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[DrawingSurface.DrawImage(...)]

I also found another bug. There seems to be an issue with function DrawingSurface.DrawImage(...) when the transparency given in parameter is 0. It crashes the game brutally, even in Debug mode.

The issue happens at this script line of the module :

Spoiler

Code: ags

surface.DrawImage (FloatToInt ( AllParticles[i].x ), FloatToInt ( AllParticles[i].y ), sprite.Graphic, AllParticles[i].transparency, width, height);

[close]

If you want to avoid the error, then simply make sure that the transparency is never exactly zero.
For example you can add those two lines of script just before the line causing the error :

Spoiler

Code: ags

if (AllParticles[i].transparency ==0)
    AllParticles[i].transparency = 1;

surface.DrawImage (FloatToInt ( AllParticles[i].x ), FloatToInt ( AllParticles[i].y ), sprite.Graphic, AllParticles[i].transparency, width, height);

[close]

==========

However the issue mentionned by AGD2 remains : Sprites are drawn as blue cups.


the issue was found, it's not caused by the module.

Did you witness the issue yourself?

Please ignore my post if it doesn't match the symptoms, but I'm trying to think out of the box :
Do you have a lot of mouse-position checkings in your script at every game loop? (GetatScreenXY, etc.) It could be that you have a lot of objects or hotspots on top of eachother in your rooms in the center of the room, and it makes the framerate drop when the mouse is over them on less powerful systems (tablets?) -- but there are less objects on the borders of the room, so the game runs at regular speed there. I know this sounds stupid, I'm just trying to help

Here's the repeatedly_execute function of a module :

Code: ags

Character* charPool[NPC_MAXCHAR]; //some code somewhere else puts Characters there

function repeatedly_execute()
{
  int i=0;
  while (i<NPC_MAXCHAR) { //we iterate through all possible NPC's

        if (!charPool[i].Moving) { //only if the character has stopped walking
        
            int x = Random(320); int y = Random(200);
            charPool[i].Walk(x, y, eNoBlock, eWalkableAreas); //THIS LINE IS CALLED AT EVERY GAME CYCLE!!!
          
        }
        i++;
    
  }
}

It turns out the line commente "//THIS LINE..." is called at every game cycle. A walk action keeps being initiated. I don't understand why : Character.Moving should be false as soon as the character starts walking?!?

Oh it's just a demo :-(

The lava background comes from the Fate of Atlantis isn't it?

Obviously! (at last! ) (selmiak I see what you did there, you big troll)
That's just for the intro though. There will be 3 or 4 exclusive backgrounds.

The backgrounds look really good btw, regardless of the troll universe.

Thanks. But... Please, tell me you've recognized the lava background?


@ghost: yes, Dennis being the sucker he is, needs ot download his own game bit by bit. But sometimes the downloads don't go as expected

[still missing.]

"OSD": FEAR in three letters for any sane moderator.

Having said that, this is a real game, and it's about 50% complete :

Start-up work: (scripting the gui, drawing the main character, etc. -- usually the longest thing to do) DONE
Backgrounds : 2 out of 5.
Puzzle design: DONE
music : still missing.

Lol, Steam comments

It's even made in the famous ASG as all the old games by Sierra are

Haha! icey_games, we know it's you!

Congrats on the re-release, guys. That trailer is epic and made me want to play again. Also, cool partnership (Screen7+crystal Shards).
High quality all the way, and it's all for us gamers, and it's for free. Isn't life wonderful?

Looks stylish, in the interface choices, colors and stuff. I'm always skeptical of pre-rendred hi-res characters sprites, but I must admit that you might be one of the first ones around who actually CAN model things in 3D without the result looking too much like a generated Poser mesh.

Let's see how it blends in the actual game, when it's all animated.

I love the mad scientist sprite!

Someones doesn't know their classics!

[FEATURES:]

FEATURES:
- the lamest Dennis sprites to-date
- Dennis finally meets his mom
- a very bad impersonation of the Angry German kid
- FMV! (Full Motion Video, for those born after the 90's. Yes, I'm talking about you. Shame on you.)
- Lots and lots of DLC's
- Lots and lots of hairgel
- A big sword... and the possibility to use it to cut stuff!
- no J-RPG fight at all (or your money back)
- ALL CHARACTERS HAVE RECORDED VOICES! ...But not the way you imagine

I NEED A MUSICIAN! I'm doing the whole game by myself but I just can't make music One or two silly tunes in the style of Goblins 3 would be awesome, deadly, and utterly exhilerating.

Dialog options use the players speech font

Alright! I didn't know that.

static FontType Game.NormalFont

Gets/sets the font used for all in-game text, except speech. The font number must be a valid number from the Fonts pane of the editor.
More specifically, AGS uses the Normal Font for the following:

Display
DisplayTopBar
dialog options text
the built-in save and restore dialogs

Thanks a lot Khris!

I can't figure out how to change the font that AGS uses to display the dialog options. Even with a custom GUI. Is it even possible?

Intense degree's solution is the most straightfoward, because if you need to have those enemy stats loaded into your game, then you will need a structure like his "CharacterAttack" struct in your script, to store them.

The whole question is : how do you fill that sruct?
- you can fill it manually in the script, like he described.
- if you really need it to be filled from external, editable files, then the simplest solution is to use module "IniFile" (just search it on the forums). It's like what Khris said, except the module even does the text parsing for you.


You'd just create a file called "scott.ini" containing this :

Code: ags

bite=10
uppercut=15
lowblow=15

Then, in your AGS script, use IniFile to read very easily from that file.

"crashes are no good, they mean engine code is unsafe. It's better to find out what causes them"

Yes and no.
The issue here is not really "unsafe engine code". It's the Editor's fault.
The issue is that when you delete a bunch of resources from your AGS project, the Editor doesn't update everything properly until next restart and all-files rebuild.

If you try to run your game immediately after your deletions, AGS gets confused and fails to tell you about the missing resources at compiling time. It tells you that compiling went fine. Therefore it crashes at runtime when the resources are actually found to be missing.
So as I said, if you delete a lot of things from your game project, you need to save, rebuild all, and then close and restart the AGS Editor. Only then are all the caches up-to-date. And AGS will tell you about the compiling errors that it let through before.

I posted too fast.
Same solution as last time :
1) In AGS' menu, Build-->Rebuild all files
2) Close AGS (save project). Re-open AGS.
3) Compile. New compiling errors get caught.

I've got this at program startup.
I tried to put a breakpoint in function game_start even before anything else, but it still occurs.
I don't know why it happens. Could it be a missing resource? If yes, of which type?


An exception 0xC0000005 occurred in ACWIN.EXE at EIP = 0x004852BB ; program pointer is -7, ACI version 3.3.0.1156, gtags (0,1)

I'm using ParticleSystemManager and it seems to handle my alpha containing particles just fine.

That's the one I experimented on too, EXCELLENT And that's the one that was causing alpha issues with 3.2.1. So apparently it handled well the upgrade to 3.3.0. Hurray.

I don't like the "fake WFN" term. There's nothing fake in it. The format is all the same (really) it's just that AGS was told to calculate actual number of chars based on available data rather than use "128" constant.

Well OK, but 256-chars WFN fonts are mostly converted from "fake SCI" fonts (and I believe those do exist, as opposed to genuine 128-char SCI). That's how it was introduced to me originally by the few-who-knew. At the time (only 6 months ago!), there was no reference document to clarify anything, so I assumed a lot

I'll correct the term in the wiki page. This will all become part of the past, with native 256-char support.

[http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/wiki/Fonts]

TTF fonts all the way. SCI fonts don't have accented characters (unless you've found a special SCI font that does, please tell me!!).

(...)

You'll need to figure out anti-aliasing issues for yourself, make it work with TTF, it can be a little tricky...but not impossible. UNLESS of course anyone has any inside info?

I have compiled all useful info about fonts into this : http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/wiki/Fonts
Most issues are on the verge of being resolved, with the new "fake SCI" fonts type (and its twin brother, the WFN type), that introduces 256 char instead of 128, and work with AGS 3.3.x or higher -- and Rulaman's tools to manipulate them.
One could argue that 256 chars is still obsolete technology, but it's good enough for most international apps.
The article also address anti-aliasing issues with TTF fonts.

I recommend everyone reads the final part (the 4 possible font strategies), it's very instructive, even for AGS veterans.