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Perhaps the text dumping function could be changed to be more similar to "make translation source" except with the option to re-import text?

My own game doesn't use a single global/room message or dialog option/script, so the only current option for proofreading is to dump the entire game code - which is a mess to look at. It doesn't seem to make any sense when the translation source generator is perfectly capable of exporting strings only. Right now, for somebody who wants to have an easy-to-read document for their proofreaders, the only option is to create a translation source and the implement the changes manually.

Not colon, comma

edit: I would love to see an adventure game fully based in a run down amusement park. I think there may have been one already made, but i'm not sure.

The Residents: Bad Day on the Midway and Panic in the Park come to mind. Some would say Monkey Island 1 and 2, but that's a whole other can of worms

Sounds like a very basic setup you've got there. Nice, I like simple interfaces.

1) What's the point in telling the player he can't interact with something? Just make the left button run the "look" interaction. Since you've got the text line to tell what the click will do, this should surprise nobody.

2) Don't bother specifying the right button action if it's always the same (but then it MUST always be the same, that is, give a brief description of the item that is not necessary to complete the game - you can't have it act as "Search" in some other context). In fact, I would prefer not mentioning the mouse buttons in the text line as it ruins some of the immersion. "Open chest" is fine.

3) Go with the pause menu (hell, only AGS games have the save/load/quit functions right in the icon bar and it's such a waste of screen space considering how little you use them - not to mention that bloody "about" button people use). I suggest having F5/F7 open the save/load windows too and allow for F6/F9 quicksave/quickload like other game genres do.

Thanks for replying CJ.

Yes, I am aware that these things are perfectly possible, even WITHOUT the RawDrawOnSprite function. Pretty much all my visual effects use this exact technique, RawClearing the screen to RGB(255, 0, 255), RawDrawing sprites and the creating a DynamicSprite from this. For some effects I use characters to display the DynamicSprites, for some I use GUIs. For some even objects if it's a single-room effect.
The reason for my suggestion was to try to avoid the hackish use of characters, GUIs etc. which would make it more usable for modules distributed to the public. I realized after posting the suggestion that I should probably be satisfied that I have my own little workarounds and not worry too much about future modules which I may or may not release.

Please, feel free to lock or delete this thread.

No...

Well, depends what you mean by "Draw". If you mean RawDraw - well, then:
2) RawDrawing a character wouldn't allow light/tint values for him

If you mean drawn as characters are normally drawn, then what do you mean by "draw" in step 4?

Edit: Anyway, I'm all for the RawDrawOnSprite function - it's a bit superfluous, but it would make some things slightly easier. In this case I don't see what it can do, which can't already by done easily using the background as a buffer though.

Edit 2: Come to think of it, a lot of this could be solved if CJ just allowed x, y, width, height coordinates for the DynamicSprite.CreateFromScreenShot function as I suggested another time (because grabbing the entire screen to a sprite, then cropping it causes a big performance hit in hi-res). Then you could just grab the area with the character, hide the character, then rawdraw that area again.

Heh, I want to RawDraw characters, yes - and then draw stuff on top of them which ISN'T affected by the light. walkbehinds etc. that the character is affected by. Perhaps a better way to explain is like this:

1) RawDraw stuff on background (normally)
2) RawDraw character on top of this (as a character would normally be drawn) - this is the function I suggested
3) RawDraw stuff on top of everything drawn previously (normally)

My current workaround (for my particle system) consists of first RawDrawing the particles that are in front of the character and within his x,y,sprite dimension. This is grabbed as a DynamicSprite and overlaid using a GUI (to allow for transparency which Overlays don't). Then I RawRestoreScreen and RawDraw the rest of the particles. It works fine for me, but for modules the use of a GUI is a bit of a mess - as will it be if there are multiple objects/characters on-screen.

Edit: Of course a problem in all of this, which I hadn't really considered since it hasn't been an issue on my backgrounds, is that in fact the background layer RawDraw should also adapt to the walkbehinds. In the end I think all of this is too messy to implement in the engine, especially as there are workarounds. Any moderators, please lock/delete this thread as you see fit.

Gilbot, can you please explain what you mean? I'm not sure if we're talking about the same thing.

If by "raw draw on sprites" mean that I should RawDraw on top of the character sprite before placing him on the screen (which is already possible by using the background as a buffer), you're missing the point. If you did this, any RawDrawn objects in front of the character - for example raindrops - would be affected by the same light effects and walkbehinds as the character, which makes it useless.
My biggest wish for a new feature would be to allow color/light manipulation directly on DynamicSprites - then we could get rid of character rendering altogether and RawDraw everything directly.

But anyway, none of this is crucial. I have an OK workaround which works fine for me, but just sucks when scripting modules to share with others.

I'm aware that CJ is currently working on the new editor and probably won't implement new features for a while. But I thought this was a good idea and would rather suggest it before forgetting it:

Many of the coolest graphical effects in AGS require the use of RawDraw. But there's always the problem of RawDrawn items appearing behind characters and objects. It's possibly to also RawDraw the character (with manual scaling of the sprite to match area scaling), but any light effects or walkbehinds will not affect the RawDrawn sprite. To solve this, I suggest two new functions:

RawDrawCharacter(Character* cha, optional int x, optional int y, optional transparency)
RawDrawObject(Object* obj, optional int x, optional int y, optional transparency)

The functions would RawDraw the character and objects on-screen just as they would normally appear - behind walkbehinds according to baselines, with proper scaling, tinted or lit according to area/global settings, at the coordinates of the original character/object unless anything else is specified (for ease of use, the coordinates for each function share the same inconsistencies as normal object/character coords). Since it's assumed that the real character will be 100% transparent to hide it, the default transparency for RawDrawing the character is 0 - this is the only parameter not carried over from the character but must be changed manually if transparency is needed.

I realize that there may be some problems in realizing this, as sprite/walkbehind handling may use different allegro libraries than the RawDraw functions. In that case I see why it's not possible. But either way, thanks for taking the time to read and consider this suggestion.

[Song:]

Song: Start Wearing Purple by Gogol Bordello
Comment: Crazy Balcanic Gypsy folk-punk from New York. I've seen these guys live twice, once in Denmark, once in Bologna, Italy, and loved it both times (though the show was slightly less energetic the second time as their chinese dancer broke her leg during the concert).
How I discovered it: They played at the Roskilde Festival last year, easily among the top-three acts of the whole festival.
Fun fact: The song is on the soundtrack of the film version of Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated. Lead singer Eugene Hütz plays a major part in the movie as Elijah Wood's Ukranian guide Alex.

He's referring to the list of Ben Jordan titles at  http://www.grundislavgames.com/benjordan/ where it says:

Case 7: --- -------- ----

It's kinda weird how the mean character looks the same on very shot though.

Obviously it's because he's scared stiff! No doubt from his encounters with all those nude men.

Download and run the .exe file.

It seems that the rumor last July was indeed that Portman should play Indy and Marion's daughter. Somehow I'm glad that didn't pan out. Daughter or not, Karen Allen had better be in it though. As long as it doesn't also mean that Mrs. Spielberg will be making a reappearance and (almost) ruin yet another Indy movie.

I think share-alike is messy, messy, messy in this context. For instance, few people would allow derivative works of their finished games, whereas a module MUST allow derivative works - already there a share-alike license would be impossible. As I see it, pretty much the only creative commons licenses relevant to modules would be "attribution" and "noncommercial" or not depending on the author's wishes.

You just need to code a simple timer:

In the top of your script:

Code: ags

int shaketimer;

in repeatedly_execute_always

Code: ags

if (IsGamePaused == 0) { //you probably don't want the screen shaking while in the save menu etc.
   if (shaketimer > 500) {
      ShakeScreenBackground (4, 10, 80); // or whatever
      shaketimer = 0;
      }
   shaketimer++;   
   }

But what would the "share alike" clause mean for games using the modules? Does it mean they need to be open source? Does it mean they can't be sold? Simplicity isn't always the same as clarity

Apparently it's a Yahoo exclusive or something, and doesn't come until tomorrow:
http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/piratesofthecaribbeanatworldsend.html

Edit: The official site also has a countdown for tomorrow: http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/pirates/atworldsend/

Wasn't Portman supposed to play his daughter? I never thought they meant for her to be the love interest of grandpa Ford but rather Marion's daughter or something.

My game compiled fine and seemed to run without problems. I haven't played around much with the editor itself since there seems to be so many features still missing.
I really have trouble adapting to the .NET 2.0 style (I also recently got Microsoft Expression Web and the interface is a major obstacle), so I don't expect to upgrade until there are major changes made to the engine itself. I wonder how easy it will be for Microsoft to get casual users to accept this, probably the biggest change since Win95 came out.