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Hey great work Grundislav!

I'm curious : Did you change your drawing technique? If I'm not mistaken you used to draw real drawings and then scan them. Did you draw directly in low-res? I recognize your style but the backgrounds look sharper and seem to have a higher contrast.

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.

Can't you check this under debugger to see the source of error (I mean Visual Studio)?

I don't have Visual Studio installed at the moment, and I have only a small netbook; I'll try when I have the opportunity.
However, my team mates say that the very same game files don't generate an error at compilation when they do it on Windows 7. As a reminder, I have XP.

It looks to me more and more like AGS wrongly detects the OS and tries to do some Vista/7 stuff during compilation (with the Vista Game Index or something), and generates a EndUpdateResource error. Then this error is caught by AGS, who wrongly understands it as a "custom icon" error (this is probably inherited from older times when the only possible resources error was an icon error).

I remember having that "Unable to register for Vista Game Explorer" appear randomly on 3.2.1.111. I haven't paid too much attention to it because next time I build it hasn't appeared.

In my case it happens every time.

[But there is definitely a bug.]

So I tried going back to 3.1.2 SP1 and compiling the original game files, and I still get the error about the missing custom icon. As I wrote before , I don't think the issue is really with the custom icon, as the game gets built properly, with the icon. Or could it be an issue with the format of the .ico file (wrong color depth or something), the compiler processes it successfully but meets an unexpected EOF?

I don't have the errors about the Vista Game thingy in 3.1.2 SP1 but I guess that feature was not implemented yet in that AGS version; Therefore I have them in 3.2.1.

But there is definitely a bug. It's a minor bug, since the game gets built, but a rather annoying one: you get an error every time you compile, and it tells you that your memorry is corrupt!

Try 'Older builds' at http://agsarchives.com/engine.html

Alright thanks, I went tot he download page and didn't see the link to the older versions.

[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

Absolutely! But side effects include mild chauvanism and a penchant for fois gras.

Actually, you english-speaking people use the word "chauvinism" as something similar to "sexism". we use it as something similar to "nationalism" There you go! Your first culture shock as early as your first post!

PS: thanks for posting the game, Ali, I was about to advertise it on the French AGS forum when I saw you uploaded it here.

@Ponch: you're cute. Thinking that learning genuine French will help you communicate in Québec. God help you! You won't get a word of what they say

@Calin: You'll definitely get a more cultured experience with this version, or let's say, at least you'll get a new experience, with all the cultural references updated to work in the Frenc-speaking world

Reviving this old thread.

Unless i'm mistaken, both shutupload and zshare are dead.
Any trendy site you're using lately for online storage?

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.

Reminds me of King's Quest VI : Sierra-style + good-taste hi-res. Looks gorgeous.

Like someone said: "Trippy as hell".
My whole beliefs system just exploded.

This one fixes a the text so that it is understandable now.

I didn't get any feedback on the couple sentences about which I said "I didn't even understand the sentence" when I proof-read the TRS file.
So... I hope that you know what you're doing, and that you didn't simply disregard the feedback, hoping it would disappear if you closed your eyes.

[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.

Icey games : Less 20-lines-long conceptual essays, more games finishing. You have the fixed translation file meant for version 1.1. Please re-release this broken game asap. Chop chop.

[7/10]

The game got 7/10 in the best French video games magazine ("Canard PC") because despite being excellent on so many levels, it's too short (despite its re-playability with several solutions to one puzzle). They say it will reach its full value when the price drops a tiny bit in a few months. (that magazine includes the length and the price in their grades)

Learning to draw effectively with limited colors is one of the great challenges of artwork and it can teach you many tricks about substituting one color for another and improve your understanding and appreciation of color usage in general so I recommend it.

I drew with Deluxe Paint II for over 10 years but nowadays I'm too lazy. Starting with hi-res and finishing low-res is the best compromise for me, "effort versus result"-wise (not everybody has this super intuition of pixel-art that you have, ProgZ)

I think I'll do as follows :
- I'll draw in hi-color
- I'll reduce to 256
- I'll use a 256-colors editor to check that my antialisaing is OK everywhere and correct it where needed
- I'll use a 256-colors editor to manually replace the broken gradients with the relevant dithering patterns.

[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.

When I'm making my game, I'm reluctant to trying out new languages or engines not because I learn code slowly (although I do) but simply because there's nothing I would like my game to do that can't be done with AGS, and I think most people feel the same.

Just to be 100% objective: AGS can't do Telltale-like games, like Sam&Max. Or 2.5D games, like the original Alone in the Dark. Well, it can, but it would require A LOT of work. Plugins exist, but as soon as they're released, they get obsolete, because they're often unfinished or badly documented or the technology has already moved forward.

But with Lua, the binding with DirectX and such would be much simpler, not only for the rendering part but also for all the stupid 2.5D calculations (for example, when the player clicks on an object in a 3D scene). All the libraries are out there somewhere.

"Creator of AGS" seems pretty straightforward.