Messages

[scripting challenge]

Anyone ever started or completed it yet?

Well, apparently this scripting challenge is not inspiring as many people as the last one!
It's still on, guys : http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=40184.msg636471871#msg636471871

Just to report a small mistake : the page here says the game is 2.5MB but it's actually 20.5MB http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1684/

What description property? I'm not seeing that in the GUI editor or the scripting reference.

As I wrote, I didn't remember if GUI controls have it. I just checked; unfortunately they don't. Only hotspots have a description. The 9-verb template uses the description of the hotspots to set their "type" (door, etc.).
Monkey's script seems to be the best (and only) solution.

[description]

i can't remember if controls have them but the common practice is to use the description property. E.g. set the label's description to "label1" and then check it as a String.

PS: Knox, if you wish, I can have a look at your code and give you advice on how to re-engineer it to make it more compact and, more importantly, more maintainable.

An issue is that if I release a game as a zip, Enhanced Saved Games won't work (unless there's a way to do the windows registry operation from within the game somehow).

You could make that Registry edit happen in a .bat file (e.g. "finish install.bat"):
- the installer runs it automatically
OR
- the player who just unzipped the game must run that batch file manually.

Maybe you could find a way to check from within the game if the player ran the .bat file, and if not, to display a message saying to do it.

[The scripting challenge is still open.]

A wonderful idea and approach! I hope someone can do it!

Thanks Construed.

The scripting challenge is still open.

Quite a dilemma. I suppose some kind of ideal solution would be an installer that is also recognized by archivers as a self-extracting archive.

Yes. There is nothing that annoys me more than an installer that gives me a CRC error when, instead of double-clicking it, I right-click on it and select my beloved "extract here".

[SCRIPTING CHALLENGE #2]

SCRIPTING CHALLENGE #2

Hello boys and girls, you who crave for a new full-length Indy game!

The last scripting challenge was a success, and thanks to the help of Scavenger, we were able to implement the Indy-style travel maps in no time. You can see it in action here: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=49021.0

Since then, we've done a lot of progress (unreleased backgrounds, scripting and animations), and it's now time to move forward with another scripting challenge.

Why a scripting challenge?

The purpose of those scripting challenges is to offer an opportunity to help the project with a short-term goal, preferably something fun! It's typically some scripting that we could certainly do ourselves, but that would stop us from focusing on the things that only we can do.
Our goal is to complete this gigantic task with our tiny team, as fast as possible! That's where you kick in.

Needless to say, you'll be credited in the game for your contribution!

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

The goal this time is to implement some credits system that looks like the credits of Fate of Atlantis (FoA). You can see a sample video here: (watch at 1:29) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ET_98IcvoTI

REQUIREMENTS:

1) The credits use this font:

Note: The AGS-ready font is available for download here  (it's actually two fonts, since AGS' technical requirements force you to use one font for the letters and one font for the fancy black outline). Just copy those files into your AGS game folder, then open your game. The fonts should be in the resources tree.
2) (optional) They may use a "fake" fade-in: If you look closely at the video, you'll see that the letters start all black, and then only the letters' color fades in, on top of the black. That's not an absolute requirement, you can just make the letters fade in and out.
3) They can be used within a cutscene (they won't screw everything up if "EndCutscene()" is called)
4) They are non-blocking (we can still script characters walking around or doing stuff while they are displayed)

An extra requirement for us is that they can be queued-up in advance (so that we can maintain all  the credits entries in one easily readable script function).

So what do you say, this time?

[Bounding box :]

It's a bit cheeky but I have a few requests, I'll just post the list, from easier to harder:
- Bounding box : that each character has a rectangle around it. So that the end-user is sure if there is an actual character to click at that location (possibly entirely black) or if there is nothing
- Click detection: that the click on the characters is not pixel-perfect, but instead the whole rectangle can be clicked anywhere.
- Unsupported formats: that there is a clearer error message when one tries to open an unsupported font format (e.g. 256-characters SCI format)
- Silent "save": that the software's visual feedback is better when the user clicks on "save". For example, when no font is open, if you click on "save", nothing happens. Other example: As it is now, you can open one format, edit it, and then save it (in the same format). You can't save cross-format. When you click on "Save" you'd hope there would be something happening. For example, a popup telling you that you overwrote the actual file. Or an asterisk that was in front of the currently modified file's name (like in any text editor), and the asterisk would disappear. Any visual feedback.
- Non-obvious conversion options : The usual practice in other apps, when one wants to convert, is to "save as". Here, there's a "convert selected" button. ...Selected what? font or character? When I click on that button, nothing happens, but all the open fonts get closed.
- Non-English languages: That it supports 256 characters (possibly in ISO-xxxxx), rather than just 128.

So the SCI format does allow 256-characters SCI files (correct?), but AGS cannot open such files. Neither do Radiant's FontEdit nor Rulaman's WFN-Editor.
Therefore, if I'm correct, I must find a tool that can open that format and turn it into a TTF file.
Do you guys know of a simple/efficient one for pixellated fonts?

IIRC AGS 3.2.1 supports only 128 characters in WFN/SCI font.

That brings two questions:
- Are you saying that so far, every time I saw a multilingual game, the scripters were using dirty tricks to extend the charset?
...OR...
- Are you implictly mentioning WFN/SCI as opposed to TTF fonts, meaning that the latter allow 256 characters?

Hi everyone:

I tried importing that font into AGS 3.2.1 :  http://www.strazer.net/ags/nnscifnt.zip
Apparently it's an SCI font, and according to the readme it's 256-characters enabled.
Yet, AGS refuses to import it, with message "unexpected character".

Since I don't know zootch about fonts, I don't know where I took a wrong turn.
I can't edit it with Radiant's font editor, since (from what I understand) it's only for 128-characters fonts.

The default speech font of AGS should be from Space Quest 4, but I don't know if it's a rip or a facsimile.

I meant the Lucasarts-like font. But maybe that font doesn't actually exist in AGS, and I've dreamt it. Maybe so far I've only used unofficial templates that included it, without realizing. I'm not sure.

Thanks a lot for the link you gave.
Only for accuracy's sake: That font is not the same one as the one I posted("my" FoA font's capital letters are about 12 pixels tall, and the small letters are actually capital letters too, just small. "your" font's capital letters are 16 pixels tall and the small letters are regular letters).
I don't know if the font you linked is from a Lucas game, or just meant to look similar. They sure look similar.

There are two things to consider: copyright and internationalization.
Can this font e.g. display Señörá ? If yes and it's free to use, then +1 from my side.

No to both answers.
That's the real font from FoA. But isn't the speech font of AGS too?
That's not an international font but I must admit I don't know how these work (i.e. how to create one from this). I'll have to have a close look.

I suggest this font be added to the template : https://www.dropbox.com/s/5dx072m33a6v6vm/iMuseFont.zip



It's the Lucasarts credits font, as seen in Fate of Atlantis.
I know this is a MI template, but it's the closest thing to the FoA gui.

Cool message imo.

you always need two fonts to display an outline font

Alright, I never knew that. I knew only about automated outlines. Thanks guys.

There's something I don't understand about outlined fonts:

I have that sprites table here


It has a black outline. But in AGS, the fonts are stored in only two colors: black and white. Black is for the transparent background, and white is where the actual font color will be applied.
But then, how do I create my font to have both the black outline and the color inside?

^ Try a PM to subspark

I'll try, thanks!