Messages

Andail, your starting salary sounds to me pretty much what teachers' staring salaries have always been.  I have heard the same lament from other teachers over the years.  When I worked at GE my boss's wife was a teacher.  I was invited to their house for dinner one evening and during the conversation this topic came up.  My boss's wife complained about teachers' salaries being low.  My boss replied to here that they have always been so but that there are still just as many people who want to get into it.   

I really don't want to give you a hard time or make you feel worse than you already are but I am sincerely curious and would like to ask an honest question.  When you first started studying to become a teacher did you not know how much salary a teacher typically earns or did you know and think it would be enough to support your desired lifestyle?     

Just to add a bit to what Gilbot said ...

The auto-complete feature of the script editor, I think,  does a great job of helping inexperienced scripters along.  If you think about it, it serves a similar function that the IE dialog boxes serve (i.e. show what options can be used with a specific function).   

I think that auto-complete combined with some kind code generation wizard, as CJ suggests in the thread Gilbot references would make up for the absence of the IE. 

I think the way forward is to have some sort of auto script-generating tool (maybe as a plugin) that works in a similar way to the interaction editor but it basically creates the script code for you. 
 

The OpenOffice.Org spreadsheet program has a feature where a built-in function can be inserted into a formula by selecting it from a list.  Once the function is selected a dialog is provided that allows the user to fill in the required parameters.  Perhaps this is all that is needed to provide beginners with a comfort zone?  In the long run this is perhaps a better solution because beginners will be exposed to scripting sooner than they would have otherwise and will not be frustrated by the limitations of the IE.

Just to pick up where Radiant left off.   I believe that commercial software containing MP3  must pay a license fee.  Software that is freely distributed (i.e. with out license fee) and that contains MP3 is not required to pay a license fee.

Oh yeah!  Chris why not put a check box that would disable the default speech font?  You could include it next to the "Make my game" button.   

Hehe,  I think it's funny that a environmental group hell bent on saving the planet is giving away such an environmentally unfriendly dishwasher.   Wash them by hand and think of all the green house gasses you have eliminated by not using the fossil fuels needed to run a dishwasher.

Here is yet another way of looking at it. 

First of there is  the question of whether your download speed is in MB (mega-bytes) or Mb (mega-bits).   Usually connection speeds are given in Mb/sec so we will assume this is the case for now.  That means that you will be able to download  one MB of data every second.

           Convert mega-bits to mega-bytes
           (8 Mb/sec) / (8 (Mb/MB)) = 1 MB/sec 

Now you say you have a 10 GB download limit.  We will assume this limit is in bytes as you indicate and as is normally the case.   So as I understand it, that means you will be able to download 10240 MB of data every month.

           Convert 10 giga-bytes to mega-bytes
           10 GB * 1024 MB/GB = 10240 MB

Now the question I would be asking myself is how long could I use my internet account before I reached the limit? 

           Convert 10 giga-byte limit to seconds and minutes of usage
           10240 MB = 1 MB/sec * S sec
           S = 10240 MB / 1 MB/sec = 10240 sec
           M = 10240 sec / (60 sec/min) = 170.7 min
           H = 10240 sec / (3600 sec/hr) = 2.84

So is three hours a month, operating at full bore, enough for you?  Perhaps initially it would be.   But you will quickly discover other things you can do with high speed internet that are now unthinkable and I will predict that in a very short time you will have out grown your limit.   

Hope I haven't made any bone head math errors.    Well even if I have, I guess you still can see my point.

Cheers

   

   

Randy Pausch is a co-founder of the Entertainment Technology dept at Carnegie Mellon University.  He has cancer and has been given several months to live.   His farwell lecture is here on  Google Video.  It's very inspirational and upbeat about life.

I thought this may be of interest to some of the musician folks.   The are looking for music  that is licensed so that it can be shared.   It seems like they will then make it available to the "One Laptop Per Child" project.  There is also a group in Boston that helps people record and promote music that has open license.   Anyway, just thought this may be of interest to someone here.   

http://freemusic.freeculture.org

_{Edit by andail: Fixed link code}

Try putting in a wait statement before you release the view port. 

//scroll back to left
MoveViewportBlocking(-distance_to_scroll, GetViewportY(), 1, 0);
Wait(10);
ReleaseViewport();

Hehe, KhrisMUC, it seems I am the one who misunderstood what Dervish  is trying to do.   

KhrisMUC you are correct in that #3 would affect the entire character however I believe that you misundersttod option #2 I presented so I will attempt to clarify it.

From Dervish's description it seems that he would like a character to walk into or out of a shadow and so change the lighting effect of the player character.  This could be accomplished by doing the following. 

1. Draw the background with the shadow, (i.e. the places in shadow are drawn with normal lighting effects. 

2.  Draw the each contiguous shadow area  seperately, either on seperate layers or in a  seperate file, as a solid shape.

3.  Corp and export each shadow area to a seperate file and import each into the AGS sprite manager. 

4.  Create a room and import the background image.

5.  Create an object for each shadow image.  Set each object's image to the appropriate sprite created above.

6.  Set each object's position  relative to the background so that the shadow area is in the desired location.

7.  Set the object's baseline and walk-behind properties so that the player can walk behind it.

8.  Experiment with the object's transparency property and the color of the object's sprite until you get a satisfactory effect.

9.  The alpha blending features of AGS may also be helpful for this but it seems a bit of overkill to use 32-bit color for a black and white game.

Using this method the character will seem to be shaded when he walks behind a shadow object because he will be partially visible through the transparent object.  If the player character is positioned so that he is only partially behind the shadow object then only that portion will be visible through the transparent object and the rest will be visible as it normally is.

In my original description above I suggested that characters could be used instead of objects to produce the shadow effects.  This has the advantage of being able to change the characters tint as well as it's transparency from the script.

There are a couple of things you could try.

1.  Flashlight Plugin - I think the flash light plug-in may be able to do something like this. 

2.  Transparency Property - Objects and characters can be made translucent by setting the transparent property to a value between 0% and 100%.  Why couldn't you use a character or an object for your walk behind area.  Set it to 50% transparent and when the character walks behind it he will be seen through the now translucent object or character.  If you use a character as the walk-behind area then you can also change the character's tint.

3.  Regions - Regions have a lighting effect but I believe those affect the entire character.  However, you may want to review and experiment a bit as this  will produce something similar to what you are asking and is what is commonly used.

Let us mknow how it turns out for you.  Cheers

[Testing]

Testing
The best way to debug your game is to not have bugs in the first place.  This is, of course,  not 100% achievable but you can significantly reduce the likely hood of bugs by being extremely organized in the way you write your script code.  Create a naming convention for everything and be neat and consistent.   Write script code in  a manner that is easy to debug (i.e. how will you or a tester know it it is working or not?).  Having done this realize there will be bugs.  Find all the ones you can yourself and then enlist the help of beta testers.

Rooms
Everyone has their own preferences.   When I first started with AGS I read a tutorial somewhere that suggested creating all the rooms and room transitions so that the character could walk throughout the entire game.   I found this to be pretty good advice.  Here is the order in which I prefer to do things:

* Create a rich and interactive game world
- Create rooms and room transitions so character can walk entire game.
- Make interactive game elements functional  so that character may interact. (i.e objects such as doors, etc, can be opened, closed, unlocked...)
- Create GUI and other user interfaces
- Add global functions that implement any required game world physics or other calculations

* Add game logic and plot
- Add NPCs and dialogs
- Add puzzles
- Add script code to enforce game logic, progression, and scoring

Well if you deleted all fonts from the game AGS will probably do the same thing that is done of you do  a "Reset Fonts" command, rather than allow the game to have no fonts at all.  So import some new fonts and then delete the ones you don't want.

What do you mean when you say "...AGS editor without SQ4 font embedded...".  The game fonts are not embedded in the AGS  editor.  They are saved in game templates so when you create a new game from a tmplate you get what ever the template designer gives you.   

It's possible to import new fonts into a game and delete existing fonts from a game.  So if you are not happy with the fonts in your game change them.  There are a number of bitmap fonts on the AGS website which you can download and use.  You can also import true-type fonts or create your own using Radiant Font Editor which is also available from the AGS website. 

Having SQ4 fonts in your game isn't really a problem until you publish it.  Don't worry, just have fun learning AGS. 

Cheers

First of all I would advise you to figure out what is actually wrong with the car.   When I was in university at student from Taiwan gave me his car.  He was afraid to drive it because it sometimes made a thumping sound.   It was parked on the street for too long without moving and so the city had it towed away.   He said that he was just going to let the towing company have it, so I asked if I could have it.  He went with me to the junk yard and I paid $25 to get the car back.   It turns out that the rubber pads on the engine mount were a bit worn out so when pressing on the gas pedal the engine would rock up higher than normal causing the transmission to bump against the floor.   Just be sure that it isn't something that could be easily fixed or that needs fixin.

Secondly, new cars depreciate rather quickly, especially in the first and second years.  With this option I would be concerned about resale value in just 2 years time.    A used car may be a better choice because of this.  Get one that is three years old and the higher depreciation rate will have passed.

If you bought a new car I don't suppose you could just drive it home when you return to Greece in 2 years?     

[Windows ME/98 Evaluation]

Windows ME/98 Evaluation
Ok, tried Beta-9 with Windows ME machine.  It started up without any errors, however there were a few quirky behaviors.

• Initial Startup - On initial startup the start page borders and background were displayed and then it seemed to get hung for perhaps a minute (long enough the make one believe that it had hung for good).    Then after awhile the remaining portions of the start page and editor  are displayed and everything is normal.
  
  
• RUN - A default game was created.  The first time "Run" command is executed (selected from main menu) the editor seems to hang again and  an error message pops up stating that there is insufficient memory.  My WinME machine has 192MB.  I will recreate this and post the resulting message later when I  am at my Win ME machine.   Subsequent executions of RUN did not produce the error message and I am not sure but I think it still hung for awhile before the game window poped up.   
  
  
• RUN Without Debugger - this seemd seemed to work better.  There wasn't noticeable hang time or as noticeable as RUN.
  
  
• RUN Full Screen - This seemed to not work or it hung long enough to look like it wasn't going to work.  I did ctrl-alt-end to abort and tried again, forcing windowed mode.
  
  
• Other Editor Hung - There seemed to be another instance of the editor hanging but at the moment, I can't remember what it was.  I'll continue testing and try to remember better next time. 
  
  Just wondering if these are all related to lack of memory or other resources?  Earlier betas didn't seem to have this problem so is there something that can be done to improve the performance or will more resources be required?  If more resources are required then perhaps the System Requirements need to be updated to reflect this.
  
  Usability Comments
  Being the lazy cuss that I am Here are a couple of things I noticed...
  
  
• Navigation Tree - I've been using the Linux side of my brain lately and have grown accustomed to not double clicking everything in the world.   I don't think single clicks in the navigation tree used for anything, are they?  If not, why not use single clicks to open the file and/or select the associated editor tab. 
  
  
• Smart Name Entry - One thing I really liked about Visio is that if you select an object and then start typing it figures out that you want to enter text in the object's text field.   I was thinking that it would be nice for AGS to do something similar.  For example, when an Object, GUI, etc is selected and text is entered why not set the focus to the Name or Description field of the selected item and allow the text to be entered there?  If any other fields are selected for focus then of course this behaviour iwould be aborted. 
  
  
• Interaction Functions ? - I was wondering what happens, or is supposed to happen, if an interaction function, created using the "Events" window, is deleted using the script editor?  Currently, if an interaction function is so deleted, the game seems to build/test without errors but when you look in the Events Window the events are still there.   Are those #SECTIONSTART, #SECTIONEND lines still needed, I noticed that they are not automatically inserted.
  
  
• TAB Spacing Option - I changed this in the preferences but it didn't seem to have an effect.  Is this perhaps because the files remain open in the new editor?   
  
  
• Saving Files - It isn't clear what SAVE and SAVE ROOM functions actually save.   I guess that SAVE ROOM saves the CRM and ASC files but what does SAVE save?  Does it save the currently selected file or does it save everything?  What if I want to save a specific file or save it to another file name?   Perhaps SAVE should be renamed to SAVE ALL or SAVE GAME.  Also perhaps there should be a SAVE FILE function.
  
  ==============
  Oh! and by the way, is the game file now contained in that XML file?  If so very, very nice!   Overall, there are some very nice features that I look forward to making use of.    There is a small learning curve but it's a small price to pay for the new features.   
  
  The only disappointment I have is that the editor will no longer run under linux.   I know that theoretically .NET apps can run under MONO but the little I've read on the subject suggests to me that it isn't as easy as it sounds and that it is unlikely to occur unless fair effort is made in this regard. 
  
  Anyway thanks for your hard work and a great programming environment.
  
  
  

Nikolas,  I read about this in the morning paper and thought about you.  I'm glad your family is safe and I am sad for your countrymen who were not as fortunate.   

It's hard to imagine that all of these fires stated in so many different places by accident.   It would also be one heck of a coincidence that   so many random acts of arson would take place simultaneously.  So I'd have to agree that this looks a lot like an act of terrorism. 

We sure would, but for starters, it would be too big for a small house to support. Too heavy at that.

Sorry, I didn't necessarily mean literally "on top of the house". Windmills may be supported by a building or may be self supporting structures as seen in the photo in initial post.

And, umm, it wouldn't produce enough electricity because the whole landscape is surrounded by forests and hills, so it's not very windy either.

A small breeze 10-15 mph is enough to operate the windmill.  Although, it may not produce enough electricity to power a home 24-7 it would provide a noticeable percentage of the home's power requirements.   Surely in the case of home this percentage is much higher than in the case of a skyscraper where energy requirements are much greater and the surface area is severely limited.  Such systems are typically connected to the home's electrical system through "inverter electronics" that convert the windmill's DC power to AC power.  In localities where it is permitted excess electricity is sold back to the power company.

There's really no excuse for not having more windmills than we do...

So then does anyone have one on top of their house or parent's house, and if not, why not? 

I could see the usefulness of the editor resizing objects according to the area's  scale factor (provided of course, that object scaling is enabled) without having to "Run Test".  This would be helpful in accurately placing objects (such as doors, windows, etc) on the background image.   It would also be handy to have a character sprite that one could drag around the screen to see how the scaling looks.   

However, I don't really see the utility of being able to resize sprites in the game editor.  Object sprites should be either drawn relative to the character sprites (when object scaling is enabled) or relative to room's background image.