Messages

What exactly does the z coodinate in your second example do?

That's so that the texture can be stretched in a non-linear way over the sprite. If you imagine being close to a wall and looking down it, the pixels near you are much wider than the pixels further away. The scale of the pixels depends on this z value.

When I asked, I imagined something like the Distort function in photoshop, where you simple move the coordinates for the corners of a previously rectangular sprite. But perhaps there are more factors than these needed for correct perspective transformation?

I think there's a "perspective" distort in Photoshop, which (I'm guessing) estimates the z values. If you have a rectangular sprite and you just make the right hand side shorter then you can guess good values for z. It's much harder if the four corners are arbitrarily moved - as far as I know there's not necessarily an exact solution.

Ok, here's version 1.14.
The changes are:
- uses a combination of a module and a plugin.
- has a zbuffer - so intersecting shapes are possible.
- has a TexCube primitive which can have textures applied to all faces.
- the cube primitive can have a texture applied to the front face.

http://www.steporg.com/step/ags/games/ags3d_v114.zip

Steve

Spoiler

You have to get Elandra to launch the rocket.
If you haven't adjusted the computer properly, she won't do it, so send her away to talk to Davy then try again.

[close]

I was just about to say his shading style reminded me a lot of yours, Squinky.

About the side of the road and the horizon, this might help:
http://www.jimandchris.com/weblog/20041014%20newberry%20road.jpg
(Or any number of similar shots found by googling "desert road arizona".)

Could you force a \n into the string at every linebreak, like this?

Code: ags

string message;
StrFormat(message, "Invalid parameter 'topic' to function 'ScrollingDialog::GetText'.[Range: 0 to %d[Value: %d", eScrollingDialog_MaxTopics, topic);
int i = 0; while (i < StrLength(message)) { if (message[i] == '[') message[i] = 13; i++; }
AbortGame(message);

Steve, I wonder if you could be persuaded to turn some of the Allegro sprite deformation commands used in the AGS3D plugin, into an actual DynamicSprite-deformation plugin?

What exactly do you need? I could put something simple together - for example

Code: ags

int Transform(int sprite, float heading, float pitch, float bank, float z);

would return a sprite that could be drawn centred on the old sprite centre.
Or:

Code: ags

void StartTransform(int sprite);
void SetCorner(float x, float y, float z); // call this four times
int EndTransform();

would return a sprite that fit closely around the four corners.

If it's even possible to read/write DynamicSprites from a plugin.

Yes, I think so.

Sorry for hijacking your thread, Wretched.

It's an interesting technique and could certainly be useful for more complex transformations than pure rotation. For example, for perspective correct texturing without resorting to plugins.

Shame that the textures need to be processed into "arse" files I suppose one could read bmps or pcxs instead using script.

That must have been a big upload!

Interesting - does it draw the sprites pixel by pixel?
Nice movement!

The empty template should probably be a separate download, so that people don't make this mistake...

If you haven't done much I'd recommend starting again, with the default game rather than the empty template.

The point of the control scheme is that you're mimicking the movements your character is performing. So in order to mop the floor, you move the mouse back and forwards. It's very much a direct-control way of doing things. You could call it a gesture-based interface. Besides, it works better with a gamepad controller, where you're moving the joystick instead of the mouse.

I understand that. Unfortunately it's not obvious what movement is necessary at any time so I have to keep referring to the little dot rather than concentrating on the 3d view. For a lot of actions it waits until it's recognised it, then cuts away and performs the action, so there's a delay.
If it was first person and there was a mop in front of me and moving the control stick moved the mop around, I'd call that direct-control.

I played the demo and was disgusted
- the control system seemed to be novel for the sake of it
   - why should I have to move the mouse in time to a bouncing dot just to open a tap or pick up a mop?
   - what's wrong with a button click?
- the motivation of the player character annoyed me
   - I was happy he didn't get away with covering up the murder -- how selfish can you get?
   - in real life, he's probably crazy and should be locked up

Still, on the positive side
- the graphics were pretty and the engine seemed to be good
- I loved the game director's animated introduction

Maybe I should give it another try.

Heh. Sounds like they take names from A Fistful of Yen.

It's not really in the RON style. Not that that's a bad thing in general, but unless you're going to redraw all the backgrounds, it might look a bit out of place.
It also seems a bit too zoomed in to fit as a general RON background.
There are already some forest backgrounds in the RON resources - admittedly they're a bit ugly, but they might give a better idea of scale.

Great stuff. Just two things:
- AVG? Surely AGS?
- hard to believe that a 15 yr old girl would have an imperial walker model in her room.

Sting, Ian Dury and Gene Simmons too.

Dun Laghoaire

Dun Laghaoire

Now you're just making words up!
(I'm kidding, I've used the ferry port there. What a beautiful part of Ireland!)

It IS true.
New house frames in the southern US (at least) are wood. The sidings can be brick veneer, plaster or wood.
I've seen several apartment complex fires here in Austin.

In the UK, new houses are built of brick.

There may be some temperature related reason for the difference but I think it's just that people are used to one or the other.

Its a shame i know but i never seen EXORCIST...

The Exorcist is probably the film that creeped me out the most.
That, or "Whistle and I'll Come to You" starring Michael Hordern (yes, the Paddington Bear narrator!).

It disturbs me that kids these days are so desensitized that they find The Exorcist funny.
But "stabbing her leg", now that's funny!

Don't worry, I've decided to release the plugin/module combo too. Worst case, I get 40FPS with 25% CPU usage. So I can add a lot more detail to the RON town square, for example. The plugin might be faster with a z-buffer - if so much more complex models exported from 3d packages are possible. And animated models...

It's going to be a pain to keep both versions "in sync" with bug fixes and common features but such is life.

I added something to the module to start and stop camera movement recording, so I could trigger it from scripting. In my case, during PlayerEntersRoom. For the release, I'll call it Ags3d.StartCameraRecording(String filename);

IceMan, I had a similar idea for IVSpy - the intro dream sequence will be 2d, then bam, 3d gameplay.

Congrats on the job.
But don't think you don't need us anymore!
You'll be back, when you tire of only doing work to order.