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Not too sure if I should have put this here instead:

Everything works ok with alpha on the text windows, however I'm using the SSH's GuiPortrait v1.00 to display speech and it doesn't seem to work with that module (GSay function)http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=34996.0...I also tested with the standard .Say funtion and the alpha doesn't seem to work either.

Gsay with GuiPortrait module (also standard .Say):


Normal text display works perfectly fine though since your last changes with Beta9:

Hi Crimson,

Everything works ok with alpha on the text windows, however I'm using the SSH's GuiPortrait v1.00 to display speech and it doesn't seem to work with that module (GSay function)http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=34996.0.

Gsay with GuiPortrait module:


Normal text display works perfectly fine though:


**EDIT: Ok Im not sure if its only me but the normal .Say command doesn't seem to display alpha either?

Wow, thanks Crimson! I copied your post to my desktop. Im going through my rep-exec right now, since it is the messiest (a lot of duplicated code, too many else-ifs, etc). By the way, is there a faster way to find duplicate chunks of code in AGS, seems I can only check 1 line at a time, not a paragraph.

Hi,

I started my project a few years ago as a hobby and I've been learning as I go. I'm currently in the process of fixing various bugs, and I'm really starting to notice that a lot of my old code is quite poorly written. Back then I didn't really know any better, but since then I've learnt a thing or two and well...some of what I did really sucks. I even think the way I'm currently fixing some of my bugs now is kind of poor, kind of like a jug filled with holes and I'm plugging one or two here and there at a time with chewing gum.

I'm really tempted to re-write parts of my old code, but it kind of seems overwhelming...even discouraging with over 40k of code (a lot of it is prob bloated crap that semi-works or re-copied chunks I should have put in a function). The newer, more recent stuff is OK I think, but a lot of the older stuff (with newer code written on top of it or merged into it) makes me cringe at the thought of "re-writting"...I dont even know if its possible at this stage since some of it is "inter-twined".

How do "real programmers" approach a problem like this? I remember reading an article on "Bad Coding Practices To Avoid", and I'm noticing I've pretty much violated them all when I started out in the beginning. How do programmers start fixing "mediocre or bad code", and is it normal to really dread this? For example, I've got a lot of else-if statements in my rep exec for special situations that probably only happen once to fix a specific bug, and when I encounter more, I use even more else if's...yikes. Its like piling crap onto even more crap.

Also, I think one of the main problems I have now in fixing bugs is that I create other bugs that I only discover sometimes much later...then when I finally find and fix those new ones I inadvertently break something else...which again I only sometimes notice a loong time later on! Argggg!

How do you guys do it?

@knox:
As far as I can see from here the shadow on your sprite 547 has much less opacity than the shadow on image 549

Ha, nice catch! I forgot to re-import sprite 547

@Knox: it is in the code, but not in beta 8.

Ah gotcha!

Will transparency on text window make the cut?

It is already there.

Do I have to set something up for it to work? Right now if I try using my semi-transparent text window sprites, Im still getting a screwed-up looking shadow:

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Background color is black (I'm assuming that's what we need to set? I tried magic pink and that didn't change anything):

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My sprites for the text window have been imported with alpha except for sprite #231, it is completly opaque and imported without transparency?:

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I think we should activate, how people call it, "feature freeze policy" for this branch.

Will transparency on text window make the cut?

You'd have to modify the GUI script a little, but it wouldn't be too difficult.  I didn't really expect that feature to be requested since it's in 3D, but I'll be looking into 2D features this week.  I'll consider that as a suggestion, thanks

I would definitely consider trying this out then! 2D/2.5D features would be cool.

2. Game Developers, upon reading that their wishes are going to be fulfilled, can sit back and relax whilst wishing Engine/Editor Developers a long and happy life.

I like that one, hehe

Geeze this looks great!

How easy is it to setup sierra-style portrait animations with this?

The first image didn't look that bad to me, but seeing that 3d version of Gabriel is quite a bummer...Love GK so i hope those models are really place holders or something.

Monkey, move to Canada and get yourself a job as a game programmer!

Did that; and also added "HasAlphaChannel" property to DialogOptionsRenderingInfo class, so that custom options rendering could have alpha sprites:

Oh yah!! 

Hey Knox, just so you don't think you're being ignored, Radiant recently reported the same error. It seems it was related to a bug in Allegro. I'm not actually clear if the fix has been pushed to the latest versions or not. Better to check with CW or JJS on that.

Hey Monkey! Ah its cool, Im a patient guy!

To put this straight, I'd vote to make a stable 3.3.0 release first, and update library later.

No probs here, didn't know Radiant brought this up recently.

Ok, really sorry for re-opening a 3 year old thread, but I've come across the same issue (went through my code trying to find the mistake for a good while before finding this thread).

If I press control or alt, my esc key gets totally disabled. However, pressing the shift key "unlocks" my esc key once again. Its not too big an issue other than I have a few keys mapped with control or alt combinations and that makes the esc key disabled (which is used to close menus, etc). It can seem like a bug to the player, so I guess this can get annoying after a while.

Any idea on if this can be fixed?

Yep, that's what I meant. I have semi-transparent shadows under the text window (so the corners and sides have semi-transparent shadows, the center is opaque).

Want me to send you an example of the text window sprites?

PS: You're really awesome, by the way, fixing all these issues.

If its possible to somehow transfer projects to and from AGS without too much hassle, I'd pay a good price for it.

um...that would be nice but to be straight forward, it will never happen . I also think it's nearly impossible if not totaly impossible. heh

Haha, just jokin'

Hey Crimson!

Beta 8 fixed all the alpha problems I've been having, yay! I can now set Visual settings to Multiplied Translucence + Proper Alpha Blending and everything works great.

Do you know if there is a way currently to get semi-transparent alpha sprites working on the "text window gui", other than having to use pain-in-the-butt work-arounds? I've got a shadow on my text window but it isn't drawing properly from what I tested so far (minor minor issue though, for the time being I can just not use the shadow).

I usually prefer fullscreen myself, however often in fullscreen the game doesn't look as good because of scaling/aspect ratio. I guess I want to get as much of a higher res that I can so that when I play the game in fullscreen, it doesn't lose too much quality (with scaling, etc)