Topics

[>>HERE<<]

Can someone explain why the palette cycling does not happen in the background image? I suspect it has something to do with "game palette"/"background palette" because the shifting does happen on the character and GUI.

My mock-up game >>HERE<<

Note: the shifting is done in the room's RepExec script.

[32-bits]

Hello, the game I'm working on is 32-bits but I'd like to simulate palette cycling for an animation.

Question 1: what software? I thought that'd be an easy one and launched GrafX2. However I can't seem to make the palette cycling work properly, and can't find any tutorial. However I'm almost certain that there's something fishy going on (a bug on the most recent Windows?)
I'm reluctant to use something that's not free or something that has a steep learning curve (I also have an efficiency constraint here). I could use Deluxe Paint in DosBox but I'm fairly certain there has to be a better way. I'm very open. If you're telling me that I can use Photoshop or After Effects with whatever filter, I'm OK with that.

Question 2: export process. Ideally, I'd like to have several cycles running simultaneously. If it turns out to be too complicated, I'll just make the longer cycles multiples of the shortest cycle, to get a perfect loop. Or I'll just export the image in several pieces, with one cycle in each piece. It doesn't matter, it'll all be AGS Loops in the end. But my issue is: I need to export the whole thing into separate frames and I wish to avoid as many bad last-minute surprises as possible.

By the way if you simply know a program that records the screen and exports it as a lossless video, then I'm in. This way all I have to do is to "capture" my Deluxe Paint window.


Just to make things clear: there will be no scripting involved. The plan is only to generate a regular animation, and then import it into AGS.

[I'm from Paris and I don't freak out, so why should you?]

Everything's in the title: I'm from Paris and I don't freak out, so why should you?

Let's just hope nobody has forgotten the lesson of 9/11, the "war on terrorism" and all that bullshit.

I've found the holy grail. I'm sorry if some readers already knew about all this, but this blog article is blowing my mind.
It's everything I've always wanted to do in terms of pixel art, while having both the 8-bits look AND the comfort, power and flexibility of Photoshop.

BEHOLD! http://danfessler.com/blog/hd-index-painting-in-photoshop (by Dan Fessler)


Note: I've posted this in "aventure-related" because I consider this to be a general tip that is part of the gaùe production process (possibly for professionals) and does not fall in the "I've made a thing, please give me criticism" box.

OK, I know I'm going to sound like a psycho, but I'm more like the kind of guy who is fascinated by psychos.

I just had that disturbing thought, hear me out. I was doing some research for my game, browsing backgrounds of adventure games, and I came across a screenshot from Heroine's Quest, depicting the main female character, and also that fairy character (the young lady wandering naked in the forest).

And it struck me: you know the Internet rule "if it exists, then there's porn of it". Do you think that someone ever fantasized on the heroine? Do you think there's erotic fan fiction of her out there? Erotic drawings? Etc. That's totally possible, I think. My mind would be blown.

I've tried to give the little sprite personality and to have the fetures of the drawing (low, large mouth, hook nose, that weird haircut from the 30's...) but I'm not very good at this.
Also I'm not very happy with the monocle.

If someone feels like making this sprite awesome, then be my guest.

[scenarios where the surface has been released too early or too late]

Hello,
I've been using DrawingSurfaces for quite a long time, doing sometimes complex stuff, without asking myself too many questions: Just get the surface, draw onto it, then release it!

But I'm actually curious about scenarios where the surface has been released too early or too late. Do such scenarios exist? Is there such a thing as "releasing a surface too early" or "too late"?
For example, I've successfully managed to do this: 1. Get the drawingSurface of a sprite, 2. Draw things, 3. Draw that sprite into another DrawingSurface before releasing its surface. It works, apparently.

2. Also, out of curiosity: when you get the surface, does it copy stuff or does it just create a pointer to its data? Is GetDrawingSurface resources intensive?

[always one frame late]

so I'm trying to animate two different characters simultaneously -- so that Character #2 is exactly in the same animation state as Character #1.
But Character #2 is always one frame late despite getting the ViewFrame from Game.GetViewFrame(c1.View, c1.Loop, c1.Frame).

I know I ran in the problem in the past and I can't remember how I solved it, if I ever solved it.

Isn't there a simple way of doing this now that there is the new repeatedly_execute_late? (or what was it called? _after? I forgot its damn name and I can't seem to find it on the forums, like every time I search it)

I'm using 3.4.0.6 alpha on Windows 7 64-bits.

When I open the script editor, the cursor is annoyingly flickering:
- When I don't move it, it normally displays as this, but very briefly blinks as this exactly every second.
- When I move the cursor, it just blinks between those two cursors very rapidly, as if one out of two frames was the arrow, and the other frame was the text-selection cursor -- back and forth at monitor-refresh rate.

I didn't find this in the tracker.

Note: I have dual monitors, I got 3.4.0.6 in the zip

I've tried the "Chronicles of Inssmouth tech demo" and it's made with 3.4.0.6 (I can tell from the version label in the new winsetup.exe, which is great, by the way). I run Direct3D9 with "max fit". The game is 320x200, and yet the sprites appear as hi-res.
I'm not sure if it's the engine displaying this old, awkward behaviour again like it used to, or if it's the guy who made the game who caused that by faking 320x200 in hi-res. Winsetup says the game is 320x200 but the first image seen in the game (the maker's logo) is hi-res. I'm confused.

(based on Crimson Wizard's forum post)
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/wiki/Building_a_game_for_multiple_platforms

[[low priority]]

[low priority]

Consider the following :
(Note: I didn't test if the behaviour below is the same when you change the gui's dimensions directly in the properties panel to make the gui directly larger than the viewport)
1) Create a 640x400 game
2) Create a 640x400 GUI
3) In the game general settings, change to 320x200, and when prompted, tell the Editor that you DON'T WANT the guis to be resized
=> You have a 640x400 GUI in a 320x200 game. So far, everything behaves as it was programmed to.


Now:
- Run the game. At startup the Editor gives you a warning about the inconsistent dimensions. But I have observed that the games runs correctly, even when using the gui's drawing surface.

However:
- Try to change the dimension of the gui. If you want to set it back to a normal size, you write :

Code: ags

gMyGui.Width=320;
gMyGui.Height=200;

- Problem: The program stops at the first instruction. Why? Because that would mean the gui is now temporarily 320x400. And the engine has a built-in safety mechanism to prevent that at runtime, even though the dimensions were already "incorrect" at startup.

My point is : if it turns out AGS has no issues dealing with guis larger than the screen, then it could be a good idea to remove that check.
PS: I'm writing a vectorial tool that can be run at any resolution, the higher resolution only makes the graphics more accurate. That's why I want to resize guis at startup, to make sure they match the actual resolution.

Naive question here : What is the current technical difficulty for storing rooms as plain XML, at the moment, apart from "someone has to do it" ?
I mean, I know the code has to be compiled and stuff, and then it all gets binary stored into the CRM file.
But like, is there a genuine catch? For example: is it tricky because it's complex to insert a hook somewhere in the CRM compiling process, or anything like that?

If not, I could lay the base for that in the git repo. I've just pulled an "ouxx" branch.

Tell me everything you know about source control in the latest AGS Editor ( 3.4.0.6).
I know what source control is.

But:
1. how do you put it in action in the AGS Editor? typically: provide a scenario where I can see the checking-in and the checking out? (I imagine we're talking script files here?)
2. How would you set the source control provider using the Editor Gui? (or outside the Editor Gui?)
3. What is the "put sound and sprite files in source control" option? How does it work? Please illustrate with a typical conflict.
4. In the Editor plugin API, I can see the objects below. Can you give a basic code snippet using any of these, for doing ... well, anything at all (your choice).

Code: ags

_editor.SourceControl
_editor.SourceControlProvider

At the moment I'm trying to figure out AGS source control, possibly to contribute or at least to explain it as extensively as I once explained fonts.

[The important bits are:]

Hi all,

what you'll see below is the concept for a new background. It's only meant to work on the perspective and the scene composition.

[imgzoom]http://40.media.tumblr.com/5a97163640f97da6088708420ea8f1fd/tumblr_nrt8r445011tsfksfo1_1280.png[/imgzoom]

The important bits are:
- The hotel, right in the middle. One must be able to see that it's an important building.
- The fience on the right. It doesn't have to be a fience, just some close-up vertical surface against which an old guy (Indian) can sit, and the main character can walk close to it.
- The path to the mountains, on the right
- The fact that the "left part" of the scene (hotel+car+church) fits in 320x200 and is self-sufficient. The right part of the scene becomes visible when the character walks to the right.

All the rest is bullshit and only meant to make the scene come alive.
Come to think of it, I should turn the foreground black wooden shit into a parallax.

I'm a bit annoyed because I don't know how to occupy the space between the foreground black pole and the fience (that big gray bit of road is kind of empty).

[Contact me]

Hi, I'm making this game using 3.3.0 RC1: https://drive.google.com/file/ Link removed. Contact me if you're curious and want to investigate the real cause.
(please don't download this file unless you want to help, or you'll spoil the game for yourself)

I'm having an issue for months that I can't seem to be able to fix.

Here's the protocol to replicate :
1) start the game
2) click on the "catch rabbit" button on the welcome screen
3) Change cursor to "interact" (hand icon) and click on one of the purple rabbits that wander around the main character
4) Dennis will talk and then run after the rabbit
5) ISSUE: The characters don't walk simultaneously. Whatever I try, the first one walks, THEN he stops and the other character walks.

The code to this is in function "CatchRabbit". The function is a big "if" but the part you're looking for is in code block "else if (R05_CatchRabbitCount ==2)".
As you can see the code is very messy because I've tried many things. I've even tried swapping the rabbit character ("r") with another dummy character ("dummyRabbit") just to be sure there's no other script interfering. But to no avail.

Help, please.

Can someone point me to an existing AGS mouse-controlled paltformer engine? The ones I know are keyboard-controlled. I've come to realize that it's much more tricky to implement than I thought, since the pathfinder doesn't work well on very thin walkable areas.

Sorry for double-posting, but I'm almost convinced this is an Editor bug.

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=52051.0

[32-bits + Direct3D9]

I've started migrating the default templates to 32-bits + Direct3D9 as default settings. It also required exporting and re-importing all sprites.


Someone needs to replace the original templates in the repository or wherever they're stored.

DONE:

- 9-verb template  DONE
- Default Game     DONE
- Empty game       DONE
- BASS 2.0         DONE
- Verb coin        TODO


DOWNLOAD HERE.

[I DO NOT get told it seems to have an alpha channel]

I experienced the following weird scenario :
1) I downloaded AGS 3.3.0 RC1
1) Created a new game using the 9-verb template
2) I opened the Sprites tab, opened the Roger folder, and selected all sprites (clicking while holding shift)
3) Right-click-->Export all sprites in folder-->Selected a subfolder of Documents
4) Select the first sprite (still in the "Sprites" tab-->Right-click-->Replace sprite from file-->I DO NOT get told it seems to have an alpha channel

5) Repeat steps 2 and 3, but this time select C:\sprites as export folder.
6) Repeat step 4. This time I DO get told that the sprite has an alpha channel (but only for the 8 first sprites of the folder though! These 8 sprites happen to be the first row of sprites in the Sprites tab).

I'm not sure why AGS detects different settings to the files, and why not all of them.