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[he forbade the team to use any of the material he produced]

Hi all,

I've witnessed the following appalling situation:
- I joined a project for a point n click game. The project had been existing for a few years
- When I joined there was already another "newcomer" around who had been helping for a few months and produced a few backgrounds and drawings, additionally to the material already existing before his arrival.
- At some stage, the guy "rage-quit". Literally. He posted a message about some thing annoying him in the project, and seeing that the project leader didn't answer quickly or deeply enough, he suddenly said that he was wasting his time, and leaving...
- ...But he also said he forbade the team to use any of the material he produced. Bam. Just like that.

So the project was drawn months backwards because we have to redraw everything that guy made.

So my advice is : When you lead a team project, make sure the licensing / forum rules / whatnot include a section saying that a piece of material belongs to the project, as soon as it's posted.

Hi all,

At the moment I'm working with a room that I didn't design myself.
In the past, some walkable areas were removed and restored in "room_RepExec". I found that silly, so I moved it to "room_Load" (which corresponds to event "on enter room, before fade-in").

But now I notice that the walkable areas are not removed as they should.
However, AFTER fade-in, if the player goes to an object that can also disable the same walkable areas (by triggering the SAME custom function as the one called from room_Load), then the areas get properly removed.

Does function RemoveWalkableArea work before fade-in? Is there a way to display a message on-screen before fade-in, for debugging?

The maximum number of parameters to a function is still blocked to 15 in AGS 3.2.1.
Otherwise you get error "too many parameters defined for function".

I guess that shouldn't be too hard to expand by now.

[AGS 3.2.1]

I'm working on a game not created by me. I imported the game files into AGS 3.2.1 (current release) and the importer told me that it detected that the game was made with 3.1.2 SP1.


I immediately try to build it and I get the following errors :
1) "An problem occurred setting your custom icon onto the setup file. The error was: Unable to load the custom icon: EndUpdateResource failed."
(the Grammar mistake "An problem" is part of the message ). That's a popup window by the way ^

2) (After I click on OK): "Compile successful!"

If I run the compilation again, that time I get :

1) "An problem occurred setting your custom icon onto the setup file. The error was: Unable to load the custom icon: EndUpdateResource failed."

2) (After I click on OK) "There were compilation errors. See the output window for details".

3) The ouptput window shows two errors :
"Unable to register for Vista Game Explorer: Unable to replace resource: EndUpdateResource for _GDF_XML failed: 0000006E"
"Unable to set EXE name/description: Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt."


Please note that the game works perfectly afterwards. It also has the custom icon. I mean, it's not missing, despite what the compiler says.
I'm using Windows XP. I suspect that maybe the people who created the game use Windows Vista.

Question: does anybody still have 3.1.2 SP1? This way I'd be able to see if the issues also appear there.

=========

By the way that behaviour is mentionned in two other threads but apparently it has never been fixed, nor the exact cause found out: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=40844.msg555192#msg555192

Hi all,

Im here to discuss enhancements on the fight sequences in Indiana Jones games : Last Crusade and Fate of Atlantis.

As you now, the system is currently like this :
1. You can position your fists/guard either in high, middle or low position. The opponent does the same. If your fists are at the same level where your opponent punches, then you automatically block his attack.
2. You can punch any time, and he will block you under the same condiitons as you block him.
3. When you punch, you use up some of your "energy bar", which grows back when you do nothing. He loses as much health as you used up energy when you punched (same goes for him and his energy bar).
4. You can hop backwards or forward. The move is rather slow and rarely allows you to evade a puch.

The difficulty of an enemy comes from how much health bar he has, how big is his energy bar (and how fast it restores), and how quickly he adjusts his fists position to yours (to block your punches).

I've always found that system horrible. Some people argue that it's actually fun, but I don't think it is. The controls are clunky, inaccurate, and it looks like your slow moves are more a result of a bad graphical engine than a deliberate gameplay choice. Moreover there doesn't seem to be any advantage is choosing between tactics (hopping backwads, punching franticly, etc.)

How would you improve that? I'm thinking of something simple. Not some fancy system (by the way, quest for glory made it much more complex but in the end it's still completely unplayable).

I was thinking of something like Prince of Persia: You have to pres a button to block an attack. But it's also the only moment when the opponent is vulnerable, so you have to quickly strike back. And moving forward helps harrassing him.

But with the new devices (like tablets) there would be a need for something that works entirely using "screen tapping". I'm not sure what would be the best way of blocking AND striking back, when using a touch screen.

Any ideas? This is more of a brainstorm, any idea is accepted.

[Wouldn't there be a way to tweak the current TRS export/import system]

At the moment, unless I'm mistaken, there is no way to export the original Strings to have them fixed by a proof-reader and then import them back.
One can only export translation files (TRS) for other languages.

Wouldn't there be a way to tweak the current TRS export/import system in order to proof-read externally  the original game language? (e.g. English).

This would come really handy for game designers who are native English speakers BUT still write a terrible English.

[specific drawing technique]

My process is the following :
1) I make my background in true-color (let's say 32-bit colors)
2) I use the "downgrade colors to 256 colors" feature of my favorite image editing program (Photoshop, whatever...)

One could say I should directly draw in 256 colors, but I don't like it.

My question is : Do you know of a more optimized way to do that, to preserve the best possible color quality?

For example :

1) Do YOU use a specific drawing technique involving "main" color tones, thus avoiding the need of too many "transition" colors between color tone A (e.g. redish colors) and color tone B (e.g. blueish colors)?

2) Do you know a program that has a palette downgrade algorithm far superior to other programs? (for example, it is a fact that some algorithms to scale down images are better than others. I suppose it's the same with color downgrading).

etc.

Any tip is welcome.

If you need Gameboy-like sounds for your game, use this online tool BXFR ( http://www.bfxr.net/ )
You can create virtually any sound effect.

Try it (open the page and click on "play") and you'll see.

[invented by Yahtzee and other contributors to the AGS collaborative series "Chzo Mythos"]

As you know there's a lot of hype around the "Slender" game, and the "Slender Man" scary character.

I've done a quick search on the forums, but didn't find any reference to this : According to "Know your meme" ( http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/slender-man ), even though the Slender Man is an old urban legend/myth, his design as we know him (the tall guy with a white face and no eyes) was invented by Yahtzee and other contributors to the AGS collaborative series "Chzo Mythos" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chzo_Mythos ).

I was so baffled I thought I'd share. I'm sure I'm not the only one who didn't know that.

[1) Shaders]

Hi everyone,

This thread is meant to cover 2 topics :

1) Shaders
I searched, and didn't find any recent thread about shaders. Either color shaders or displacement shaders. I think AGS is now technologically mature enough to allow massive use of sharders (the not-so-cool-anymore bloom, heatwaves, flashes, fake palette cycling, etc.). Did I miss the big fat plugin that already does it?

2) Limitations on plugins access to drawing surface/drawing events
I think I remember reading that plugin developers are not very happy with the access given to the drawing surface, because of some limitations that don't allow them (in some circumstances) to write in the right place at the right time (game-loop wise).
Is it true, or is it a problem from the distant past?

Hey, lately I was thinking: "I'd like to have a nice zip file with all the backgrounds of Last Crusade in a modern format, like PNG or BMP"
And I was thinking "whenever I want to have it, I'll just Google it and find a resources dumper in 2 seconds.

Well, it turns out it's harder than expected. There are some broken tools here and there, and a lot of stuff for MI, but I found only one single tool for Last Crusade -- it was a command line tool, and time for me to decide I should try it, I couldn't find the URL anymore.

So, anybody has tips?
PS: I'm aiming at the VGA version, but I don't really care.

[That tutorial]

That tutorial by Calin gave me the following idea:




What does it do?
- You feed this small command line program with a single, tiny file containing one or more "struct" definitions, in AGS syntax.
- It generates all the files you need to create the corresponding plugin.

Basically you won't have to worry about those things anymore: Copy-pasting one billion getters/setters, remembering the names of the interfaces, registering your functions in the plugin, etc.
Easy Plugin does it for you!



Can I try it?
Yes. If you've been good (or if you're as handsome as Dualnames).
- You need a Java Virtual Machine installed. If you don't have one, go get one : www.java.com/en/download/ (Ags Easy Plugin was tested against Java 6 (update 32) 32-bits, on a Windows 7 professional 64-bit -- it means it should also work with Java 7, possibly 64-bits flavour).
- Download the example :
.
- Run the file test.bat

You will find all the files produced in the "output" subdirectory. Yes, that's how much boring typing Easy Plugin spared you.

Why do I get Warnings when I run the example?
The example shows you that Easy Plugin also warns you when you forget to declare a "Create" function in your struct, or when the types don't match.


OK, now I see what it does. Can I use it for my own project?
Yes, simply edit the contents of the file "input.easypluginDefinition".
You can try to run AGSEasyPlugin.jar without parameters to see the expected command line parameters.


I want to change the way it works. Is this Open Source?
Yes. And VERY easy to modify for your own needs.
- What you need is to follow the steps described in this video : http://vimeo.com/groups/29150/videos/8001326 It takes no more than 10 minutes to set up the whole environment!
IMPORTANT: I didn't manage to have ANTLR IDE work with the latest versions od Eclipse and ANTLR. I had to use Eclipse Galileo SR1 (32 bits) and ANTLR 3.2. Apart from that, you can use the latest versions of the libraries shown in the video.
- Download the project files : http://shutupload.com/dl/407f7aba991f/
But you don't need to get the source code to use AGS Easy Plugin. As it is, you can just run it.


Why Java?
- Because it's almost a clone of C# except you don't have to go through the hassle of having a copy of Visual C# (even with the express edition you have to register)
- Because AGS is moving towards being cross-platform. This program would work on Mac or UNIX with minor changes.
- Because I'm sure you won't need some redistributable package to make it work.


HELP WANTED
At the moment it works pretty well, but you can help me improving it by toying with it and telling me if I forgot something.
For example, I was rather focused on automating the output, but I might have produced semantically wrong code in C++ (forgotten a function, etc.)

[this thread]

Yes, a new HAT for AGS would be perfect.
And by HAT, I don't mean a head accessory, but a Help Authoring Tool.

At the moment, AGS is relying on the .CHM format, and it's fine, but it is becoming risky to rely on this any longer, because the very very old tool "hhc.exe" used to produce it is a bit unstable on Windows 7. Calin suggested to move forward in this thread.

Which of these HATs do you recommend? Pick one here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_help_authoring_tools

The requirements are :
1) Preferably the output should be produced from one big text file containing just a few markers (at the moment the original help file is a .tex file)
2) It must offer those 3 functions : a "contents" section (where we can put selected articles on display, grouped by theme), an index (a list of all the important keywords) and a search function.

=============================

EDIT
Actually, Precision Helper looks perfect. It has the freeware license (see the details here) and can work directly from the .hhp file...

=============================

EDIT 2

Here are my first results with Precision Helper:


That's good enough except for the fact that the index is not sorted alphabetically. That's annoying but I'm pretty sure it can be fixed. I'll have a look at it later.
Oh, and the buttons are in French, but that's probably just a setting.

Test it on your own machine :

• html-based help version 0.9
• html-based help version 1.0 (fixes: menus in English, images no longer broken, Index in alphabetical order)
• html-based help version 1.1 (fixes: buttons "prev", "next" and "home" have their icons back)

[Chris, how could you do that to the community?]

Chris, how could you do that to the community? How could you not release the most important part of the AGS source code? The most intricate and critical part of the project? Is this what you dare calling an open-source project?

At this stage, everybody has understood I was talking about the Help project files -- the files meant for Microsoft's HTML Help workshop. 
Well, I suppose that's the tool you used to generate the .chm file. Am I correct? If so, did I miss the subfolder where the files are kept?

With the current technology, a .chm file is easily decompiled, but not easily recompiled.

[1) Decompiling the .chm file, adding the plugin's index and articles, then re-compiling it.]

I'm currently trying to imagine the best way to integrate the help of plugins/modules/parallel editor branches directly into the AGS editor.
At the moment, AGS' help is based on the old Windows ".chm" help files.
A quick look at the Editor's code shows that opening the help simply creates (or focuses on) an instance of the help file shipped with AGS.

I was considering 2 leads :
1) Decompiling the .chm file, adding the plugin's index and articles, then re-compiling it. It's not too hard in theory, even though the .chm format and tools are awfully badly documented, and not really easy to handle through command line (the "HTML Help Workshop" tool is obviously primarily targeting WYSIWYG rather than automated treatment).
- The only drawback I see here is the need of using an installer that would explicitly run that task. Not everybody likes installers or .bat files.
- Also there would be a risk of corrupting/saturating the original AGS help file after installing many plugins. Obviously, if I choose that method, I'd create backups of the original .chm file, and I'm assuming that someone who installs plugins is not too demanding regarding the consistency of his AGS help file (he knows what he's doing and is not afraid to revert to the backup).

2) Create an Editor plugin that would allow the handling of several, independent help files. I don't know if that's possible without an extensive modification of the code. In particular, it would be hard for the Editor to decide what file to open when the developer highlights a word and presses "F1", as it would have to scan the index of each .chm file first.

Does anybody have suggestions?
This topic could also be the occasion of discussing a potential migration of the help system to more modern and flexible technologies -- like plain HTML files open in a browser, for example, but still with an index and search capability.


EDIT: Damn, this .chm format is a mess. The good news is that MS provided a simple chm-files merger for public use (use the compiler hhc.exe with a .hhp file that contains a [MERGE FILES] section, as described here). The bad news is that hhc.exe crashes on Windows 7 :-) All the third-party mergers I've found so far seem to be just UIs making the use of hhc.exe more intuitive (no open source stuff, unfortunately). However I've tried a free utility called "ABC Amber CHM Merger" and hhc.exe didn't crash. I'm puzzled.

Would someone have an example of an Editor plugin written in C#? I've never interleaved C# and C++ before.

[1) Enhancement #1: Submenus]

I'm currently working on the following enhancements:

1) Enhancement #1: Submenus

The menus system of the Editor is pretty basic: You can only have one drop-down menu per item in the main  menu. In other words, there can never be more than one level in any menu.
this is what you see below with "File-->Open".

After I'm done, it will be possible to add a submenu in a menu. this is what you see in the example below with "File-->Print-->SomethingElse".



2) Enhancement #2: Branched wizards

In the Wizard class, one can only do "Next" and "Previous", but your choice in a pane can never change what pane will be displayed next. their order is only based on their index in the wizard panes' list.

After I'm done, here will be a possible use case:
You have 4 panes in your wizard: A, B1, B2, and C. On pane A (the first pane of the wizard), the user can choose between option "1" and option "2". then he clicks next. If he chose "1", he will see pane B1. If he chose "2", he will see pane B2. When he clicks Next again, he will see pane C.

A --> B1 --> C
or
A --> B2 --> C

In the Editor's source, there are two things named "GUI" :
- the type: AGS.Types.GUI
- the namespace: AGS.Editor.GUI

I've tried building the solution with Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate, and it fails to resolve the conflict: It says "AGS.Editor.GUI is a namespace but is used as a type", for example when compiling GUIEditor.cs
This is worked around by explicitly replacing "GUI" with "AGS.Types.GUI" in the source. For example : "private GUI _gui = null;" becomes "private AGS.Types.GUI _gui = null;"

Am I missing something? Is it the newest VS being stricter, or is it a setting to change?

[Let me know if you have advice to give about that, or hints to help me making sense of the Editor's code.]

Hi all,

At the moment, you can only export (and import) resources one by one. For example you can export ONE character, ONE script, etc.
It's a bit annoying when you've been writing a super module that relies on some mandatory graphics (e.g. a GUI). It means that whoever wants to use your module also need to import all the related resources manually.
You're going to tell me : "Yes, but you can make it a game template".
I agree, but lately there have been such great modules and plugins that you'll often want to combine 2 or more, and it can be a pain to "merge" 2 games templates.

Don't get me wrong: It's not about laziness, it's about avoiding human mistakes. When you import a module and the module relies (for example) on a simple gui that's not provided, the readme can esily omit small requirements like "this GUI should necessarily have index #0 otherwise it won't work". You end up reading the whole script to debug silly inconsistencies you introduced when importing.

So I thought I'd just add a little menu in the Editor:
- It opens a listbox with all the resources
- You can tick all the resources you want to export
- then you click on the "export button" and it exports then and zips them together
- Symetriclaly you can import them back as a whole.

Let me know if you have advice to give about that, or hints to help me making sense of the Editor's code.

[Who said that and where?]

I believe I remember someone said (in the last 6 months) that their website could be used to host some AGS material, in particular coding projects such as plugins, etc.
I'm not talking about storing sprites or resources online. I'm talking about hosting a SVN or CVS repository.

Unfortunately I can't find this thread anymore. Who said that and where? Did they say exactly that or did they just offer to host games development blogs?