Messages

[Spanish]

The new version of "A Second Face - The Eye of Geltz is watching Us" is released (Torrero Edition v. 1.6).
It is available at the main download and will update automatically on the mirrors after some time...

It includes a full Spanish translation.

The translation was done by Cireja and Ptraci and we worked about a year together for this.
Since both are working as translators in real life I believe this translation might carry a lot of quality.

Apart from that, additional changes and fixes were made, that can be seen at the beginning of this post in the changelog.

After importing the game, the GUIs with a background were displayed right.

Those without background caused the crashes or were displayed wrong.
I added a transparent backgound sprite to them and it was solved...

I just managed to solve the problem.
It was indeed GUI related as you described.

But I didn't have to remake the GUIs at all in the end.
It simply was the case that in some of the GUIs the background image was set to -1.

When I set it to 0 the game started up, but the GUIs didn't show up, instead of them I saw the blue cup at the side of the GUIs.
Then I changed the background image to 6 (which was a transparent single pixel sprite) and it works now...

Maybe that helps to solve the problem...

Yes, I did that exactly.
I deleted all the old ones, then remade them completely from scratch.
But it didn't work for me...

In any case there is a difference in the errorcode isn't it?

In your case:
EIP = 0x00440FB7 ; program pointer is 379, ACI version 3.20.1110, gtags (692,0)

In my case:
EIP = 0x004129F1 ; program pointer is +373, ACI version 3.20.1110, gtags (3,0)

I am not really a programmer so I don't know if this is a difference...

EXPLODE.




This happens when importing guis from previous ags versions (including the immediately previous RC) and trying to make them visible.  It results in an insta-crash even with a blank gui (tested).  I tried manually cloning the guis that were crashing in the same game and they open fine with all the same functionality and graphics of the imported ones.  Dave has confirmed that he has run into this issue as well.

My guess is when the guis are exported, their names are set to reference their creation ID position, and when imported into a new game there may not be the same number of guis or same order and therefore the ID is not recognized properly and does a crash.  This is the only explanation I can think of, anyway.

I just tried to update and run into something similar aswell.
however I tried to clone my GUIs manually and it didn't work for me.
Do I have to do this in a specific way?

When I compile and start the game i get:


Illegal exception
---------------------------
An exception 0xC0000005 occurred in ACWIN.EXE at EIP = 0x004129F1 ; program pointer is +373, ACI version 3.20.1110, gtags (3,0)

AGS cannot continue, this exception was fatal. Please note down the numbers above, remember what you were doing at the time and post the details on the AGS Technical Forum.



Most versions of Windows allow you to press Ctrl+C now to copy this entire message to the clipboard for easy reporting.

An error file CrashInfo.dmp has been created. You may be asked to upload this file when reporting this problem on the AGS Forums. (code 0)"

I recieved this mail, but cannot help.
Has somebody an idea what it could be?



"A couple of days ago, I downloaded a copy of A Second Face. When I try to start the game, I get this message:

"Unable to write to the current directory. Do not run this game off a network or CD-ROM drive. Also check free drive space (you need 1MB free)."

I have installed the game on a computer running Windows 7, and my hard drive currently has over 400 GB of free space. I'm just wondering if there have been any other reports of people experiencing similar problems with the game using Windows 7, and if not, what else I might be able to try."

You wouldn't believe how much time I've spent in front of my digital piano to do this...

Apart from this, Earl Bobby is sponsoring the AGSArchives.com that is being built up by Peder Johnsen.
Half of it's incoming is used to maintain the independent server on the AGS Archives.
Like this all independent adventure games will be conserved for the future.

And for all those who buy and play it:
Have a close look at the manual, it contains lot's of interesting additional details this time...

I would like to suggest these funny comedies here:

HÃ,,XAN (1922)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Irreversibel (2002)
Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (1933)
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)
Django (1966)
The Evil Dead II (1987)
Satyricon (1969)
MAD MAX (1979)
Night of the Hunter (1955)

Adagio for Strings based on Anton Bruckner structures: Scene Eternal ocean and a ship that glides through the ice...

http://spectrum.agsarchives.com/music/eternal_ocean.mp3

Harp and flutes in a desert:

http://spectrum.agsarchives.com/music/HarpandFluteDesert.mp3

[Graphics & Animation:]

Here is my new proposal list:


Graphics & Animation:
- I remind on the subpixel rendering for scaled sprite movements with Direct3D support at 32-colordepth issue that I had started. This would be a gigantic improvement in AGS. The characters now look and move stutteringly when they are scaled at unequel levels.

- I continue to propose the import of vector sprites with solid fillings. This developement exists in the adventure culture since "Another World" and could help developers to make small sized unique games with fluid animations. The handeling scripts could be similar as the ones for Adobe Flash actionscript. It would be a really powerful tool for the whole scene.


Text Parser:
- Is it possible to export/import the content of the text parser word list into a single txt or xls file with all the word group and type info, so that it can be better distributed to translators and proofreaders?

- Can the parser words be left out of the translation files? It doesn't matter anything for the game if you translate them there from my experience. (If I'm wrong correct me.) Instead of this they have to be added in the parser list as additional translated synonymes.

- Is it possible to have multiple text parser lists. With more than 5000 words in a list it becomes very difficult to handle this. Instead one could define another list and call the list depending on the topic or function, or Language.

- In order to make lists shorter could the synonymes get + tags or folders at the side and open on click then show all the synonymes. I have four different languages in some of my games that are partially parser driven. In such a case tha parser words have to be added in another language and create lot's of word material on every word. All languages get mixed up, this is very confusing for me.

- Every time a parser word gets added all rooms get recompiled when the game is tested. Is this neccessary?

- German umlaut accents like ä ü ö and other foreign signs do not get understood by the parser. I think it's a pitty.


Rooms:
- Folders for room organization or a sort rooms by name option would be useful. There exist so many games now with more than 100 rooms. Room names can be easily changed. But if room numbers change it's a lot of confusion because the scripts don't update automatically...
In my case I am naming the rooms after the following system:
LOCATION_SUBLOCATION_TYPE_NUMBER
Example: PALACE_HALL_ZOOM_1
Sorting them by name is more useful...

- When the x,y coordinates are copied or displayed could the 320x240 coordinates be used if the script is controlled by low resolution coordinates (general setting) ? Currently always the real coordinates are displayed and have to be recalculated by head in such a case.

- An "export room maps" option would be great that exports hotspot, walk behind, regions and walkable areas to four different PNG files with the rooms name and content. This helps to remake games in higher resolutions. Otherwise when importing a new screen resolution the maps are lost... Alternative: When a new screenshot gets imported the current areas get automatically scaled by AGS on the new screens size on demand.

- Can the "fix object in postition" option be reinstalled? This was very useful when objects overlapped.

- Can selected objects in a room be positioned with the arrow keys in a pixel perfect way?


System:
- Mac users keep mailing me about mac versions for my games. Is there really no voluntary team to work out a new mac compiler?

- Can there be something like a switch between windows and full screen mode?

- Can the setup dialogue be styled in the games style?


Postproduction:
- Can there be an internal screen cast plugin for AGS that is there to generate an AVI or MOV or OGG file from the returned material in AGS? I got the experience that on high resolution games it is difficult to capture game sceenes from AGS with screen cast software. In general many times they are not able to get fluid game sceene videos.

- Can a game runner be compiled with the game on demand? Something like a small additive programm that ags spits out where setup, game start and manual or other files get accessible on a table. (I know it`s possible to script this alone and some developers did this, but it could become an intern optional part of the engine like the setup tool.)

suspense:
http://spectrum.agsarchives.com/music/horror_suspense.mp3

Sure. Just start right away!

Hey Danman!
You win.

Hm...just couldn't spot the errors very good.
It probably was intended to be a gigantic continous error...?
But well...great work!

It seems that I have to take this one over...


The theme is simple:

Write a piece of music that contains errors.
You can make one error in a perfect piece as an example or a continous deconstruction of an already existing piece.
The "error"could also become the theme or idea for a completely new form of music...
There are many possibilities...

The errors should be made in a way so that it is interesting or funny.

The entry with the most convincing errors will win.

As an example I uploaded this one here.

http://spectrum.agsarchives.com/music/toohigh.mp3

Strefonia; the capital city of the sun people.

Will this game also include speech like the previous installment?

A donation made a studio micro possible for me.
The voices will be of much higher quality this time.

Wow. excellent! Will the game be released this year?

Unfortunately not. I just concluded another game. It's possible that I release that this year when I'm done with the Italian version.

Nice graphics...It makes me think of the italian painter De Chirico. Something to do with his paintings?

Not really... I used to paint characters and locations like that when I made oil pictures...
I was a fan of Salvador Dali when I was a kid. Later I was into Edvard Munch.  Much later in early Corbusier buildings and Adolf Loos.
It's probably a mix of all stuff that I got into...

Some new screenshots of the game.

Vision of Hell:
http://spectrum.agsarchives.com/music/VisionOfHell.mp3

- In hell you will find screaming souls.
- Probably Hitler, Stalin and Khrushchev might be in there.
- Visions of war and death
- And no policemen because there is no law...
- Probably it's also not possible to get out of there...

I am entering quickly.
It's just for accordeon...

http://spectrum.agsarchives.com/music/finalaccordeonist.mp3

Could be either a Russian communist final enemy who throws unlimited red books.
Or a French revolutionist final enemy who shots lots of baguettes...

Phew...
That's quite a hard one.
Good chamber music is really difficult to make since you have to know the instruments exactly.

Do you mean with "classical" all music that fits on what people call classical music,
or do you mean the epoch?

In that case my question would be: Is neoclassical allowed?
(You mentioned L'histoire du soldat which can be considered neoclassical...)