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[Don't take this post too seriously]

In case you wonder what the subject of this thread means, it's a small reference to a famous quote by Diderot, just for fun.
But that's not (exactly) the matter.

Ali jokingly posted this article in another discussion.

I must say I am appalled by that article.

Every single line of it makes me want to hang the last King with his own entrails. They forced the protester to apologize, accused him of criminal damage (because he damaged a flag), they whine about the "now-inappropriate Rolls-Royce", sound really shocked that your average guy "had physical contact" despite the VIP's protection. Oh my god, he must be a real psychotic. Can you imagine? PHYSICAL CONTACT!

Note that the article doesn't say anything about the legitimate anger of the students, or about their political message.

Also, I hate this form of passive aggressive language, where you never actually say what you think. Expressions like "this is a regrettable incident" and "I hope they will take full responsibility" make me want to puke (on Prince Charles).


Don't take this post too seriously, this is a new form of rage-quit: IT's the rage-post!

Why isn't there a serious, modern, Adventure Games engine?

Don't misunderstand me:
- AGS is serious but not modern (there's no real support for 3D - I *do* know it's a feature, though! AGS has a very specific audience)
- Wintermute is modern-ish but the plugins are rare and the support is awkward. It aims mainly at 2.5D
- Lassie has disappeared from the Radars
- other engines are falling apart.

Don't tell me Adventure games are a niche market -- there are plenty of 3D adventure games being released since Beyond Good and Evil.
Also, don't tell me that not everybody wants to make 3D games -- I know that, but 3D features apply to 2D (anti-aliasing, Z-buffering, special effects, particles, etc.)

I'm more curious why the motivation is so low.

[Are "turning" characters (that is, characters that are suddenly changing direction while they walk) realistic in there, or is Poser just rotating the character while the walkcycle goes on?]

Hi,
I'm looking for a piece of software that would make easy AND realistic walk animations. I'm thinking of Poser because it's a all-in-one solution, but I have a question to ask for people who have already used it :

Are "turning" characters  (that is, characters that are suddenly changing direction while they walk) realistic in there, or is Poser just rotating the character while the walkcycle goes on?

Realistic "turning" characters imply having them putting their foot on the ground, and rotating their leg and hips while the foot is not moving.

Hey, I believe I've solved all the puzzles in the game and I've got the 3 guys standing in front of the castle. But what to do next???

How would you design a murder party system in a game?
By that, I mean :
- There should be elements in the game that change randomly every time you play the game
- You never know in advance who's guilty. It changes every time.

So how would you proceed? How would you decide when the scenario "changes" and takes you to a different end?
a- Depending on the time the player performs an action? (that means you must also introduce some sort of real-time system where you measure the time that elapses - the most popular system being a clock)
b- By writing in advance n different stories and randomly picking one at game initializaiton?
c- Depending on the order the player performs the actions (e.g. if he takes object A before object B, then something different will happen later) ?


I can't remember how it is in Blade Runner. I think it's more something like choice "c". However if I remember correctly, all paths are written in advance.
I'd like to automate as much as possible. For example, the boardgame "Cluedo" is 100% random - all answers are determined when the game starts, and it doesn't need a game master. How would you make it more immersive (e.g. computer-generated dialogs) and merge its gameplay with a point-n-click gameplay?

[Yahtzee]

Most of you probably already know that Duke Nukem is going to be released. Soon. And it's not even a joke. There are in-game videos of it all over the web.

So I thought it was an occasion to dig this hilarious video from Yahtzee, that was made during times of skepticism : http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/748-Duke-Nukem-Forever

Oh, and the actual game footage : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxKL1By-6j4&feature=related or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TR_Vzu6MSY

Hey, I'm very ashame to ask, but I can't put a name or a composer on that tune.

You know, it's that tune that plays in the very furst few seconds of the intro scene of Day Of The Tentacle, when you see that bird flying and then die because of the toxic fumes?

Here is the full project :  http://www.megaupload.com/?d=C0IOMHUA

I simply opened an AGS 2.72 project with AGS 3. The conversion shouldn't be the issue since I've previously done it at an earlier developement stage and it worked fine. Dualnames also did it with another branch of the same code and had no problem.

Immediately after opening/converting the project, I click on "Build" and I get the error:

"PE02: Parse Error at 'FindGUIID' "  in __Plugin100.ash

It seems to be a linking problem, but there's no such function as "FindGUIID".
Any ideas?

[2.72]

Hi all,

I know the type "string" is obsolete but I'm using it with AGS 2.72 for the even-more-obsolete-but-ireplaceable TCP plugin 0.0.3 by a-v-o.

How to convert String to string ?

I tried the function below

Code: ags

string S_to_s(String str){
		string buffer;
		if (str.Length > 255) {
				DisplayErr(String.Format("String '%s' is too long to be converted to old-style type 'string'", str));
				StrCopy(buffer, "");
		} else
				StrCopy(buffer, str);
		}
		return buffer;
}

But it won't compile. Error Parse error: Unexpected 'return'   on line "return buffer;"

I'm puzzled.

[1/ What kind of processing are we talking about?]

Hi,
OK, I lied, there's no money involved. But there's eternal fame for you in there.

The idea is simple :
1/ What kind of processing are we talking about?
When you code a script, you need to process some data.
Basic, common tasks include :
- calculations (e.g. multiply 2 variables)
- swap values (e.g. swap the values of var1 and var2)
- binary processing (e.g. var3 = var1 XOR var2)
etc.
The examples are countless.

2/ What do I call "bulk processing?
It's when you have to perform any basic task many times in a row, and you know pretty much everything about the countext
All you want is to have the script perform the actual calculation, repeatedly...
E.g. : Perform 1,000,000 XOR operations in order to encrypt some data.

What do I call "unconventional methods"?
In order to perform an XOR operation, you'd normally do:  var3 = var2 ^ var1;
If you have to do it 1,000,000 times, then you'll write the instruction above in a loop.

Now, imagine you'd proceed completely differently : You'd create 2 DynamicSprites, each with dimensions 1,000,000px x 1px. The first sprite contains all the "var1" values, and the second sprite would contain all the "var2" values.
Then you'd blit sprite 2 onto sprite 1 with an XOR operator. It's not possible in AGS, but it is in many drawing APIs, that's why I'm taking this example. And BOOM, you'd have a massive XOR, performed hundreds (thousands) of times faster than if you had done it with the script.

So, now, the question:  Can you think of any similar idea to perfom massive processing of information (inside of AGS) by cleverly using other AGS functions that were apparently not designed for that in the first place

the craziest the idea, the better!

I'm very serious here!!!

[EDIT after Wyz's post] : Of course, I'm always talking in the context of AGS: the goal is to replace any type of slow AGS' script instruction by another (set of) AGS instructions.

Also, I'm not talking about code optimization (like "avoid calling too many procedures, etc."). Once again, I'm strictly talking about replacing some code with a function that was designed for something completely different.

I'm impressed by how this crappy* perspective manages to fool the eye :

(look at the floor: the distance between the lines never changes, neither does the distance of the lines on the walls)



* I know it's on purpose.

I never get tired of how often the name "Chris Jones" pops up in the most random places :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7qEivYkgZM&NR=1

[The game's interface is super simple]

So there was I, loosely thinking about that Deluxe verison of discordance's "How they found silence" that we're going to make, with Piotr Obinsky.
To be really into what I was doing, I decided to play the game again, and this time I played it with my girlfriend, to know her opinion.

She actually had the mouse and I was barely guiding her.

The game's interface is super simple: Left-click = use, right-click = watch. The exits of each room are marked with big arrows drawn on the background. You don't even have to click on the actual exit of the room, just click on the arrow.
Also, there is strictly no perspective. The game is enirely in completely flat 2D. You exit rooms either to the left or to the right, or by clicking on the doors drawn in the background.

So you couldn't design something more straightforward.

And, to my great surprise...

...My girlfriend couldn't find her way in the game. She was always failing to spot WHERE she was, and was often clicking randomly to go from one room to another. She was confusing the rooms, not remembering what door she just took, etc.

And it's not like she's dumb, she's very close to finish Machinarium. Also, she actually WAS enjoying the game. She was immersed in the plot, but she was highly frustrated by the game design/graphics.

I think this is very interesting from a scientific perspective. It deals with the following topics:
- how does the brain match an imaginary scene to a real place? I was very aware that most of the places are at the top of the cliffs, even when they're not explicitely drawn. However, my girlfriend told me she felt like she was only walking along a random garden wall.
- the difference between the geometric representation of space by boys and a representation based on remarkable "hotspots" by girls. There, the graphics were so basic that the geometrical aspect took over, despite the many details (lamps, doors, flowers, etc.)!

And, from a game designer's perspective: Always think your design choices through, depending on your intended audience! It's lucky discordance made his game for a handful of nerdy guys (just kidding  )

[another language]

Everybody knows Proust, at least through Steve Carell's character in Little Miss Sunshine. 

Has anybody read one of his books in another language than French? I'm curious about what memories and feelings you keep from that experience.

Considering those 2 very similar scenes, which one do you like most, and why?
(my question is very vague on purpose)

It's not about the GUI, it's really about the background.

Can you connect to Sourceforge.net

Hi,
I'd like to measure the time that elapses within a loop. the loop is executed only once between each rendering by the engine (in other words, it would be executed at each call of repeatedly_execute_always).

So far, let me know if something I said doesn't make sense.

It doesn't matter what the loop does. What's important is that I want to measure how long it takes. And since it's executed at each frame, you can assume that the execution time is relatively small compared to the global time spent on other scripts.

You start to get it: the time I want to measure is very short.

So my question is : What tool would you recommed to measure that? Is a timer accurate enough*? What else would you use?

* If the error of the measure is higher than, let's say, 3  times the time that I want to measure, you'll understand it's not acceptable. However I'd tolerate measures with 50% error (0.5 times the real value)  to 100% error (1 time the real value).

EDIT: I'd tolerate a frame rate as low as 15 fps. Which means that I'd spend roughly 50ms for the total script execution at each frame. If I assume the loop I want to measure can take 10% of that time, it means the times I want to measure can be as small as 5ms. Let's say 1ms for better results.

I was so proud that my dynamic allocation system didn't rely on static arrays anymore, but on dynamic arrays instead.
And then realized that dynamic arrays can have a size only up to 1,000,000 elements - thus dividing the power of my module by 20 after a long and painful refactor.

This post has no other object than to whine. 

I'll even add [SOLVED] in the subject, to close it definitely.

[god machine]

That story is not so interesting, but it was one of those rare moments when you feel like you're special, being a point-and-click lover. Don't be surprised if you already know all of what's below - for me it was a surprise.

I was in a library (Chapters, on Parnell street, in Dublin), wandering in the comic books section.
I was grumpy because there were litterally thousands of those American Super-heroes comic books, and just a handful of comic books from Japan or from the Belgian school.

Anyway, at some stage I come across an Indiana Jones comic book.
At first I didn't really want to open it, because Indiana Jones novels or comic books are usually not very good.
But I was so bored that I started browsing it very quickly. It was called "Indiana Jones Omnibus Vol. 1"

There were 4 or 5 independant short stories in it, and the graphic style was kind of 80's*. Not great art.

https://www.dynamicforces.com/images/C111170.jpg


http://www.hypergeek.ca/wp-content/gallery/ind/ijfuradvv2p2.jpg


On one of the pages, I'm surprised to see a drawing that looked a lot like Fate of Atlantis' god machine (the one in the background of this picture)


I read more carefully, and it turned out that the first story of the comic book was actually "Fate of Atlantis".
I checked the credits, and it said : "Story by Hal Barwood and XXXX, Lucasfilm games" (yeah, that's right, not "Lucasarts").
The other stories of the book were by random guys.
The characters didn't look much like in the game (especially Kerner, who is bald, dark-haired, and has a moustache :-))

Suddently I felt happy to have this very mediocre piece of comic book in my hands :-) :-)

Here is a picture that shows Sophia, if I'm not mistaken :
One of the posts below shows that it's actually not her.

http://images.darkhorse.com/common/salestools/previews/indyomv3/indyomv3p3.jpg

And here is a bonus picture :



* It turned out that the comic book was actualy from the 90's, but.. drawn by a guy who learnt in the 80's ;-)

OK, I've got this code :

Code: ags

      #define RED 55
      #define AGSH_RBNode_Parent 0+
      #define AGSH_RBNode_Color  3+
      #define TO_LOCAL -
      #define SEGADDR_INT  33

      int memInt[100];

      int debug2 = memInt[AGSH_RBNode_Parent(z  TO_LOCAL SEGADDR_INT)]; 
      int debug3 = memInt[AGSH_RBNode_Color(debug2)];                   
      while ( debug3 == RED) {
           ...
      }

When I complie, I get error "Parse error in expr near '55'", for the line containing while (...

I just don't get why.


Here is a clearer picture of what the code looks like after the pre-processor has replaced the macros :

Code: ags

      int memInt[100];

      int debug2 = memInt[0+(z  - 33)]; 
      int debug3 = memInt[3+(debug2)];                   
      while ( debug3 == 55) {
           ...
      }

I'm confused.  
Could it be a bracket or similar missing somewhere else in the code?