.  The "greying out" doesn't always look good on custom-made button graphics.

I've looked in the tracker but couldn't find anything related to this. Thanks for reading this suggestion.

This is mostly meant as a question for CJ, but other people may have some views as well:

Which of these two is most likely to happen:

1) AGS supporting in-engine edge-anti-aliasing of 16-bit sprites (possibly with one of those filters used in ScummVM)?

2) AGS supporting anti-aliasing of scaled 32-bit characters using alpha channels?

Currently, the choice is between the edges looking bad in 16 bit and the whole character looking bad when scaled in 32-bit. I'm *THIS* close to abandoning 32-bit color altogether, in part because of this, in part because of size/performance. Any kind of answer, no matter how hazy, would be a great help in making up my mind.

I've been trying to find a way to auto-assign file names to screenshots, to prevent them from overwriting eachother. Currently I'm using the RawTime-feature and the StrCat command (not sure, I'm writing this from memory as I'm not at my own computer), so the screenshots are titled SP11004309.pcx and similar. This allows the user to save a screenshot every second without overwriting previous ones. And it works great. But it's not all that pretty. So I'm wondering, is there some other way to do it?

Some things I've considered and decided against:

1) Using the date and time to name them. While the number wouldn't appear as arbitrary as the rawtime number, the file name would be even longer than it is now (if using ddmmyyhhmmss format) and as the file already has its own date, the information is redundant for the player.

2) Using an external file to store the number of screenshots taken and assign n+1 to the next name. This would allow sequential numbering, but if the player deleted/moved the savegames, the next screenshots taken would continue the original sequence rather than restarting at 0.

SO, instead I'm wondering, is there any way at all to check the directory for existing files and continue the sequence (so if SP0009.PCX is found,  the new screenshot will be titled SP0010.PCX). I know how to do this for savegames, but not sure how to do it with other files.

Just checking with you guys before posting this as a feature suggestion:
Is there any way to give dialog options different colors (so that ones already clicked will display a different color than those not tried)?

Has anyone tried this game? I just stumbled across it, but I won't be able to download and play it for at least three more weeks. I've never heard about it before, but it looks really good:

http://nihilis.games.cz/deadcity_eng.html

ThisÃ,  is probably a dumb question, but I have to ask - is there any way to "tint" the screen black and white (you know, like the Sam & Max film noir mode)? It seems that the TintScreen function only is additive when it comes to color. I suppose you would need to set it to (-100, -100, -100), if it was possible to use negative values. Or would that make the screen black? I'm confusing myself here.

Not as much of a suggestion as just curiosity. CJ, do you have any plans of adding compression of save games to AGS? Especially after getting screenshots in save games, save files have become huge, but they compress really, really well.

Edit: Another question, somewhat related: Is antialiasing when rescaling screenshots for the save interface on your to-do list?

For the last couple of months I've made up all kind of excuses why I wouldn't bother with voice acting in my game - first of all, the amount of dialog. Second, the difficulty in finding the right actors for the parts and to get good line readings. Third, the matter of file size. I've been making up excuses, as if it was preferable to have voice audio if at all possible. But replaying the GK1 cd-rom version as well as playing newer games like Syberia II and Black Mirror made me think otherwise:

I don't actually enjoy voice acting in games. In fact, most of the time it detracts from the gaming experience, because it's so much more annoying to hear the characters repeat themselves in audio than in text.

I grew up with pre-cd-rom games like Police Quest, King's Quest IV. I even played Sam & Max, DOTT and GK1 in the floppy disc versions with no voices. And I actually prefer those versions! I was really looking forward to play GK1 again with voices, but it was such a disappointment. First of all, I turned off the narrator voice right away - she annoys the hell out of me, and even the simplest descriptions take forever to convey. Then, after hearing Gabe ask "What do you know about voodoo?" in the same voice about a hundred times, I went back to playing the floppy version (which doesn't have as many bugs either).

It's really difficult to find a game WITHOUT voice-acting these days - if you search hard, you might find an RPG, where the dialog uses text, but that's about it. But is voice acting really all that necessary? I mean, maybe it's just me. I'm the kind of person who actually prefers reading screenplays to hearing the dialog spoken in the films - mostly because I really notice what's being said and what the words signify when I read it.

I think that possibly voices are good for dramatic cutscenes, where you can do some things with timing and delivery, which is difficult to convey in writing - but in basic "information" dialog, it isn't really all that necessary.

What are your thoughts? Is voice acting overrated, does it even detract from the game (somebody, give me a text-only version of TLJ please)? Or has it actually made games better an more immersive?

After working on Shadowplay for quite a while now, I've begun to doubt a couple of my own decisions. One was to release it only when the full game was finished, another was to use 640x480 resolution.

1) The story is pretty clearly split up in 10 days, each of which could potentially be released as a separate episode. This would let me release the first part much quicker, but on the other hand, it does break up the gameflow, and it's always a bit disappointing when the drama builds up to a... "to be continued". It's a great teaser, as Bestowers of Eternity showed. But it might be a bit annoying to do this for 9 episodes (although it seemed to work for the Broken Saints flash movies).

2) It would make everything a lot quicker, if I used 320x200 resolution instead of 640x480. I wouldn't have to fiddle as much with details or bother with perfect character textures. AND the download size would be much smaller. GK1, which I'm trying to emulate, used 320x200 and to this day it looks pretty good (at least to me). Still, it might be a waste to put so much work into a game only to have it look like something from the early nineties. And the resolution DOES somewhat work against my drawing style, because the pencil lines tend to disappear in the pixel blur. But that means all errors would be hidden as well.

I'd like your thoughts on this. I know my own opinion, but it would be nice with some feedback from end-users.

I'd like your opinion on this. I've just read an E3 preview of Dreamfall (The Longest Journey 2), and I learned that the player character is named Zoe. Well, the thing is, one of the main characters in Shadowplay (though not the player character) is called Zoe as well. I thought it was a cute and sort-of original name for a game character, but well, no longer it seems.

Do you think I should rename my character? Obviously it's not a totally new name like Guybrush or Indiana, but still, won't people associate it with Dreamfall now? And won't that distract from my game?