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Hi 

Does anybody know if there is a way to tell AGS to to set the alpha bit in a pixel to 255 when that pixel was rendered, rather than leaving the alpha byte empty when in 32bit colour mode ?

I am attempting to copy each layer of the AGS display out onto separate textures so that I can do post-render effects on each of the layers individualy.

So, for instance I let AGS render the background, I then memcpy the scanlines from AGS frame buffer into my textures, and then memset the whole AGS framebuffer area to 0's. This is to make AGS then render the Sprites onto a clean surface. I can then repeat this procedure once the sprites are rendered, then the GUI and finaly the mouse cursor, leaving me with a seperate texture for each layer, that I can do my effects with and finaly render them myself.

However, when AGS goes on to render the sprites, it will write the RGB values into its frame-buffer, but it will leave the 4th byte of every pixel as 0 (the alpha value). This means when I memcpy the scanlines for the sprites they have 0 alpha. I need my spritelayer to have alpha of 0 where nothing was drawn (the memset after the background does this), however I also need the pixels that were drawn by the sprites to have an alpha value of 255.

I can check myself if RGB exist and then set the alpha-byte myselfe, otherwise leave it as 0, however doing this means i have to check for RGB in every pixel and copy it accordingly, meaning that I cant memcopy entire scanlines which makes the whole thing too slow to be of any use.

But if the Alpha bit was filled by AGS, then I could memcpy every scanline in an acceptable time.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
             Nick.

Thanks for that AshenÃ, 

(it took me a while to realise your response was actualy a link) ,Ã,  Ã,  DOHÃ,  Ã, 
hehe

Thanks again

Nick.

Hi folks 

I was wonering if there is any way to stop your game from hibernating/pausing when its actual window loses focus or is minimised ?

I would like to achieve this as I am currently developing a special effects plug-in for AGS, but I need to use a different window for the interface so that I am not limited to using only DirectDraw2.  But obviously when any clicks occur on my 'new' window this causes the main AGS window to loose focus, and hence the AGS engine is suspended. This in turn causes my second window to cease recieving image data from AGS.

Does anybody know of any way around this ?

Cheers,
            Nick

MrColossal.   They asked "Would you realy define this as "valgar" ?)    They certainley didnt ask if anybody thought the images were inappropriate for a story that they havent yet been told.

WOW, I've just read all ten pages in one sitting!! I couldn't stop!  (If you now how slowly I read you would understand what a feat that is!)

And now I'm in the mood for rant!!

Deep breath …………   ok, here goes: -

First off, I would like to congratulate LimpingFish on being the funniest guy I never met! I spat beer several times reading your posts 

Ok, I'm just gunna completely body-swerve the whole female-oppression nonsense for a second and back-track to some earlier comments.

Quite early on in the thread BigBrother stated that the costume/boobs were inappropriate for the game: -

"Boobs/cleavage/scanty outfits aren't inappropriate unto themselves. However, in the context of the information revealed about the game, they are."

Many other people have went on to back up this argument stating over and over again things like: "Big boobs are inappropriate for a game of this nature" or "A game as serious as this will be ruined by the boobs"

How on earth can any of these arguments be justified?  The information is very scant at best, all I gleamed from the info that Lemmy101 and Captain Binky have disclosed is that its on an Island, its raining, crops are failing and a girl is found in a tree. 
I don't remember the part about it being all 'serious'. It mentions a problem (the failing crops and onset of famine or some such thing) and its seems clear that a solution must be found, but there is nothing to indicate that it needs to, or will be handled in a 'stern' or 'serious' manner.

I could outline a story plot with a serious crisis to be solved, and the heroes find a way to solve it all, and on reading the blurb you may think I was outlining a Tom Clancy novel, but I might actually be describing an episode of Thundercats!!!

Some of you guys seem to be jumping to massive conclusions about the game, and then bad-mouthing it based on information that YOU conjured up from your own social neuroses.

With that said, I see nothing inappropriate in having a girl with big boobs as the protagonist. I will go further and say that even if it is meant to be serious game, then what the hell is wrong big boobs anyway? I know some girls with MASSIVE boobs. Big boobs are not solely the reserve of fiction and fantasy.

The logo for Herculean-Efforts games sports an Image of Atlas holding up a bowling ball instead of the globe. Surely an image of Hercules himself rather than a completely different god would be a much more 'appropriate' image.

BigBrother, I don't say this to cause offence, it was just a mechanism to help me convey my point, which is this: - It's your logo not mine, and I have no right to criticise it even if I hold the opinion that it's inappropriate or simply a poor choice of image. And the same goes for Captain-Binkey's art work; it must be very annoying for him to read “inappropriate for the story blah blah” over and over.

The fact is, there are only two people who actually know _what_ the story is, and one of them drew the infamous boobies. That makes Lemmy&Binky the only people in the known universe who can actually decide what images are appropriate for their story.

Of course when it's done, and people know the story they can wax lyrical about how appropriate or otherwise it actually is.

I myself plan to start a closed-minded self-righteous puritan extremist blog about the finished game, regardless of its quality just to be an asshole.   (Joke)

Additionally, quite a few people have stated that because the girl has big boobs they wouldn't be able to take the character seriously, and that this would spoil the game for them.

Two things on that subject: -

1.)   Personally I never “took Guybrush Threepwood seriously”, but that certainly doesn't stop the MI games from being absolutely awesome!
2.)   It raises a very disturbing issue indeed!

If certain individuals can't take a woman seriously because she has large breasts, then they are harbouring some very offensively discriminating views. These people are basically saying that if a woman has large breasts then she is a bimbo, she is incapable of functioning as an intelligent individual, and is not someone that they could possibly conceive being able to perform any useful/complex function, JUST BECAUSE HER BOOBS ARE LARGE! Shame on you!!!

And in the same breath you attempt to make out that the game-designers are somehow perverted or sexist when ITS YOU that categorically state you can't take a woman seriously if her boobs are big!

Who can spell HYPOCRISY?

(On a side note, I ran this through a spell checker and apparently I myself couldn't spell hypocrisy, )

Well, I've had my rant

Keep up the good work Lemmy101 and Captain Binky.

Cheers,
            Nickenstien.

["make a video game which everybody could add a little piece"]

"make a video game which everybody could add a little piece"
it hasn't been received, except from one or maybe two persons, which I make my thankses.

I think your idea to make a game in a large colaboration with lots of people is a fantastici idea!   

But I can also see why you didnt have more people offering to join in, as a lot have concerns about the whole project being shut down on copyright reasons.

Afterall nobody wants to put time and effort into something that will not be allowed distribution   

I am sure you can still do a game collaborating with lots of others, but based on an original idea. 

I wish you the best of luck for your future productions 

Cheers,
             Nick.

Refering back to my previous post about the legality of the this.

I was unaware at the time of writing, that you had actualy somehow ripped lucas-arts characters from the game.   I was under the impression that you were drawing all your own background graphics and making your own character models. I was also under the impression that Grim-Fandango was no longer in circulation and could be classed as "Abandonware".    However the game is still being sold, so it would probably be best if you spent your energies on something else. OR at the very least do a new grim-fandango and do _NOT_ use any of Lucas-Arts ripped graphics and character meshes. Or you will get shut down very quickly.

Cheers,
            Nickenstien

 

This is a cool idea Besh!!

Since people have mentioned the possibility of different games in the land of the dead, I always thought it would be cool to do a game based around salvador's underground resistance group, with salvador or possibly the secratary as the lead character (maybee both)

Also, as people have mentioned the 'legaility' issue of your game: As long as your game is free then there cant be any legal issues so dont worry about that :)Ã,  Ã, (after all it's a homage to the original, and your not trying to 'sell' there work as your own, your just adding to it, and not proffiting from it)Ã, 

Keep up the good work Besh, i look forward to this one

Hi Nick, we'll have about 12 locations in the demo. It should take about 30-45 mins to play through, and serves as the prologue and introduction to the full three act game.

re: audio, we're using midi, but we're working on a plug-in which may allow us to try something a little different with it.

Cool!!  I definatley think serialisation of the game is a good way to go! Keep us all craving for more with cliff-hanger endings to the chapters 

This is looking to me like its going to be a realy high quality game! have you considered doing a deluxe-Talkie version when all of the Graphics are finalised ?

Keep up the good work Lemmy&Binky   

 

This is an awesome game idea Chicky!!

I cant wait for this one!

Also, I would just like to say that I am in utter dissagreement with everyone except Captain-Binky on your chosen colour scheme.

I think it looks brilliant! It has a true retro feel to it, and as Captain-Binky pointed out it looks like old-computer-monitor-orange making it feel Retro-Authentic (if you know what i mean). Additionaly to this, I dont think you should provide functionality for players to change the palette. Allowing people to change the palette would just destroy your creation. (which is genious in my opinion).  I mean Davinci didnt provide his viewers with paintbrushes so they could change his work to how they wanted it.

Keep up the good work Chicky   

Lemmy and Binky.

I'm realy eager to play thisÃ, 

How many Locations etc will it have ? what kind of length demo will it be ?
Also, what kind of audio are you using ?

Cheers,
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, Nick.

Hehe, that looks like it will be fun!!

The character art definatley looks like its had some special attention given to it 

I cant wait to see her 'animate' Ã, hehe

Keep up the good work chaps!