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Well I've placed my flag with that mess we call London-ish!

You guys know where I live... well obviously not exactly where I live (I'm not that stupid).

Staines!!11!

MODS... DRINKS... WHEN???

Matt

I'm always up for a pint in London... except Thursdays as I'm doing a TV Technology course until Christmas!

Matt

I wasn't aware of that.
I'd be pretty cheesed if someone was selling my games.
On the other hand, I would pay for AGS without blinking.

I second that.

AGS has always been free.  When we used to be housed on ezboard, vomel invested the cash to remove the pop-ups.  But at no point did Chris ask or even suggest that people pay for this.

And now AGS has it's own host and forums, all paid for by Chris unless I'm mistaken.

Bear in mind that this guy had his car windscreen held in with tape at Mittens 2002!

If at any point Chris gives us the opportunity to donate cash to this project, I will be willing to sign up.

Not everyone could afford to / be able to give money, but those who could, should and would.

Remember that Chris doesn't do this for Free - it costs him money.

Chris, mine's a pint of John Smiths!

Matt

Don't trust MODs - he promised Kinky Island last October with a T-Shirt on a CD, and we're still waiting!

A T-Shirt on a CD? Do I have to print it out myself?  

It's a very small T-shirt...

smart arse.

Matt

This is where the idea of an 'annual' CD might be handy - a collection of demos, tutorials and programs from AdventureX:

- Those who cannot attend get to see the games on show (for those who don't want to supply a working demo, maybe some sort of 'rolling' demo using Camtasia like Goldmund did for his project.

- Any tutorials / question and answer sessions transcribed.

- the latest release of various adventure game engines, saving people download time etc.

This disc could also be sent out to magazines to highlight adventure games (and promote AdventureX 2005).  Nearer the time, perhaps contact magazines like PC-Plus to promote the event, plus all the various adventure related websites.

Of course, as AGA says it might turn out like "Mittens with Demos", but the  if we do everything to promote it elsewhere, there's not a lot we can do if people don't turn up.

MODs, where are you getting 20 comuters from?!?

Matt

Great idea MODs!

I'm definitely up for this (must get some sort of game on the go I guess...)

How about some sort of 'annual' CD containing all the games demo'd?  This would obviously be up to the discretion of the developers, and will require extra work (Which I'm happy to help out with), but it would be a good way for people unable to attend to try out the games.

Either way, I hope this all comes together.

Matt

No AngelPotion Codec installed.

I've downloaded WMP9, so I'll install that and see if it helps.

--EDIT--

OK, so Windows Media Player 9 has been installed, as has DirectX 9, I've also tried a different set of graphics drivers and changing the PlayVideo() flag not to scale.

And still no joy.  I'm pretty much out of options, so for whatever reason my Graphics card is incompatible with MPEG files within AGS.

Very Wierd indeed  

Thanks again for everyone's help.

Matt

Hi Chris,

Well, I tried the files at work on a Windows XP Pro system and it all played fine botn fullscreen and in a window.  Forgot to check which version of Windows Media PLayer, but I'm guessing 8 or 9 for XP.

Found this nugget of information on a DVD forum concerning the embedding of DVD Content (Basically MPEG-2 files) into web pages.  Not sure how AGS calls Media Player, so it may or may not be of any use...

The First thing to mention is, that the Controll and Tags you are using are the one for WMP 6.4 (ClassID=CLSID:22D6F312-B0F6-11D0-94AB-0080C74C7E95). WMP7.1 (that in Reality is 7.01) and WMP8 (that in Reality is a WMP7.01 with some XP add ons and some bugs (or better undocumented and unsupported Features)) have a new Controll, new Tags and a new SDK (ClassID= CLSID:6BF52A52-394A-11d3-B153-00C04F79FAA6).

The second is, that when installing WMP7.1 or WMP8 the "classic" WMP6.4 still remains on the system and is not overwritten or exchanged. So you can use the 6.4 controlls in your webpages even if the user has WMP7.1 or WMP 8 installed. But when you install WMP9 it overwrites every previous Version of WMP. WMP9 can only "understand" the WMP7 Tags and Parameters. It has to some extend the ability to translate the WMP6.4 Tags and Parameters to the new version, but that does not always function correctly.

I'll look into updating WMP to whatever the latest 'core' version Win98SE will accept (Even though I have all the up-to-date codecs installed).

Electric Hare, so the files played fine within the game as well as within media player?  Maybe there is some sort of hardware conflict, or certain codecs 'break' something...

Many Thanks for your help

Matt

Don't trust mattgoble. He didn't turn up at Mittens.

Don't trust MODs - he promised Kinky Island last October with a T-Shirt on a CD, and we're still waiting!

*Matt hangs his head in shame at missing Mittens - drinks his own body weight in spirits to feel better.*

So MODs are you still organising that Adventure Developer Expo?

Matt

Update:

Well I haven't had a chance to check this on my laptop, but I did run it through Windows 2000.

The display appear offset by about 100px to the left, but I'm guessing this is me with the wrong graphics drivers.

The AVI files did not play because I didn't have the codec installed.  BUT both MPEG files did play, both fullscreen and windowed modes.

Windows was running Windows Media Player 6.4

I'll try it at work tomorrow, but I am beginning to suspect Windows Media to be the culprit here.

If anyone else could download the file and test it, I would really appreciate it.

Many Thanks

Matt

Hi Steph,

Glad to be of help.  To be honest I'm not 100% on the details of SCUMM Scripting (Who is?  )  but this sort of thing has always explained why AGS needed higher specs to run games (There used to be something on the main page of the AGS website).

Check out SCIStudio which has been created to produce Sierra style games with their 'version' of SCUMM - this will probably give you an idea of how complicated SCUMM would be if released.

Matt

Hi Chris,

No, I get the same problem when playing in a window - black screen on the mpegs.

Could my desktop colourdepth affect it?  Or perhaps a bizzare ATI issue - does AGS still run in 15bit as opposed to 16Bit?

Also, do you know what version of Windows Media Player you're using - as I said I'm on 7, but with all the latest codecs installed.  I know there was some issue with I think 8 or 9 where they change ClassIDs or something causing problems for embedded DVD streams (You can tell I'm really clutching at straws here!).

I'll try it on  my old laptop tomorrow which I believe has Media Player 6.4 on it.

Then again, it could just be a problem with my aging graphics card (if you remember it has a 'thing' about letterboxing).

Thanks anyway

Matt

Hi Steph,

Welcome to the AGS Forums.

The sad fact is that Lucasarts would never release SCUMM to the independant adventure developer for a variety of reasons...

1.  It is their intellectual property and by releasing it would produce an absolute minefield of legal issues.

2. The software itself is probably more difficult to use than AGS, as it would be based on pure script as opposed to AGS' abstraction layer.  If you live in the UK the latest Edge special covers PC Software and asks a number of developers about releasing editors for their games - while some do, other list the unsuitablity of their software for consumer use and the cost of tidying the software up for consumer use.  Bear in mind this is brand new, still in development software - Lucasarts are certainly not going to go back to something from 10 years ago to release to the community.

3. Lucasarts are notoriously anti-fangame.  Not only that, I remember a whole sh1tstorm being kicked up about ScummVM and how it 'infringed lucasart property'.  Now this is 'merely' an emulator to play old adventure games, based on working out what Scumm did and how - Again, there's NO WAY lucasarts would release their software on a plate!

4. Sierra appear to be more lenient about such things, but do not believe that because there are now editors for SCI / AGI scripting that this was down to Sierra.  Again, a group of talented individuals (Brian we salute you) reversed engine the code, while the community created tutorials and documentation.

Trust me, AGS is everything that SCUMM was and a whole lot more - for one it is still in development!

Lucasarts have pretty much abandoned the adventure game scene, and the closest they get these days seems to be bastardisation of their adventure IP.

You're right AGS is not availble for Macintosh, although can you install FreeBSD as there now appears to be a distro for that.  Anyway, considering how much Apple screw over their most ardent supporters (another topic on another forum), why should people support Macs?

Hope that all helps

Matt

PS: Having read "Accidental Empires", I truly believe Steve Jobs to be a sociopath.

I've been experimenting with different video formats for cutscenes, and have run into a strange bug with MPEG video files.

www.mattgoble.com/interaction/ags/zips/video.rar 1.2Mb

This file contains a test game along with 4 small video files:

320x240.avi - DivX 5 encoded
640x480.avi - DivX 5 encoded

320x240.mpg - MPEG-1
640s480.mpg - MPEG-1

Clicking the hand icon of the various objects should play from left to right...

320avi, 320mpg, 640avi, 640mpg

The AVI based video plays, although it is rather grainy which I am guessing is to do with the colour depth that DivX work in.

The MPEG based videos just display a black screen for the duration of the video.

This occurs in both fullscreen and windowed in both 320x240 and 640x480.

All videos play back fine in windows media player 7, I have had mpeg files playing within AGS before.

I am running Windows98SE on a 1Ghz Athlon with 256Mb RAM and 8Mb ATI All-in-wonder Pro card at 24Bit colour depth.

If people could try out the files on their computer I would greatly appreciate it - MPEG I feel is one of the best options in terms of installed userbase and processor requirements.  Unfortunately people also need to be able to see the content!  

Many Thanks for your help

Matt

I haven't personally done much of the physical stuff for the video section (I mainly do the music), but we use a capture card (not sure what brand) Adobe Premiere 6 to capture the video, and DVDit to build the DVD.

We have pentium4 2-3GB machines some running win2000, someXP, but it's just a side project for my boss really, cause we specialise in music

I wouldn't mind learning more about the section, I've dabbled with it, but my main job is recording, the music and removing the extra noise.

Does your work convert video to dvd too? What H/W S/W do you use.

The company I work for is based within a recording studio, so we also deal with music including pure and faux 5.1 audio.

In terms of kit, we encode video from a Sony hardware encoder, or a Sonic hardware encoder, and encode audio on dolby and dts boxes.

Software for graphics is the usual Photoshop / Illustrator / After Effects setup with Sonic Creator, Scenarist and Spruce authoring systems.

When it comes to PAL / NTSC conversion we normally got out of house to a facilities house for Alchemist standards conversion.  90% of the work is done on digi-beta, with a little bit on miniDV (which we normally bump to digi).

Nice to bump into someone in a similiar industry  

Timosity,

What software / hardware do you use for your "Video to DVD" work?

What do you do your standards conversion with?

Matt

I'm a Production Manager for a DVD Studio, although I graduated with a degree in Design & Art Direction, and have been known to do a bit of freelance web design.

I have the pleasure of commuting into London everyday on our sorry excuse for a public transport system which costs me £120 / month!

Matt

Sorry to say I can't make it this year.

Didn't get myself organised (spent too long considering the various transport 'problems' as Stanstead is a bit of a sod to get to for me), so I was unable to book the time off (The company I work for is quite small, so only one of us can be off at any one time).

Hopefully I can get my act together for next year - Is M0Ds still planning on his adventure developer conference at some point?

Have a great time guys, and try to all come back in one piece!

Matt

2) Can you have the Mouse Position Label in the Room Editor still update while the script window is showing?
It's really annoying to have to close the window and save the script just to find the position I need to move a character too. It would be nice to just move the window aside and be able to still get numbers.

You can already right-click on your room to copy those co-ordinates to the clipboard, or do you mean to get multiple sets of co-ordinates from a room?

4) Would it be possible to have an options for no transparency when importing sprites?

If you are working on a high colour game when you import a sprite use 'Index Colour 0' option for transparency - that's always worked for me in the past.

Changes since 2.55:

* Increased max sprite folders to 500.
* Increased max sprites to 15000.

Crikey Chris, more IS more!

Keep up the good work!

Matt

Chris,

I've never been able to get the hang of the tile import function (I guess I is a little stuupid)

Would you consider adding an "Import Folder" option or would that be particulary difficult to implement?

Matt