Messages

Look in the GUI editor.  Make sure the button is setup to run a script.  It's interaction is probably set to NONE.

Yufster,

One thing about the letter writting campaign.  make sure the letters ask for a reply.  Then the next letter references the first and asks why the first wasn't answered.    Here is an example of wht I mean.

In my previous letter of the Dec-1-2003, I asked why this, that, and the other thing.  I also requested that .....  You have not replied to my letter, so I am now writting this letter to ask if you intend to respond and if so when will you do so.  If you do not intend to respond then please explain why you do not intend to respond.  

Common protocol is that you shouldn't immediately go above or around persons who are supposed to be responsible for decisions.  But if they do not respond to legitimate querries then you take your questions to then next higher rung on the ladder.  If no response there you keep going, all the way to the top.

Make sure the letters are clear about what you are  asking the recipients to do.   Be certain that one of the things is that they should respond in writting.   Regardless of their decision, they are oblicated to respond to written request in writting.  

Try to keep the rantings and emotionalism to a minimum, etc, etc ...

Good luck with this.

RickJ

Thanks Chris.  You can get the font from here...

HollyWeird.zip

I would rather sit back and watch an interesting presentation than to have to tediously click something whenever the designer decided that I should be pying attention.    

Of course it is necessary to have the ability to click-out of the thing, preferably with only 2 or 3 clicks.   An option to skip the whole thing is a must  as well.  

To make it interesting consider not fully and explicitly explaining everything that is going on. In addition to setting mood, context, etc,  use the intro to create a mystery ... a mystery that can be solved by playing the game.

Just my thoughts....

Upgraded Direct-X to 9.?? but the previous proble remains.   I think we will just haveto chalk this up to a peculularity in my machine for the time being.  

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

I found a couple of minoe things when using the automatic font outline and ttf with text overlays.

1.  The left most outline is cut-off in a text overlay.  The overlay begins with the left most edge of the first character and not the left most outline edge as  expected.  

2.  I imported a ttf "HollyWeird", at 28pt size.  When using this font in a text overlay the bottom portion of  characters such as "g", "p", "y", etc are cutoff.

Thanks CJ.  That's exactly what I need.  When I get something optimized for AGS I'll document and make available for the rest of the crew.   The text file only needs to be renamed  ro something.api and the keywords need to be put into a property file.  

If I can make this work a few of us should get some benefit.  Thanks.

I noticed that the Wacom Graphire thing comes bundled with Adobe Elements for $99.  Elements usually retails for $99 so thats a pretty good deal if you don't already have Photoshop or something.  

Scite is just a scintilla wrapper so I'm thinking that probably you already have something that is very close, if not exactly the same thing as the .api files required by SciTE.

Here is what the SciTE website has to say about it.  Is this similar to what you are doing with the internal editor?  Maybe using the C++ lexer and an ags.api  lang file?

http://www.scintilla.org/SciTEDoc.html

Supporting a new language

For languages very similar to existing supported languages, which may only differ in a minor feature such as the keywords used, the existing lexers can often be reused. The set of keywords can then be changed to suit the new language. Java and JavaScript could have reasonably reused the C++ lexer. The Java lexer was added only to support doc comments.

For languages that can not be lexed with the existing lexers, a new lexer can be coded in C++.

Installing a lexer into SciTE

The open.filter should be modified to include the file extensions used for the new language and entries added for command.compile, command.build, command.go and command.go.needs for the language.


Creating API files

The .api files can be generated by hand or by using a program.

For C/C++ headers, an API file can be generated using ctags and then the tags2api Python script (which assumes C/C++ source) on the tags file to grab complete multiple line function prototypes. Some common headers surround parameter lists with a __P macro and may have comments. The cleanapi utility may be used on these files.

To generate an API file for Python modules, there is a gen_python script.

To generate an API file for Java classes, there is a ApiBuilder.java program.  

I appologize if this ends up being a huge undertaking.  However if it's a matter of including a file or two (that may already exist)  then if would be worth the effort.  If I can be of any help please let me know.  Thanks for listening.

Hmm, I tried various things but couldn't get the problem to happen.

I was afraid of that !

1. Does it happen the second time if you test the game twice in a row?
2. Does it happen if you test the game in a window rather than fullscreen? 3. What colour depth is Windows running at?

1. Sometimes it happens everytime you do a test sometime it only happens the irst time after a test run.

2. I haven't been able to get it to screw up in windowed mode yet.

3. Here is my video information
OS:  WinME (arrgh!), 700Mhz HP Pavilion
Driver: Intel 82810 Graphic Controller  V4.0  w/ Direct Draw 1.0
Color: 24bit   Resolution: 1024x768
Game Resolution: 320x200 8bit

I'm afraid I probably won't be able to fix this one. The fact that it doesn't happen if you run the game externally probably means there's some weird problem between the editor, the engine and your graphics card , but I can't think what it might be.

I can understand that.  It happens frequently enough to be annoying but not so frequently that I can't use it.   I'll keep observing (as if had a choice ) and let you know if see anything else that may be helpful in leading to a solution.

Also, if you right-click rather than left-clicking does it happen then? I mean, is it the act of clicking the mouse that causes the problem to occur?

I don't think it is related to the mouse, the mouse click causes the character to animate.  I think it's releated to the graphical operations.  Make a change to the game, test it, and when some graphical operations, such as character animation or popping up a GUI,  are performed the pallette gets trashed.  Sometimes subsequent tests continue to have the same problem and sometimes the problem disappears.  Restarting the editor seems to clearup everything everytime.

I can't think of anything else that would be helpful.   Maybe someone else will see a symptom of this problem that you can reproduce on of these days.  Might even be me .   Thanks.

CJ I am really impressed the latest enhancements of the script editor.  I of course really like the autocomplete and the popup help, really nice.

I have recently discovered that if you select a block of stuff and press tab the whole block is tabbed over, really cool.  The only thing is that the tab setting is something like 8 spaces over.  

What I was wondering is this:  In the future would it be possible to expose the editor's config file so that we can modify it  or alternatively would it be possible to publish the lang/config file that contains the auto-complete stuff so that we could use Scite as our external editor and still have the auto-complete features?  

I think that something similiar to what I have suggested would address many feature requests from advanced scripters.  

Really nice work Chris.  It's greatly appreciated.

CJ: I'm running full screen when this happens.  Here is an example that that will mess up if you modify the Test Output  options in the game settings.  Just check/uncheck them all, test the game, and then move the character.    The pallette should go wacky.  Try it a couple of times until you learn how to make it happen.  After that you can make it happen everytime you want to.  

Making changes seems to make this happen.  Previously it happened when I imported a background.  If you close the editor after making the change and then restart the problems go away.

http://www.gaia-spa.com/project/demo/NewbieNight.zip

Every text that gets displayed, is shown mirrored. Even the prompt screen when exiting the game. The programm itself is shown normal, it's in-game that the error appears.

I believe there is something in Game Settings that allows support for right to left languages.  Do you have that checked by any chance?

Another thing: Even though I've registered and logged in, I'm asked to fill in my name and adress while writing this post. That's weird, seeing as I was logged in just a minute ago.
Weird thing is, I can't fill in the name I used to register myself. So this forum must acknowledge my existence, as it were.

Make sure cookiesare turned on in your browser.  The forum software set a couple cookies with your username and password to know if you are loggged on or not.   I would also delete any cookies you now have that look loike they came from an AGS or YaBB forum, turn your cookies on and try again.

Wear pants and tell them you're really a boy.  If they disagree ask them if they want to have a look, that will shut'em up I bet.  

I say Up with skirts, Down with pants,  and lets all have a good time

SSH,  Being a chip designer gives you the same perspective as I.  From your comments, perhaps we should be offended because of the misapplication of the terms by those guys some 200 years ago.  

Perhaps the plantation owners should have been called the Primaries and the plantation workers called the Secondaries.  

I do think the master/slave designation should be changed.

I disagree. These terms are imbedded far deeper than just disk drives.  You will find such designations on chip labels and in software systems.  It addition to the pervasive use of these terms you will be hard pressed to find a more accurate description of a pair of  electronic devices where on is under the complete control of the other.  

This kind of silliness, if taken seriously, will eventually get someone killed.   I can easily see an accident happen because of vague and confusing labels being used.  

This reminds me of something that happened when I was working for General Electric.  The GE micro-processor boards I used to build control systems with had a signal named "Bushog".  To all of us English speakers at GE the term perfectly described the situation when address and control signals were sent out on the computer bus and no device responded within a reasonable amount of time.   What else would you call it when something is "hogging" the bus?  Then we had French customers to whom "hog" was just a farm animal with tasty meat and had no other connotation as in English.  They asked me  "Yes I know what it does, but why do you call it boos-ogg?".    

So what's the point?  Computers don't give a shit about politics and neither do the engineers that design them.  Terminology is coined that is easy to remember, that is concise, and that accurately and intuitively describes the thing being named.    Client/Server, Primary/Secondary are very different from Master/Slave.  

One could easily make the case that an absurd complaint such is this is offensive.  I would say that it's intent is dodge the real political issues of the day and that the it is casing harm.  Anyone that has enough time to sit around and think this stuff up can't have time to be doing any useful work.  I also find it offensive that people like this are being paid from tax payers' money that could be better spent elsewhere.

So there  

I noticed something strange with RC3a.  When using 8 bit color and 320x240 resolution the pallette gets screwed up during testing.  I run Test from the menu.  The game compiles and boots up and everything is fine.  Make the character walk around and the pallette gets trashed.   Exit the game and try again get same result.  Exit AGSEDIT and try again and everything is OK.  

I am not exactly sure what's different betwen first and second session.  But I think I re-imported the background pic the first time and don't think I made anyother changes.

I suppose there could be something wrong with my machine.  I'll continue to make observations and if I notice anything else that may be of use I'll come bacjk and let you know.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

I use it and have no complaints.    IMHO it's well worth the download time.  You haven't said how much memory your computer has.  Memory is cheap, especially for your machine, and can in many situations significantly increass performance.  If you machine has 64Mb or less  I would consider upgrading to 256Mb or more.

I don;t think you will be dissapointed by Open Office.

ZZjZmoz,

No tension intended.   Please understand replies to the forum are meant for everyone not just for the initial poster.  I wanted to set some things straight because I some folks may not have understood some of the issues.  I have some experience in this so I thought I would share what I know.  

I wish you luck inexecuting your contracts.  Let us know how it turns out.  

Cheers
Rick

Von,  make sure your cookies are turned on and delete any existing cookies from this forum.  

You shouldn't use Inc, Corp., Corporation, or any other such term unless you are legally incorporated somewhere.  
The number of people involved nor the quality of the work is not relevant.   If you really are incorporated then you would have known all of this already and politely said so.
If you are executing contracts under a fradulent name then you are commiting a fradulent act and could get into trouble quite easily.  I hope you know what you're doing and seek some professional advice about this.