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Hi DDQ,

I tried that, it does work, however, since Im using SierraStyle Dialog, when it locks the view specified, its shrunk down and next to the player (thinking its LucasArts Style I imagine).

What I need is get a specific SierraStyle's portrait frame to lock at the same place the speech animation was running ("SierraStyle Potrait Location" in "General Settings" is set to BasedOnCharacterPosition).

Right now with the lockViewFrame, it shrinks the portrait down small, and moves it next to the character's body.

Hi,

Ive been trying different solutions and I cant seem to get what I want without doing a "hack". Im sure there is a much simpler way of doing what I need done. Ok, here we go:

All I need is once a character finishes saying something to the main character, I want him to smile, but hold the smile for 4 seconds...and nothing else is displayed (and everything else is locked/paused).

Right now what I have is my normal speech view and a "smile" speech view...just 3 frames of my main character smiling. What I tried doing was in my dialog simply changing the speechview to my smile view...it works fine, but since the line he says while smiling is very short ("Great!"), that smile view only gets displayed for like 1 second.

I tried gamepause...Wait(80)...putting a delay, etc...

I tried looking in the manual for some sort of "display for x seconds then disappear" kind of deal, without luck.

A little nudge in the right direction is all I would need

Ive tried Wintermute aswell...I didnt really like it at all actually. Bottom line for me, so far, is AGS is just must more user-friendly.

Now if the widescreen support thing could be implemented in a future release.... 

I thought it stood for read the f**cking manual   :o

Hi,

I hope this is the right place to ask, but Ive recently checked out Visionaire, and I dont see why it would intice someone to change from AGS other then 2 things...higher resolutions, and widescreen support (as in, I think it the engine detects the screen size and automatically places black bands on top or sides to adjust for widescreen).

Other than that, in your opinion...is it worth it to try to learn it, and eventually use it? Ive found so far AGS quicker and easier to use, and the community seems better...there is also way more documentation, even some youtube tutorials.

Im in the stage of choosing an engine and its really hard to decide what features are more important. I dont need 3d, Im doing the game at 1024x768...but there will be lots of video (cutscenes). I do find it annoying though right now when I run the game fullscreen it gets stretch out of whack, looking "fat" cause its filling the widescreen...

However, Ive heard praises for Visionaire thats its "better", but I dont see how, exactly. I doubt anyone will say "yea man go use visionaire"...thats not really my question. Why would someone use this engine over AGS? What would be "good reasons"?

Should I investigate further, or just let it go and not bother wasting my time on Visionaire?

Hi,

Ive come across what I believe could be a bug, however I could be mistaken. I will do my best to describe what I have found.

I had my game settings to a resolution of 1024 x 768. I wanted to change it to 640 x 480 temporarily, to test something out. When I finished, I reverted it back to 1024 x 768.

I noticed then that all my GUI's buttons have been moved, and resized, etc...

So I decided to quit AGS without saving so I could get back my previous version.

When I re-opened AGS, and my game...I found that is saved AFTER everything got resized, etc...as if the "dont save" function didnt work.

I tried reproducing this bug and I successfully reproduced it each time (3 times).

If  this is indeed a bug, I would say its a MAJOR one because I had to basically reset all the button's positions and the GUI sizes, which is a real bi*atch!! 

Oh, the one with the red "o"...? Its the score...when you roll your mouse over it, text shows up underneath so people know what they are (patrol, examine, interact, interrogate, current inventory item, gear, score, settings and quit).

I think the score icon might be redundant though, since I already have the score posted in the upper-right hand corner of the screen.

Its ok...I understand. I actually work in a game studio and Ive been a texture artist for 6 years...they always get the newbies sitting next to me so I can teach  them what I know, and it can be frustrating when they ask questions without even trying themselves first...

I assure you, I am NOT like that...I dont have much background in programming, Im purely an artist...however Ive got knowledge in mel scripting, so I understand variables, functions, etc...

Perhaps I should refrain from asking too many questions for now though, the last thing I want to do is annoy people, or abuse the forums.

I guess Im so excited about this AGS program that I get caught up in the whole creation deal and post too quickly p'raps...

Anyways, sorry to anyone if I pass off as someone who doesnt take the time to try things out himself...I DO!! I really do...

Hey thanks for this!! Its awesome

Hey Xenogia,

Im working on that tutorial, but I dont have much extra  time these days so Ill do my best!

PS: Here's another pic of my main feel for the gui's, etc...

Hmm...I dont think there is any need to be rude, KhrisMUC. Not everyone has had the experience in scripting, etc...how would you feel if you had an artistic question and I responded in the same fashion?

You don't have to answer any of my questions if you dont feel like it. Its kind of hurtful to get responses like you just left, Im really trying hard to learn this stuff. Yes, I am "contemplating for more than a minute".  :'(

I dont understand how some people can react this way (?)

You're right. I rechecked the "item dimensions" you mentionned and it was the default size...way too small for my inv sprite!

Thanks

Ive checked the forums here and couldnt seem to find anything on how to animate how a gui "opens". Right now when I call on a custom gui, it just appears...but what if I would like it to slowly appear, or slowly zoom in, or act like a page from a book, etc...

Al Emmo has this kind of feature...when you move your mouse cursor up and to the right, a gui page "unfolds", animated...pretty cool.

What would you suggest I lookup in the wiki to find out how to make this possible? I tried different combinations without success (animated Gui, animate a custom gui, etc...)

!

Hey Trent (and GuyAwesome), this works!

I now have it setup like I need it to be!



Merci beaucoup!!

Edit: I decided to edit the main title to include any general technical questions I might have...I really dont want to create a gazillion topics!

Ok, I have a new question: When I have an item in the inventory, I was wondering if it were possible to select a region as a hotpost instead of a small crosshair hotpost.

Right now, when I click on the "look icon", you have to click on a specific location on the inventory item's pic, if not, my display message doesnt appear.

I know that for a cursor there are hotspots you assign, and you have the option of turning pixel-perfect detection on or off...but it seems that for an object in an inventory...you cant select a full region of the sprite to be a "look at" hotspot.

How would one go about making this possible?

I looked at the functions for iventory but could seem to find anything useful.

Ive got a minor problem...I have my own custom gui for Quit...but when I call it up from the icon bar, the cursor doesnt go to the pointer cursor...its the walk cursor...It does work however if I call the quit from the PanelGui.

How do we change it so it uses the pointer cursor when we call Quit from the icon bar? I tried enabling the pointer mode, and disabling the other modes...but it doesnt work...the walk cursor (or any currently used cursor) stays there.

{
  mouse.EnableMode(eModePointer);
  mouse.DisableMode(eModeInteract);
  mouse.DisableMode(eModeLookat);
  mouse.DisableMode(eModeTalkto);
  mouse.DisableMode(eModeWalkto);
  gQuitgui.Visible = true;
  gIconbar.Visible = false;
  gPanel.Visible = false;
}

**this does work however from the panel gui (weird!)

Heh, yeah, on the side

Its annoying, eh?

Hopefully something will be added to fix this in the next release of AGS!

Yah, its cool...so sweet.

One more thing, not wanting to start yet another thread..is about widescreen resolution. I read those threads about how the maximum res is 1024 x 768...however, when I go into fullscreen mode with a widescreen...it gets stretched vertically...which is pretty ugly!

Is there a way to make the fullscreen mode have a blackbar at the bottom and/or top so the aspect ration is maintained?

Hi NsMn,

I would suggest you get the SCI Resource Viewer (http://www.sierrahelp.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2=456&p=4994#p4994). Click on the link with the zip file.

Open up the PQ3  game folder with this program, it will let you view  the backgrounds, sprites, etc...study that, see what it looks like.

After that, well, let me know if you need help trying to copy the style...do you havea paint program?

ProgZmax...you are totally right...I guess I get so caught up in it all I can sometimes focus on something that just isn't "that important"...I like the right font better aswell, personally.

They are screenshots from the engine (printscreen)...

Ok, Ill take your advice and keep searching! I feared they looked maybe too girlish (from a journal)...

Ill post some other handwritting options later today, if I have time to do some that is.


I guess even better is to convert my own handwritting into a font...or get an actual cop's writting anf covert that...heh!



Oh, and one more thing (editing my post, not double-posting

Ive read many places that 800 x 600 resolution is way more than enough for most games...however, Ive done some tests and my menu's seems just better in 1024. Ive read also that people say 1024 res, it slows down the game considerably...is this really "true", as in...most people have good machines today, so is it really "that much" more slow to run a game in 1024?

Im not a tech guy so perhaps Im sounding dumb, I just wanted to know around what % cost on performance a 1024 x 768 game vs a 640 x 480  would be?

(Im aware that it would increase the size in memory of sprites, etc...Im just talking about performance running it!)

I'll continue my search though, on this!

Ive got the CustomDialogGui (which is absolutely awesome btw!), and I just downloaded the GuiPortrait. KADS link is broken though...doh!

Ive got some really good news yesterday for legal issues/permissions, etc...but I wont reveal that until I have more info.

Anyways, thanks again Trent...I appreciate all your help.