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Seeing as most laptops these days have 16:9 or 16:10 displays, I'm wondering what the options are of running AGS games on such a display without stretching, showing black bars on the sides of the screen or running in a window.

From a coding point of view, I find it an interesting challenge to make a game that runs in 4:3 as well as 16:9 resolutions. But I'd like to know if it's actually possible. Since AGS can use 640*400 resolution which is 16:10 aspect ratio, I am wondering whether it would be possible to make a game that ran in both resolution, only showing a certain part of the screen (top part by default) in widescreen resolutions and the full screen area in 4:3 aspect ratio?

Edit: I know it's not currently possible, since there's no choice between 480/400 in the setup menu. So basically I'm asking CJ if this would demand major changes to the engine, or it would be a trivial matter to allow viewport flexibility.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I most certainly will get one of those mouse-pads when I start using my right hand again, but for now I'll just give it a rest (I actually managed to use the PS2 controller with one hand yesterday, so it should be possible to avoid using it). That cats paw thing looks really interesting, Damien, I've never seen that before. And thanks for the suggestion of using the other hand to simulate it - those excercises can easily be done without the thing itself.

I sure hope it'll get better soon so that I can start working on graphics again.

Thanks for the replies guys. I will keep SSH's advice about the straight line in mind, and start taking breaks like voh said (sorry to hear about your own problems, but I'm glad you got over it). And of course dkh is right that I should see a doctor, and I will. It's just that I'm stuck in Sweden for a few weeks and only going home on weekends - when the doctor's is closed.

I was wondering (seeing as most people here use computers for work as well as entertainment) if anyone here has personal experience with carpal tunnel syndrome? I've been reading up on it on the internet, but although there was plenty of information about the causes and symptoms, I haven't really found too much advice on what to do to avoid it getting worse.

Beginning last week I'm experiencing tingling and numbness in my right hand as well as pain when moving the wrist in certain angles. From the info I could find on the web, these are symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome, and to be honest I'm scared shitless by the possibility of fucking up my right hand. I can do a lot of stuff with my left hand, but I would really hate to lose my ability to draw.
The obvious advice would be to give it a rest and not use the hand for a while. And yes, that's what I'm trying to do. But at the same time, I have a job that means I have to work with computers all day, using keyboard as well as mouse (which I've now moved to left side of the keyboard) - and for at least some days also using a PS2 controller 4-5 hours a day.

So any ideas on what to do?

Thanks,
GG

There are two sticky threads related to this:

You can either check out the people who have advertised in the Offer Your Services thread or post a wanted ad in ACR - need help with a game.

Thanks CJ!

I think Jerry is a bit anonymous-looking, and I doubt I would recognize anyone but Kramer unless I saw them all together like this. But still nice work. So, are these for an actual game or just drawing practice?

Yes, you're right CJ. I checked and the grayscale thing DOES work with character.Tint. I could have sworn it didn't last time I tested. I see then that the only difference is that regions can be set to 200% brightness instead of 100% (though not tinted at the same time). Sorry for the confusion.

Edit: Now I remember why I thought it didn't work. I got it mixed up with the way the TintScreen function behaves.

I'd also like to restate my interest in reading back RGB, lum and sat values from a specific region, since you didn't comment on this.

Thanks for the reply.

You should talk to TerranRich...

There seems to be a bit of incongruity between the way (room editor preset) region lighting and the Tint commands work. Especially I wish that luminance would accept values up to 200% with the tint code, to brighten the sprite until 'white out'.

Also, in relation to this, I wonder if it would be possibly to add a command to read back the RGB, luminance and saturation settings from a certain region. This would be very helpful for certain lighting effects I'm working with.

Thanks for reading this suggestion CJ,
GG

Edit: Removed incorrect section after CJ's reply and re-checking the Tint functionality.

Broken Sword 3, near the end you have to pull out coloured wine bottles in a certain order for a door to open. Me and a friend where playing it (refuse to use any type of guides by the way) and in the end I ended up writing down every posibble order that the bottles could go in (ennded up being about 500) and we started.... guess what, it was the second to last one possible!!!! damn puzzles that doesnt make sence to me... (Still don't know how your ment to know what to do unless you try every one!)

Um, see my post further up on this very page.

Edit: ok, on the previous page actually.

Could it be that you have an old version of acwin.exe in your game directory? If so, the game will be compiled to run using that executable instead of the one corresponding to your editor version.

If I remember correctly, you collected insults from the pirates, which you could the use on other pirates to learn the proper comebacks. You could use the Swordmaster's insults on the other pirates but would never get any correct comebacks this way. When fighting the Swordmaster, you used the comebacks learnt from the pirates, but in reply to different (Swordmaster only) insults.

I think the staircase works fine now. However, the new door frame and the sliding door itself clash with the rest of the background. Perhaps it's the sharp black edge around the door frame, but for some reason it looks more like a drawing than a photograph. I would suggest toning down the contrast for a better match - and note that I preferred the old door frame without visible bolts.

Also, the windows(?) in the door are very black, unless of course the light in the stairwell only turns on once the door is open. I suggest showing a hazy view of the stairwell through the glass, I know it will make it more difficult to animate the door opening, but it shouldn't take too much extra work. I realize though that the background showing through at that height might not work well with the door itself. Another suggestion would be to elongate the window to cover most of the door (showing more of the stairwell), or to remove it entirely.

After seeing the reference photo I'm quite intrigued by the way you construct your backgrounds. Great work!

*cough* anti-aliasing tutorial *cough*

Ah, forget about it. On a serious note, it's nice to see the zine back. More comments when I've read it.

Mordalles- my point is that if you call a blocking function on the player at any time, such as a walk over to pick something up or change in mid-stride, the followcharacter thing breaks.  It's fine if you never need block routines or handle things through wait states but that tends to be messier than just using an alpha channel.

So don't use followcharacter and just change the X and Y of the shadow character in the repeatedly_execute_always. Using alpha channels really limit what you can do with the shadow (including turning it off, having dynamic shadows or using separate walkbehinds for it).

I would desaturate the colors a bit - perhaps also play with the contrast to get the slightly foggy feel of the hallway picture. Also, there's something about the window that is not quite right. Perhaps it's the branch outside, I can't really put a finger on it, but it's position/angle in relation to the window pane is unclear. Unless this is very high up (like 3rd floor or something) you could try putting in a "horizon" instead, showing the tops of the trees outside silhouetted in a blue/grayish tone.

Edit: The style of the picture reminds me of a Delphine game like Operation Stealth - something I don't associate with the first background. I think that shows they're quite different. Just something like the color on the door - you would assume that the color was pretty much the same on boths sides of a door? Another interesting thing is that neither of the backgrounds have any visible light sources other than natural light. Doesn't bathrooms usually have a light right above or next to the mirror? The only real mistake I can find in the lighting is that the wall area surrounding the window is bright. Where does this light come from? Certainly not from the window, and judging by the gradients not from the ceiling either. I quite like the background but in my opinion it doesn't match the hallway very well.

Edit: Scotch' paintover pretty much fixes the issues I have with the window. Good work.

Same for me. And opening it says the file is in an unknown format or damaged (which makes sense since it's a 0 byte file).

Looking good. The new interface makes it seem much more professional that Hauntings of Mystery Manor.

Why can't the bloke just grab both pebbles so people can see that there were two black ones?