Messages

There is no default "custom dialog box". Unfoirtunately I don't know if there's a module that does that.
But it's not too hard; you can use slasher's methid, or you can create a custom gui to display the text, etc. Just make sure you replace the default "Say" method with your own -- that I'm sure you'll find forum posts that deal with this topic.

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

Morobo, Gabi and especially Moorhead look totally like regular people. I found the African-masks faces to be an interesting aesthetics choice.

[[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.

Also, does H.264 do lossless? That's important for low-res games.

To be honest, this should probably be put into Global Script's function "repeatedly_execute".

Out of curiosity: object[] and Room.ObjectCount are accessible from there?

If needed: use this tool to produce a shitload of functions without much hassle http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=46244.0

[HOWEVER]

1. Duplication of organization: I agree with Snarky, this is completely unnecessary imo.

Yeah, "virtual" folders are always a source of confusion in every IDE.

I don't see a need for the cache during actual development, though.

Yeah but sometimes you want to share your game project with other developers, or simply back it up, without worrying that you forgot some of the other "external" folders where you keep your pictures, or without worrying that your backup is in a consistent state. There are countless examples of such features in other fields (for example Adobe software, that lets you zip in all the font files you use in your text editor project alongside it, not just strictly your project file). That's what the cache file does.

HOWEVER a possibility would be to simply tweak the cache file code, that (if I'm not mistaken) already has mechanisms to check if the file is outdated, to simply display a warning in the editor at compile time (in the Errors pane), that would tell you if the file is 1) missing or 2) outdated .

There is a RoomLoader.cs (I can't remember the exact name right now) class in monkey's multiroom branch, that does 90% of the work. It's not included in the project though, so I don't know if you've noticed it. I'm not sure if it's reliable or not (I can't get monkey to answer at the moment)

you may want to verify that you can compile the Native Project with a free version of Visual Studio.

I explicitly wrote that you cannot compile it with a free version, so I'm not sure where that comes from.

But... Wasn't there a demo plugin for download, ready to be compiled, coming along a nice .sln file? I think there was. And on the download page, some instructions regarding the proper VS to use, etc.

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/wiki/Object_functions_and_properties#Object.GetAtScreenXY

Code: ags

//Code below to be inserted in room function 'RepExec' (if you don't know how to create it, then ask):

Object* o = oTheObjectYouWantToSpot; //change to your own object here
if (Object.GetAtScreenXY(mouse.x, mouse.y) == o) {
   o.Visible=true;
} else {
   o.Visible=false;
}

Don't forget that you can iterate on every object of the room, to automate the process :

Code: ags

int n=0;
while (n<Room.ObjectCount)
{
    Object* o = object[n]; //this gets the n-th object in the room. Feel free to do any "overlapping" test on it.
    n++;
}

//Note: I'm not sure if it's object[n] or Room.object[n] or Game.object[n]

Could we stop talking about other IDE's and framework, and focus on how to make CRM format more open, directly in the game engine/Editor?

[different character]

Maybe it's the AGS engine that's responsible for this, but my guts tell me it's a custom script in your repeatedly_execute_always (so it still gets exectued when you press Esc, but does not reflect on-screen, as you know how AGS works). My instinct tells me that this custom script probably works perfectly everywhere else, because you're not in the conditions that trigger the bad behaviour, but I imagine that for this particular dialog, your character is in the one and only situation that makes some script loop too much.

Do you have custom scripts in your game? Try putting your character in a different situation: different coordinates, different room, make a different character say this very dialog, etc.

Regardless of the final implementation and decisions taken here, I think that if the "path" property was made editable in the editor, that would be really cool.


PS: what we do in our project is that every person working on the project can put the sprites wherever they want but then they have to mount a network drive so that the (absolute) sprite import path is always something like Y:\sprites\...

Mildly relevant: The one annoying thing about idle animations is the delay. It's changed only through script, and when you're a beginner it's hard to find in the help if you don't know what you're looking for.

.

[CW]: mistakenly modified Monsieur OUXX's post instead of quoting :[.
The question was about room password and encrypted data.

I don't know if I'll have to modify the native code, i think that at first I could just try to save a replica of the CRM file, but as xml, to the disk, even if it's not used by the Editor. That could be useful for source control, to do compares.

...Can you elaborate, please? I did not like the way it sounds... maybe I do not understand correctly.

Well, as a first step, when the room gets saved to CRM, I could at the same time dump it to XML, as a file that is not meant to be read back by the Editor (for now) but acts as a testimony of what is currently contained in the CRM file. Imagine you add that file to source control: then you can do compares with other files modified by other contributors. You can't do merges (because the "real" file is still the CRM file) but at least you can see easily what they changed.

There's a file called "RoomLoader.cs" but I'm confused it doesn't seemt o be part of any project.

[EDIT: It worked!]

I did definitely modify AGS.Native a lot.

Sorry, I got confused when reading the several branches, I didn't realize it was you who did that one.

We also stopped updating it in the repository, and even removed it later (you won't find it in recent branches).
I think you may try using AGS.Native from the 2013th experimental release here:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=48629.0
BTW, if you cannot compile AGS.Native yourself, or work on its code, I fear you will need someone's help to fix Native code. The big parts of game compilation are still in Native library.
This depends on what exactly are you going to do though.

Thanks a lot for pointing me to a proper compiled version. EDIT: It worked!
I don't know if I'll have to modify the native code, i think that at first I could just try to save a replica of the CRM file, but as xml, to the disk, even if it's not used by the Editor. That could be useful for source control, to do compares.
Then if I'm brave enough I could write a C# loader. And then some day maybe a C++ wizard will be able to hook that code where appropriate.