Messages

I'm not quite sure about Vista, but will this work if you include a batch file as an alternative work around, containing the following line?

GAMENAME --setup

Last resort. Stick a line in the manual, telling the users to type in the line themselves in a command prompt (hope that it won't require solving a 15-panel puzzle to be able to launch the command prompt in Vista) if nothing else works.

Management of rights on Windows has become more and more stupid recent. I hope CJ could comment on this and give a better suggestion.

Edit: I think this is probably because of the .cfg has to be saved in the game's own directory (I don't know whether this is the case under Vista). There was a reason (a very stupid one, IMO) to move saved games and other output files (such screenshots) to the horrible "My Documents" directory.

Heh I'm the 101st person who downloaded it. I wonder whether the one before me got any kind of gift or not.

But I noticed that they scaled down the height a bit more as the width. I don�t know why. I think than it looks a bit more cartoony.

This is because games of those days used the 320x200 resolution (no matter whether it's AGI or SCI in CGA, EGA, MCGA or whatever), which when displayed on a 4:3 (standard) monitor screen the pixel aspect is not square (same goes to 640x400, whereas for 320x240 and 640x480 the pixels are square). Each pixel is actually a tall rectangle. The width:height ratio of a pixel in such mode is (200/3):(320/4)=1:1.2 . So, if you want to say paint a square you need to use a bit more pixels in the horizontal direction than the vertical direction. That's why they resized photos (be they used as-if or used for rotor-scoping) to be a bit wider as this made the images displayed in their correct aspect ratio in-game. Since most people develop games under a desktop with square pixels few people will notice this now. Note that even some game designers in the past didn't care about this and so graphics actually appeared stretched vertically, but ironically when these games are played under a square pixel aspect display (since as played windowed with DOSBOX) the graphics will magically appear like having their aspect ratio fixed, but for games that were designed with this in mind (such as AGI and SCI games) they'll appear squished when played under resolutions with square pixel aspect.

To people who still manage to argue that 320x200 was a wide-screen resolution: no, this was never intended as a wide-screen resolution. Using a wide-screen monitor for computers was not a popular idea until recently, and coincidently when 320x200 is displayed fullscreen on a 16:10 monitor the pixels become squares, so some people use this as a wide-screen resolution now but this was never the case in the past.

So, depending on what screen resolution you expect your characters are supposed to put on, if you want to use 320x200 or 640x400 like classics games you should scale the sprites' height down a bit so that they appear correctly, but if you use resolutions with square pixels such as 320x240 or 640x480 you actually don't need to do that.

OMG MUST DOWNLOAD!1!




Maybe it's time for me to attempt making a fully playable AGI version of the series.

I meant their Y coordinates, as your codes check only the Y coordinate of the player, so if the player is standing at a Y coordinate that's in-range of the orange and the blue one at the same time only the first condition will be executed.

A better way is to check whether the player is in a rectangular range (i.e. check also his X coordinate), or if appropriate, you may simply use player.IsCollidingWithChar() to check whether the player collides with a gate.

Hmmm. Will the ranges [cBlue.y, cBlue.y+30] and [cOrange.y, cOrange.y+30] overlap?

Lock GUI elements to prevent accidental movement/resize.

Snap to grid of GUI elements.

These were actually implemented in the old editor before moving to V3.
Now, GUI elements may move out of place whenever you click one of them, which is very annoying.

[GUI]

Try putting this in repeatedly_execute_always():

Code: ags

cIndicator.x = GetViewportX()+20;
cIndicator.y = GetViewportY()+50; //Ditch the GetViewportY() part if no room will scroll vertically

HOWEVER, a more logical solution is to use a GUI instead of a character (which I'm fairly sure that most other games, possibly including Trilby's Notes do this). GUIs use screen coordinates and you do not need to reposition them repeatedly to deal with scrolling.

Gilbet, since I'm not really aware, this takes *.agp files and converts them to a png or a dynamic sprite that you can color in certain ways?

As long as it is an AGI picture resource file it should be able to load, no matter it's named *.agp as in WinAGI or PICTURE.### as in PicEdit of any versions of AGI Studio, they're just the same thing. It creates dynamic sprites.

Does this mean you've cracked and upgraded to AGS3? :o

Not actually. As I mentioned it was just meant to be a test and not AGS related, so whichever version I used has no importance. As for this test I needed more recent features such as dynamic sprites and noloopcheck (to make life easier) so I just blindly chose the newest stable version.
As I personally will never use modules or really need these features for serious games I will still stick to V2.X.

[AGIPicDecode_Picture]

(I'll create the respective Wiki page and move this to the Module section later.)
[imgzoom]http://i488.photobucket.com/albums/rr249/gilbot/AGIPicDecoder.png[/imgzoom]
As its title suggests this script module decodes picture resource files that were used in Sierra's classic AGI game interpreter. Note that this module is NOT tested exhaustively. If you have any problems, just drop me an e-mail or post in this thread.

I often use AGS for testing stuff, as it provides a simple environment without the need to say, setting up DirectX, OpenGL or including any libraries for small things to show up. This is no exception. It was not meant to be anything used in AGS games but I considered to release it anyway.

Features:
- Decodes AGI picture resource files, with optional priority screen.
- Works under ALL colour depths supported by AGS.
- The colour used for each slot can be changed if required.
- A simple demo is included.

Usage:

Just import the module into your game via the AGS editor. Remember that AGS V3.1.2 or later is required.
To decode an AGI picture resource file (say, with filename "street.agp") in your game, just use the following codes:

Code: ags

AGIPicDecode.Draw("street.agp");
AGIPicDecode.ShowPic();

You can then get a DynamicSprite with pointer AGIPicDecode_Picture which you can use in your game. Consult the included document for more information.

You can download the module from my blog entry or download it directly here(Mediafire).

Edited on 29-6-2017:
Fixed dead link since my blog has been moved.

Not actually I think (either the forum software we are using does not have it or it's not activated), but we have c.leks the killer bot (yeah) and global mods such as Andail and AGA who surely would take whatever suitable actions depending on their moods.

stuff

Or, to make it simple for tl;dr people (that the target of this post is obviously one of them):
Don't double or triple post. Edit your posts, or else c.leksutin is after you (this is called auto-banning from life).

P.S. I'm getting the 'log-in' pop-up in this thread also, so one of us who post here must've an image or whatever hosted in 2dadventure, either in his signature or the avatar. Better hunt it down (all right, it's R4L's avatar).

In the default room template the (black) background is a 8-bit image, and room backgrounds won't be converted even after changing the game to 16- or 24-bit, and any attempt in using Drawing Surface functions on the background would result in corrupted graphics  (I know this because I am making something at the moment and got a lot of this kind of problems).

Spoiler

I have a large, powerful looking sword yet I cannot do things like cutting a rose. I have a small blunt knife yet I cannot cut it either. I have...

[close]

Now I have beaten this epic full-length hard game. This makes me gay.

This is the Hints and Tips forum, so every post here usually contains spoilers anyway. There's no need to really hide stuff unless it's really essential, like this:

Spoiler

If you still don't realise what this thread was all about after checking the original dates I am helpless.

[close]

I was avoiding from reading any posts or posting anything in this thread, for obvious reasons, but but but but...

even if it's a demake. 

YOU asked for this...

Does the spray can come with a hand, or is the hand missing a body?  :

This is obviously an adventure game reference. Guess which!

4)and please don't hate square besause of me.

I used to like Enix (since DQ4 is the bestest thing on earth) and not like Square that much (since FF are never the bestest). Now, I'm forced to hate something called Square Enix.

In a 8-bit game you can keep index 0 as black and use it as transparency. If you want opaque black pixels on sprites just draw these pixels with another colour slot which is also set as black (no, don't use craps like photoshop; these "high-end" programmes just ruin everything if you're seriously into 8-bit).

8-bit for the whole game or 8-bit sprites? Aren't 8-bit sprites being automatically converted if imported into a 16/32 bit game?

For the whole game. That's why this is here. Technically I'm not interested in making 16+ bit games.

This workaround works, but a bit inconvenient though.

(That's why I'd rather use 8-bit.)