Messages

You said DOSbox doesn't work great for you...if it happens to be a speed issue, does increasing the CPU cycles with CTRL+F12 or decreasing with CTRL+F11 help? 

Sound can be an issue at times, though.  I've been trying to configure the sound for Laura Bow 2 on DOSBox, but I can't get sound that isn't computer speaker sound or a really bizzare MIDI patch configuration.  What's weird is that it worked relatively well the last time I had DOSBox installed...must be doing something wrong now.

Anyway.

Congrats on the hard drive rescue!  Also, I didn't know you played the guitar!?  I wanna hear some of your work sometime.

Hey there,

After years of iffy WLAN functionality, my laptop's 'A' key is refusing to consistently stay attached to the keyboard.  Also, the laptop is refusing to power on consistently.

It's one of those HP Pavilion dv6000 tragic duds, whose hardware failures are well documented.  (Apparently it's a motherboard failure)

I'm thinking I'll try to use my warranty to have it fixed, but if they won't do anything I'll either get one of those mini laptops, or a custom built desktop.  I suppose I should be thankful these failures happened just after it would have been tragic (e.g., the middle of a full-time semester at a university), but now I'm not getting the most out of my internet bill. 

Anyway, I wanna hear some hardware horror stories so I don't have any excuse to complain about my problems in light of the true tragedy others have experienced.  Any takers?

I'm really excited to see this when it's out.  I can't wait!  It feels so complete, not merely a throwaway plot thrown in for the sake of art, nor simplistic visuals that are thrown in to accompany a story. 

I must say I'm dazzled by the work on the visuals you've done, and got warm fuzzies seeing the screen shot with the cloaked figure.

Making a game in the tradition of Quest for Glory is going to be a technically complicated task, especially for handling combat.  What programming strategy did you have in mind?

[one pixel off]

Okay, now my problem is solved.

There was strangeness with the .Walk() function.  Frequently, my character walks to the clicked-on spot, but stops one pixel off, either on the x or the y plane.

A demonstration -- http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/7505/walkerror.jpg

Your GotThere module requires the player stop at exactly the x and y coordinate that was clicked on, so stopping short of the destination screws everything up.  Now, I don't know what the hell I've done to cause my player to stop short of the walk to point by one effin' pixel, but compensating for my folly was relatively simple:

Code: ags

 
function repeatedly_execute() {
  if (!__arrived) {
    if (tgx>=player.x-1 && tgx<=player.x+1){  //True as long as player is within one pixel of where it's supposed to go 
      if (tgy>=player.y-1 && tgy<=player.y+1){ //Allows interaction to work even if player stops short of destination by one pixel
        __arrived = true;
        face(tfd);
        if (lt == eLocationHotspot) hotspot[lid].RunInteraction(mm);
        if (lt == eLocationObject) object[lid].RunInteraction(mm);
        if (lt == eLocationCharacter) character[lid].RunInteraction(mm);
      }
    }
  }
}

In case anybody ever runs into the same problem, I've modified your module slightly and put it HERE in case people run into the same problem I did.

Yeah, every hotspot has a designated walk-to point.  Taking that out pretty much solves the problem.  Thanks for the module, it works a lot better than the functions I tried writing to have that effect!

*Shudder* I dread the day I have to resort to such drastic overrides of the engines methods.

Anyway, while that would solve the problem of players hotspot-hopping to avoid random encounters, they would still be unable to "cancel" an interaction mid-walk by clicking somewhere else on the screen.

And yes, I do have Trope-Tan as an avatar.  If development of this project goes as planned, you might have an opportunity to meet her...

Edit:  Thanks for the feedback by the way!

EDIT 08/02/2009: Read my post 4 posts down from here if the mod by KhrisMUC doesn't solve your problem (although it should)

Hey there,

To try and save some time,  my issue is demonstrated HERE.

The Short Story: Clicking on hotspots results in the game being blocked during the ProcessClick() function under the GlobalScript.  I need this to not happen.  What causes this?

The Long Story:

I'm trying to create an interface where clicking on a hotspot doesn't result in the game script being blocked.

If a player attempts to interact with a hotspot, the player character can walk towards the hotspot and interact with it upon reaching the walk-to point.  However, during this time the repeatedly_execute functions in the game should keep running, and the player should be able to "cancel" the interaction simply by clicking elsewhere.  This actually was working out fine with the Lookat cursor mode, though I've no idea what I might have changed to cause this.  

Also, there is a counter used as a sort of "timer" which counts down as a player walks around a screen, increasing the chance the player will hit a random encounter a la SNES JRPG's of yesteryear.  I don't want a player to be able to avoid such encounters by interacting with a bunch of hotspots in the room.

WHAT'S BEEN TRIED:  I initially thought it might be an issue with mouse modes, specifically the StandardMode property in the mouse cursor editing schema.  Set to true or false, the result is the same.

    I was contemplating how to accomplish this effect...I had no idea the name for it was "tweening".  Thanks for this, you may have saved me weeks of research and work!

Alrighty then, if you're already on top of it, I see no reason to interfere.   

You are right about the underlying methodology of your tutorial; it's almost a carbon copy of the coding style I've adopted for the FF ATB-system rip-off I'm working on.  

Although your methods are a LOT less convoluted than mine (that's what you get when you make up standards for your code as you write it I guess  :)

I'm tempted to volunteer to rewrite your tutorial to be AGS 3.1 compliant, if not for my excessive use of #define, export and import which might be regarded as poor programming practice.  (I tend to put incrementor variable declarations on the same line as while loops.  The scandal!)

I thought MIDI's worked pretty well in Yahtzee's games, and in Erin Robinsons Nanobots too.  I don't think it matters what medium the music is conveyed in.  As DC pointed out, the music should contribute to the overall experience you're trying to create for the player, and there are examples of this found in various media formats. 

Music is definitely worth adding to a RON game, but if you're concerned about convenience you might consider releasing separate versions, one with sound and one without it.

Or maybe you're just referring to whether or not a "disable music" option would be worth adding to the game.  I don't see how having options is an inconvenience, so you should totally add that option to the game. 

I prefer Facebook for its privacy and (apparently) lower concentration of "bells and whistles" type gimmicks. 

From my experience and what I hear, New Mexico and California are extreme opposites in what their drivers are known for.  And California is known for having really good drivers.

I got 3 replies in 16 minutes of posting that as my status.  And people thought the swine flu was spreading fast...

I'm probably going to butcher traditional music terminology here...this seems to be a very through-composed work, shown in its emphasis on emotional impressionism.  In the first section, whatever melodic order the trumpet is allowed to establish is always hastily undermined by the chaotic yet rhythmic dissonance expressed by the piano.

When it slows down, the trumpets notes feel reminiscent of Charles Ives The Unanswered Question.  The rest of the song, aside from the section which was a variation on the intense first section, felt very free form and emotional.  Overall I found it to be an enjoyable piece and made me want to grab my trench coat and hang out at a local speakeasy for a while.  I guess a Starbucks is as close as it gets though where I am...ahem.

Overall, cool song!

You need a mailing list, I wanted a copy of this as soon as it came out!

Downloading...

Edit:  I switched the background on my computer just so that the mood of the game would be enhanced.  And it was worth the effort!  Kudos to you!

Now that the sound system is being revised so thoroughly, would there be any chance of adding stereo panning for channels?

If you can edit your own sounds outside of AGS you could acheive this effect manually (e.g., Audacity, Kristal, etc.), although that would mean adding multiple versions of the same sound, which might be tedious depending on your purposes.

Would it be possible to get technical information on MIDI's used in the game?  I know you can seek the position of a MIDI by beat, but it would be nice to be able to use information such as tempo, current measure, etc.  for other things (such as synchronizing animations to line up with background music).  Think of the potential for action-rhythm games!  (or at least automatic adjustment of animation speed of environmental objects based on tempo: "fast-forwarding"/"Slow-down" effects?)

A list of commands such as

channel[1].AsMidi.getBPM(Beat); //gets the beats per minute of the MIDI at beat 'Beat'.
channel[1].AsMidi.getTimeSignature(Beat); //gets the time signature (such as 4/4) of MIDI at beat
channel[1].AsMidi.getPitch(Beat); //gets the pitch of the beat
channel[1].AsMidi.getVolume(Beat); //gets the volume of the beat

channel[1].AsMidi.get...(etc.)

...Okay, so most minute properties of MIDI's aren't important enough for most games to need such intricate data on a MIDI...but the BPM at least woud be nice to have access to.