Messages

Actually I believe it's all stored as an array.

I'm not sure why hotspots are 2x2 pixels, probably because it's not as important to have 100% pixel perfect placement for a hotspot, and there's also no point in beefing up a games size just for that.

But the walkpaths I know are 2x2 mostly because of the path finding algorithm having twice as much to calculate if it were single pixels.

You realize that you're typing your messages within the Quote fields and I can't make heads or tails what is a quote and what is a response.  Are you confused and you're just trying to figure out what the heck you're doing wrong?

When you press "Reply with quote" that adds the quote to the message box, like so:

Code: ags

[quote]
This is a quote from someone
[/quote]

This is where you type your message -- Not inside the quote fields.

There is an EDIT button if you needed to correct a message, and try not to double post unless the thread needs to be bumped.  Also you can preview your message to see if it's going to come out right before posting; which you should be using.

I'm not trying to be a moderator, but I'm very confused with whats going on with your replies and it's been 4 in a row now.

You've got it all wrong...  CJ stole it from them!

One instance actually, unless I'm missing something:
You can't create a dynamic sprite (with alpha set as true or false) and use DrawImage with a transparency set.  False will draw the image at a different hue of pink, and True the DrawImage won't even show up.

edit: which makes me curious how people make those rain effects... I must be missing something. Ignore that, I was being stupid.

edit2: wait, never mind.. I forgot about that issue.  I remember Mr. Leafshade being stumped on this.  I remember it not being possible to apply transparency yet..  So yes.  That's one thing I would be tinkled transparent (did ya catch that one? lol) if it was capable.

I noticed there is a big mess when someone changes their forum name, like myself.  My forum name is actually ryanb84 but it's viewed as Ryan Timothy.  Perhaps the games section on the new site could also view the view-as name instead of the actual name?

I imagine that'll cause more havoc when someone decides to add someone as a team member, but at least it still shows the original name in people's forum profile.  People then won't be left guessing who ryanb84 is when they are viewing the games section (not that I've contributed all that much or made many of my own games lol).

I guess clicking on the name does take you to the profile.. but I still suggest to have the view-as name appear instead.

I just checked out the in production thread and it looks interesting.  Simple, yet interesting.

Good luck.

I've also filled in the survey.

I believe that's painted on a wall somewhere in Guelph, ON (probably multiple locations around the world, but hey).  I could be wrong, but I totally remember sleeping in the car after getting drunk at the bar and seeing that in front of me.

I thought Fusiomax meant that this whole survey was canceled, is it not?

It's mostly the whole ton of GUI quirks with alpha channels, for instance with inventory items that use alpha channel (this I haven't tried since 3.2, first release), buttons, etc.  They don't merge correctly and you have a ghostly image around it instead.  Often using multiple GUI's just to get correct looking shadows on buttons.  Where the second GUI is the button.

Like I said: unless I'm doing something wrong, those are my biggest issues with alpha channels.

Being able to use them completely with drawing surfaces and such would be outstanding for my crazy graphical ideas.

I imagine others have more information on the issues with alpha channels than I.  But it's basically the only serious thing I'd like to have working correctly, everything else is just to make it run better and easier.

Yeah, you read the manual and tutorials.  Or even search the forums.  It's been answered multiple times and you're also quite vague with what you need.

That's what really bugged me about The Road.  The boy was born within the first year of the nuclear warfare (or whatever the bombs were - it was unclear), and he was around 10 years old in the movie.  The sky was still cloudy, the world seemed radiated or something, crops couldn't grow, trees were all dying.  Food was scavenged from houses and stores, and in the worst case, cannibalism and farming of people.

I personally can't see something such as the result of nuclear warfare lasting 10 years, especially throughout the whole country/world.  But hey, I'm no scientist.

I just saw the movie The Road, and it's pretty much exactly like the wasteland, minus mutants and raiders.  But people eat people, and there is no food at all - only scraps.  Water also looks tainted and the trees are all dead.

The movie didn't really offer much, but it definitely gets your mind thinking in survival mode.  What you'd be doing if that scenario came to life.

Who would be considered a newbie?  Less than a year in the forums?  Calin Leafshade has been here less than a year, is he a newbie?

I encourage Progz's idea, even though there aren't any games that I left in production that I'm willing to resurrect.

Code: ags

cCharacter.x-=26;  //subtracts 26 pixels

This should be all you need.

Yes, you're understanding correctly.
And yes, you wouldn't have to touch the backing sprite, but the front sprite would have to be loaded into a DynamicSprite.

There aren't any limits with DynamicSprite that I'm aware of.  I believe they're just like variables which are limited by memory.  So you could do multiple layers of destruction, if you needed to.

[If]

If worms is what you're trying to make, then a short answer is yes.  It's very possible in AGS.

I just spent the last half hour trying to recover my old worms clone that I made with AGS, so I could share it with you.  It was on an old hard drive on my old computer, but I couldn't seem to find it.  It must have been deleted somehow, at one point.


My approach, I had two backgrounds (like animating backgrounds).  The first background was the background that contained full detail on sky and land.  The second background had a transparency color for the sky, and the land was the darker background layer which replaces the top background to reveal the damaged land.

To calculate for an explosion, you'd check to see if the second background area did not contain the sky transparency color.  If it was indeed ground I would draw, pixel per pixel, the ground from the second background onto the first background.  While you do that, you also draw the sky transparency color onto what used to be ground on the second background.

That way the second background not only was the bottom layer of land but it was also the 'hotspot', except it worked in reverse.  If it's not the transparency color, then it is ground.



If I were to attempt to make that worms clone again, I would definitely use sprites instead.  One sprite for the top layer of land, and one sprite with the bottom layer of land.  Then you'd only have a small 640x480 (or whatever resolution) as the background, and you can use the two land sprites as objects, overlapping each other.  Moving them around as the 'fake' viewport moves around.

Then all you'd need to do is draw the explosion circle on the top layer with the transparency color, which would reveal the bottom layer.  And to check for ground, you just check against the top layer if it isn't the transparency color.

Also the benefit for doing that, is you get unlimited sky and side view without having it limited by the background size.  And you're not loading a large background and sky into the drawing surface each time you want to check a pixel for collision detection or explosion.  Only the land (or most of it).  You could also break up the land sections in multiple objects and sprites to speed things up even more.

Only drawback with doing it the sprite and object way, is that you need extra scripting to determine where the explosion happened via the object's X and Y position.  Could be tricky to some novice programmers.

I'm not sure why I didn't do it this way when I had first made it, I guess I was kinda new to drawing surfaces and whatnot.  Like I said, it's definitely the better method and I would totally do it that way if I were to do it again.

I bought an Intuos 3 (6x11) several years ago, and totally love it.  Although I don't use it as much as I should, but it's definitely been worth the price tag I spent.  Which I believe was around $600.  I never ummed or ahhed either.  I knew I was going to use it, so I bought it.

The reason I like the large size is that it's actual screen resolution on the tablet (widescreen too).  I have no idea how the small ones work, does it work exactly like a mouse, or better example, the touchpads on laptops?  Either way, it seemed like a hassle that I wasn't willing to do.  I wanted my large drawing surface.

Just go into a cop shop with a gun and camera, and demand to take photos.  I'm sure they'll be cooperative. 

I'm surprised actually, you'd think there would be hundreds of photos with all those hollywood sets.  I'm assuming you're looking for that type of cop shop and not some mexican or small town one.

[How to create the After Fade In function:]

It's supposed to be run within a function, not as a function or outside of a function.

If this Miner was to animate from the moment you enter that background, you add it to the After Fade In function, like so:

Code: ags

function room_AfterFadeIn()
{
   cMiner.Animate(5, 5, eRepeat, eNoBlock);
}

Note: this must be created from within the room editor, or else it won't work -- Unless you've already done so.

How to create the After Fade In function:
In the room editor, on the bottom of the project tree, click on the lighting bolt and you'll see "Enters Room after fade-in".  Click on the dots beside it and it will be created in the room script (exactly like above without the character.animate).



If you were to actually create a function and call it at a certain point, you do this (outside all other functions):

Code: ags

function AnimateMiner()
{
  cMiner.Animate(5, 5, eRepeat, eNoBlock); 
}

You really wouldn't want to create a function for a single action such as this.  I'm showing you since you didn't seem to know how a function worked.

Then when you need to use it within your scripts, you just simply call:

Code: ags

AnimateMiner();

But make sure this doesn't get thrown into the repeatedly execute script without some kind of boolean check to prevent it from being called over and over.
Also functions must be placed above where they will be called.