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VERY nice! It looks a lot like him and the shadows are great... What I don't like is the colors. I mean, he is too yellow. Also, another thing I didn't like was his left hand. I don't know, it doesn't look right. Maybe it's because you can tell if he has a wrist.

I made some changes in the arm. It still doesn't look good but I think it has some improvement:

Very nice! It reminds me the first Monkey Island... sigh...

Yes, that was the problem, thank you! I created an integer variable called ActiveT and I put ActiveT = GetLocationType(...); before the coin is brought up.

Thank you again  

What I mean is the button won't appear. I've got the cursor mode sorted, and when I'm editing it I can see it in place on the Inventory Window, but when I try to play all it has are the standard 'Look', 'Pointer' and 'OK'.

I think this is one of the most common questions. I had the same thing when I started, though I realised what was wrong myself. Anyway, to fix this press Ctrl+G to make the main game script appear. Find the line which says: "function show_inventory_window () {" (if you didn't make any changes in the script it should be on line 11). Now, what you see is:

function show_inventory_window () {
 // This demonstrates both types of inventory window - the first part is how to
 // show the built-in inventory window, the second part uses the custom one.
 // Un-comment one section or the other below.
 
 // ** DEFAULT INVENTORY WINDOW
 InventoryScreen();
/*  
 // ** CUSTOM INVENTORY WINDOW
 GUIOn (INVENTORY);  
 // switch to the Use cursor (to select items with)
 SetCursorMode (MODE_USE);
 // But, override the appearance to look like the arrow
 SetMouseCursor (6);
*/
}

Replace it with:

function show_inventory_window () {
 // This demonstrates both types of inventory window - the first part is how to
 // show the built-in inventory window, the second part uses the custom one.
 // Un-comment one section or the other below.
 
 // ** DEFAULT INVENTORY WINDOW
 //InventoryScreen();
 
 // CUSTOM INVENTORY WINDOW
 GUIOn (INVENTORY);  
 // switch to the Use cursor (to select items with)
 SetCursorMode (MODE_USE);
 // But, override the appearance to look like the arrow
 SetMouseCursor (6);
}

You see, everything after // or anything between /* and */ is ignored. You must set it to ignore the line where it says to bring the default inventory (or even delete it) and then make it not ignore the lines where the custom inventory is brought up.

Hey all, I wonder if you could help me with this. I have trouble with properties. I think I understand the way they work and I can't find a mistake with the following code:

if (IsGUIOn(COIN)||IsGUIOn(INVCOIN))
{
   
if (GetGUIObjectAt(mouse.x, mouse.y)==0)
{
         if (GetLocationType(xspot, yspot)==0)
   GetInvPropertyText(GetInvAt(xspot, yspot), "look", ActiveA);
   if (GetLocationType(xspot, yspot)==1)
   GetHotspotPropertyText(GetHotspotAt(xspot,yspot), "look", ActiveA);
   if (GetLocationType(xspot, yspot)==2)
   GetCharacterPropertyText(GetCharacterAt(xspot,yspot), "look", ActiveA);
   if (GetLocationType(xspot, yspot)==3)
   GetObjectPropertyText(GetObjectAt(xspot,yspot), "look", ActiveA);
}

   else if (GetGUIObjectAt(mouse.x, mouse.y)==1)
{
   if (GetLocationType(xspot, yspot)==0)
   GetInvPropertyText(GetInvAt(xspot, yspot), "action", ActiveA);
   if (GetLocationType(xspot, yspot)==1)
   GetHotspotPropertyText(GetHotspotAt(xspot,yspot), "action", ActiveA);
   if (GetLocationType(xspot, yspot)==2)
   GetCharacterPropertyText(GetCharacterAt(xspot,yspot), "action", ActiveA);
   if (GetLocationType(xspot, yspot)==3)
   GetObjectPropertyText(GetObjectAt(xspot,yspot), "action", ActiveA);
}

   else if (GetGUIObjectAt(mouse.x, mouse.y)==2)
{
         if (GetLocationType(xspot, yspot)==0)
   GetInvPropertyText(GetInvAt(xspot, yspot), "talk", ActiveA);
   if (GetLocationType(xspot, yspot)==1)
   GetHotspotPropertyText(GetHotspotAt(xspot,yspot), "talk", ActiveA);
   if (GetLocationType(xspot, yspot)==2)
   GetCharacterPropertyText(GetCharacterAt(xspot,yspot), "talk", ActiveA);
   if (GetLocationType(xspot, yspot)==3)
   GetObjectPropertyText(GetObjectAt(xspot,yspot), "talk", ActiveA);
}
   else StrCopy(ActiveA, "");
   
if (StrLen(ActiveA) > 0) StrCopy(ActiveS, " ");
   else StrCopy(ActiveS, "");
   
StrCat(ActiveA, ActiveS);
   StrCat(ActiveA, ActiveH2);
   SetLabelText(STATUS, 0, ActiveA);
   
 }   else   {

GetLocationName(mouse.x, mouse.y, ActiveH2);
SetLabelText(STATUS, 0, ActiveH2);

}

You see, I have a GUI which is non-clickable, called STATUS and has only a label on it. That label is supposed to show the correct action of an area, using the verb coin. For example, if the mouse is over the "look" icon of the coin, STATUS shows "Look at <name>". My problem is that it only shows the default properties of that area. Like, I have an object named "key" in the room and its "action" property is set to "Pick up". STATUS doesn't show "Pick up key" but it shows "Use key" instead ("Use" is the default propery for "action").

I hope you understand what I want to say. I'm sure it is my fault and maybe you can find it for me. Even though debugging is my love, this code looks like Greek to me; which means I completely understand it because Greek is my main language . But still, I can't find what's wrong with it .

All variables you can see (xspot, yspot, ActiveH, ActiveH2, ActiveA etc) are already inited. COIN and INVCOIN are two almost identical GUIs, they just behave a bit different. COIN is for objects/hotspots/characters and INVCOIN is for nventory item. The only problem is that Get<type>PropertyText doesn't seem to find its custom property.

I hope I didn't put anything stupid in my code (most bugs I make are like using && instead of || etc). Any help is appreciated and if needed I could upload the game somewhere tomorrow. Note that it will be messed up because it's my AGS testing area. The game and template I'll finally make will be cleaner. I hope the above code is not too confusing

Hi again, I've traced my 3rd bug in AGS! 8)

This is one of the first I've found, but I didn't think it was a bug at first, I thought it was somehow my fault. It has to do with @overhotspot@ thingy.

Ya c, if you put in the text of a label @overhotspot@, it shows the name of the character/hotspot/object/inv item. It works good, except for inv items. It does show the name of the item, but the name doesn't go away until you either leave the inventory area (not the GUI) or click anywhere (except on an item). In case the cursor left the inventory area but not the gui and you then hover the mouse above an item, its name does not appear until you leave the GUI completely

The above happens in custom GUIs (the default GUI doesn't show the name at all). To get around it I had to use the GetLocationName() function and change the text of the label on every step (using the repeatedly_execute() function), but it was a real trouble when I just started using AGS.

I hope I didn't say a common issue again (I did use the search feature but I didn't find anything...)

Your work is excellent IbeX! That's a really great style you have!  But anyway, Diffusion looks pretty good actually, there is little difference from 32-bit

If your game is not too big, you can find a free host for it like www.geocities.com

Oh yeah, how stupid of me ... Boy I have still lots of things to learn (I only used AGS for a week or two ya c). I was aware of the other similar functions (like GetHotspotAt), but not of this one.

When I'm over with the inventory thingy (it won't be today, I have to go in a while) I'll make a template version to help other guys like me.

Here is some of the code I created with this thingy:

function on_event(int event, int data) {
 if (event == GUI_MDOWN)
 if (data == COIN)
 if (IsButtonDown(RIGHT))
 GUIOff(COIN);
}

It works great! I'll use it even more later for more GUIs (especially for the inventory), but it's only what I have put so far. It's good because it can also know the button pressed by using the IsButtonDown function!

There is one bad thing though: It detects the click even if the mouse was over a button! That's not a problem to me at all; infact, it would be better for my purpose. However, there should be a way to detect mouse clicks only if the user clicked the background and not any buttons. You never know, somebody might use it.

no, it IS bad. I mean, look at the light source... It's on the top left corner, right? then why is the left side of the cliff so dark? does the lightsource darken it or something?  

Anyway, I thought you would want to see this:



It's the same picture, before I put it in Flash to redraw the outline... See how ugly it looks?

Nice! The 2nd one is the best... The only thing I didn't like is that you used the same instrument for the whole song. Try adding different instruments or drums etc

I think the backgrounds look very much alike, but the light grass is better in the first one. The second is bright and more blury.

Wow! They are so great! I think the second one is the best. They somehow remind me MI3...

As for the last one, it is still good, though it doesn't match the other backgrounds that much. Oh, and the bottom center of it looks like a skull .

Hey, that's nice! I like the texture of the rock! The rocks rock!

I think the main problem is the contrast but the first thing that came into my mind when I saw it was the middle finger. I edited it a bit and I think it looks better now:



The guitar angle is a bit weird indeed

This is the first time I post in Critics Lounge. The reason I do that is that I have a drawing I wanna show:



Yeah, yeah I know. It sucks, the lighting and shading is completely incorrect and it doesn't look very cartoony. I am sure if I drew that again I'd do that better. Well, I think it does have some good stuff in it but I need some constructive critisism...

I learnt some new tricks by expirementing a little and by reading some background tutorials but I didn't apply them to a full image. Maybe I'll try and redraw the above picture again and post it later...

Anyway, I used a combination of MSPaint, Pixia and Flash. I drew the basic outline with paint, then I put it in Pixa (which has layer support) and started the colouring. After that, I made the outline layer semi-transparent and imported it in Flash as one bitmap, where I drew the lines again (that's why they are so smooth.. was that a good idea?)

Ok, I apologize. Maybe I wasn't very kind. Ya c, I was feeling rather sleepy. But anyway,

You dont seem compitable with AGS.....  Learn some scripting. You could have kindly asked how to do those things, if they can be done, with scripting, instead of announcing that you hate GUIs because AGS doesn't have straight one mouse click system to do something more advanced.

But serioulsy, most of that can be done. Right now I'm on a non-AGS computer, so I can't give examples... and I don't have time.. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is on

Well, I do know basic scripting with AGS and I thought that this is kinda like an advanced question. I wanted to ask if that's already possible but I forgot (I always forget something). Oh and I did ask how to do some inventory related stuff in the beginners forum, but I still didn't get a reply

Could you clarify what you mean by 'Detect mouse clicks when clicking on a GUI' <- that's what interface_click is for isn't it?

The only thing in your suggestions that can't be done with the current system is to change the order the GUIs appear, I think, which would be useful sometimes. If you want things to work very specifically you can't expect it to be that way by default, it's not what most people will want, that's what scripting is for.

I may well be misunderstanding you though.

The GUI system has been used to make anything from scumm to sierra to complicated inventories or the sims style system in my game, it obviously doesn't suck.

I'm sorry again, but I am not used to the way AGS works. I know almost anything that can be done with Game Maker scripting, which works in a completely different way. Don't ask me to use game maker instead of AGS because the only benefit I have with making the game in GM is that I create my own engine. It's not I can't do it but GM is rather slow and unstable and has less control over some files, no matter how much you try (unless you make a plugin).

What I meant with detect mouse clicks on gui is clicking on the background. If I put in a code:
If (button==1) //dosomething
else if (button==2) //dosomethingelse
else GUIOff(4);
That wouldn't work. Neither would it in on_mouse_click. Now this

clicking on the background fires on_event with GUI_MDOWN

is what I wanted. Thanks Chris! (funny, I've been trying to figure it out from the manual for a week and I can't believe it was there )

The GUI system has been used to make anything from scumm to sierra to complicated inventories or the sims style system in my game, it obviously doesn't suck.

Again, I'm sorry but I searched everywhere to for the solution using the manual or even tutorials, but I couldn't find any.

The mouse ypos GUI is just designed as an easy-to-use Sierra icon bar. You can do what you want with a normal GUI and popping it up with a text script depending on the mouse location.

Yeah I know but wouldn't it be a easier that way? Well, actually I prefer Chris to spend more time to put things you can't do yet, but I think it was a nice suggestion...

I apologize again for it and I hope u forgive me . You forgive me, right? Right

I'm sorry to say that, but the way GUIs works just sucks

I mean, You can easily create option forms and stuff like that... But it's all too limited and works stupid if you ask me, especially for inventory GUIs. Ok, maybe there *is* a way to do what I want after all, but I still can't find that and it should be a lot easier to do what I want.

I mean, why doesn't the GUI detect the mouse clicks if the mouse is over the form? Or why do GUIs with Mouse YPos visibility go away when I click a button (even if I don't want them to)? Should I mention the fact that Popup Modal GUIs are always behind GUIS with Normal or Persistent visibility?

Come on, it can certainly be better than that. I believe one of the most importand things AGS needs is GUI flexibility. This thread might look like a complaint and probably this is said before (I used the search feature but I couldn't find anything like that), but why is the GUI mechanism so close-minded? Well, here is a list with suggestions in case you got lost:
a) Detect mouse clicks when clicking on a GUI
b) Order of GUI appearence?
c) Don't turn off a Mouse YPos GUI when a mouse key is pressed, but give the choice to the user
d) "Reverse" Mouse YPos visibility, so you can have a GUI coming from below (try the current one and you'll see what I mean)
e) many, many more I can't remember right now (maybe I'll post them later)

I really need to have some more control over the GUIs , or else I'll have to use the default inventory  , something I really don't like. Thanks for reading this  anyway

I don't think that AGS is good for that kind of game. I suggest you www.gamemaker.nl, as it does 2d games in general (although AGS is better at some points when it comes to adventure games)