Topics

It's a real pain sometimes, swapping back and forth between rooms to get the right co-ordinates to NewRoomEx your charatcer into. It can also be a pain to keep lists of co-ordinates for other things you might need to position, such as during cutscenes.

So I suggest "Marks" (or a better name if someone can come up with it) which are named co-ordinates within a room. Kind of like walkto points for hotspots, but independent of Hotspots. Also, the marks end up actually as automatic #defines in your header. This way you can do:

NewRoomEx(4, NORTH_ENTRANCE_POINT);

and CJ doesn't have to make a whole bunch of new functions. They could be set by adding a "Add Mark here" option to the right-click menu.

What do you think?

Also, does anyone always use NewRoom instead of NewRoomEx and then have an on_event or before_fadein script that positions the player according to the value of player.prevroom ? Is that easier?

[Download reference sheet for AGS v2.60 SP1]

Well, I have quick reference sheets at work for C, Perl, Verilog and VHDL that come in very handy, so I thought an AGS quick reference sheet might be good too. So please download and let me know if anything looks wrong or would be handy to add, etc. It's two pages, because then you can print it on both sides of one sheet and laminate it...

Download reference sheet for AGS v2.60 SP1

Sorry if you don't have something that can read Word, but there's plenty of free Word readers available on the net (OpenOffice, antiword, MS's own Word Viewer, etc.) and this way you can edit it about to suit your taste. The sections were originally in the order that they appear (kind of) in the roomedit.clb file, but then were moved about various times as I experimented with margins and columns, etc. It fits on US letter paper, so A4 may require adjustment.

Edit by strazer:
SSH, bump this thread if you ever intend to release newer versions.

I've got this wierd thing... I've got a truetype font imported which doesn't use outlining and I have the Alias fonts switch on on the global options page... but it doesn't get antialiased in the game! But I have had anti-aliased stuff work in the past.

Some possible buggy reasons:
I have the same font imported at a different size with outlining on
I have used the font on a GUI (although it doesnt AA as Speech either)
I have sprite AA turned off

Anyone else come across something like this? SP1 and all..

I have a room with 15 regions, each of which needs to run a script. I can easily edit all the scripts at once by editing the room script, but actually going through every region, clicking on the interaction button, clicking the right interaction and choosing "Run script" from the drop down gets pretty tedious. I would LOVE a way to easily and quickly set multiple objects/regions/hotspots/characters/inv items/etc. interactions to run script, maybe some kind of grid where you can click on checkboxes buttons for each one you want made run-script and it queries or doesn't allow it when there is already an interaction set on something...

While we're at it, I'd love to be able to "duplicate" GUI buttons so that I can create one button with exactly the smae properties as the previous, then edit only the one thing I want different between them (e.g. X position)

It seems that dumping all scripts to a file misses out the header, whihc it would be handy to include.

a) Have I missed some switch to dump it out?
b) If not, can you add it please CJ?

Also, the imported functions declared in the header are completed in the editor, but #defines are not... can this be added too, please?

I know, you'll add it to the list...

To summarise:

Eric Feurstein and Scorpiorus take two FOREGOs each. An Australian, a Welshman, a Spainard take awards and oldies DaveGilbert and m0ds are rewarded too...

Check it out over in AGS Talk & Chat...

http://www.agsforums.com/yabb/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=10127

This is Princess Mutnodjmet, Horemheb's love interest in the Awakening of the Sphinx game. I need help!

1. OK, her head is taken from a photo and I drew the body. How can I get them to match better?
2. How does a walkcycle look in a skirt? ANyone have any examples or tutorials?
3. DO you think she matches the style of the main char?
4. What would be a good dimunitive for her, as Mutnodjmet is a bit of a mouthful!

Mutnodjmet:


Main char (Horemheb):


Any help is much appreciated!

Just been re-reading some bits of the manual and found the debug mode script single-stepping with Scroll Lock and Right Shift. Cool: helped me get a stairs animation right.

However, it took me some effort to get the debug console up. Eventually, I pressed ` instead of ~ and it came up. The "to the left of 1" description was right but the key symbol not! Has anyone else had this problem? Maybe my keyboard is an odd one (HP external keyboard used on Toshiba laptop)  but if others have had this problem, it might be worth updating the help file...

Do many people use these, as I had forgotten about them!

I noticed that preload.pcx is only displayed as 640x400 in a 640x480 game... funnily enough, it seems to shrink the pic to fit and put black borders at top and bottom...

If you use IsInteractionAvailable/IsInventoryInteractionAvailable to control cursor types, or which verb is to be used, etc. It means that that hotspot/object/inv/char etc. ALWAYS will have that interaction available, even if later it does nothing (after you've clicked it already, maybe). It would be nice if there was a way to disable an interaction, or if the automatic ClaimEvent that occurs in such situations can be turned off and authors would have to always claim events manually.

OK,  I get a slightly weird behaviour when I skip my opening cutscene (2.6 SP1RC1)

First, it fades out when I hit ESC
then it fades back in the exact same scene
then it fades out and in again the exact same scene
then it jumps quickly to the end of the cutscene

Now, my cutscene does use FadeOut and FadeIn functions, so I wondered if these were "banned" during cutscenes?. It also switches background pic between fades, maybe this makes a difference. Finally, the cutscene is run from "First time player enters screen", so I wonder if that might be the problem.

I aslo noticed that having a RunDialog in a cutscene is a baaad idea, even if there are no options and you're just using the dialog scripting to write the conversation more easily. (becoz rundialog always runs after the end of a script, the endcutscene always comes before the dialog is run, too). That's why I wrote that perl script (see other thread).

Anyone got any ideas?

Here's the basis of a perl program to convert dialogs to scripts. Its not comprehensive, but someone may find it useful (I did!)

#!/usr/local/bin/perl

my $who = "";
my $what = "";
my $comment = "";

while (<>) {
 if (/^\@/) {
   print "//$_";
 } elsif (/^([A-Za-z0-9_]+)\: (.*).$/) {
   $who=$1; $what=$2; $comment="";
   if ($what =~ m|(\s*//.*).$|) {
     $comment=$1; $what =~ s|(\s*//.*)$||;
   }
   printf 'DisplaySpeech(%s, "%s");%s%s', $who, $what, $comment, "\r\n";
 } elsif (/run-script\s+([0-9]+)/) {
   print "dialog_request($1);\r\n";
 }
 # More translations of script commands can go here
}

Sorry to put this in another board, but just to let you know that the FOREGO nominations are out. Thanks to all who sent me nominations.
Here they are:

FOREGO NOMINATIONS:

Please vote for which of the nominations you would like to win. PM me at http://www.agsforums.com/yabb/index.php?board=3;action=imsend;to=SuperScottishHero
or email andrewm@cadence.com

1. CJ's single best deed of the year (CJ gets his own award so we can exclude him from everything else, otherwise he'd win everything)

a) Being Awesome/Breathing
b) AGS2.6/32-bit colour&alpha support
c) Smart speed scaling

2. Best board moderator: OK, CJ can be included in this one too
a) CJ
b) MrCollosal
c) C. Leksutin
d) DGMacphee
e) Gilbot

3. Most helpful person in the Beginners Tech Forum: who keeps patiently telling n00bs how to do things?
a) Scorpiorus
b) Scummbuddy
c) TK
d) SSH

4. Best unimplemented suggestion in Tech forum: what is the thing you most want to be implemented next in AGS?

a) Lens Flare
b) Character/animation preview
c) Icon-based dialogs

5. Most helpful Tech forum person: who has donated the best plugin, script, function or other technical things?

a) Proskrito
b) Scorpiorus
c) Gilbot

6. Most helpful artist: Who has most helpful with art in the Critics lounge, directly or through providing tutorials
a) Darth Mandarb
b) Miez
c) MrCollosal
d) Pessi
e) Scotch
f) Loominous

7. Most helpful musician: Who has given most music help? directly or through providing tutorials
a) m0ds
b) remixor
c) Trapezoid

8. Best AGS Chat contributor: who has put the best stuff in the AGS Talk & Chat?
a) Yufster
b) SSH
c) m0ds
d) GarageGothic
e) DGMacphee

9. Best constructive critciser in Games in Production: who gives the most edifying feedback that help get those games or demos done?
a) Timosity
b) Snake
c) DaveGilbert
d) Scotch

10. Best helpful hinter: Who is most helpful in the Hints & Tips forum?
a) AGA
b) Inkoddi
c) Jane

11. Best contribution to Gen-Gen: who has put the best stuff in the Gen Gen?
a) DGMacphee
b) Yakspit
c) Rodekill
d) MrCollosal
e) Darth Mandarb
f) Farlander


More in the main FOREGO thread:
http://www.agsforums.com/yabb/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=10127;start=0

This thread in Gen Gen can be used to pimp yourself and tell others why YOU should get their votes!

OK, so I'm asking a beginner's question!

The trouble is, my walkcycle doesn't really have a frame where he looks like he is standing still. So when my character is stationary, he looks a bit silly. I have a standing frame in my talking view, but not in my walking. I think if I added one into the walk view, it would look wierd. So my question is: other than putting soemthing like this in repeatedly execute:

if (player.walking) {
ChangeCharacterView(EGO, walk_view)
} else {
ChangeCharacterView(EGO, stand_view)
}

is there something I can do to help this problem?

What AGS games are you looking forward to in 2004?

for myself in no particular order:

Buccaneer II (especially the fight scenes!)
Legend of Leitor's Edge
Monkey Wrench
obilgatory FoY
Awakening of the Sphinx if the lazy creator gets off his ass and works on it a bit more

OK, I'm not really happy with either of these,but with my drawing abilities I dunno what more I can do. Pleas etell me which you prefer, and if you can offer any advice on improvements to either, thx

[Breathing and being Awesome]

THE RESULTS!

And an incredibly cool awards site by Darth Mandarb at:
http://www.twin-design.com/foregos/

At last, the FOREGOs are finished and the results are counted. 49 lovely people sent me their 447 votes over the 11 categories and here are the final results:

CJ's best deed of 2003 was, by a long margin, Breathing and being Awesome. So CJ, just keep inhaling and exhaling and we'll be happy! (nomination by Yufster, OTG and ._.)


The best moderator is a man who many have confused for a woman, thanks to his avatar. Yes, it's everyone's favourite time traveller: Mr Colossal (lets see if I can spell it right this time)

Next up comes the best "n00b" helper in the Beginners Tech forum. Despite strong competition (ie me  oh yeah and some other guys), this goes to Scorpiorus.

Now we come to the "best unimplemented suggestion". Now, despite Lens Flare having multiple nominations, another suggestion captured people imaginations and had the largest winning margin (22 votes!) of any category: Character animation preview (nomination by DGMacphee)

The best Tech Forum contribution was a close fought thing: it was tied on 16 votes each to Proskrito and Scorpiorus before last weekend began... but the weekend voting has handed it to Scorpiorus his second award!

Now come the Critics Lounge awards: split into helpful musician and helpful artist.

Despite there being 6 nominees in this category all the helpful artists recieved a healthy bunch of votes, so they should all be congratulated on the work that they do helping people. But one guy stood out with more votes, and I think that most of us owe our walkcycles to his tutorials... yes, Eric does it again as MrColossal takes the helpful artist award.

As for the musicians: again they all do a great job with their help to folks, but in this category one person has obviously spent far too much time doing other people's music and not enough developing Fountain of Youth: yes, it's m0ds!

Now comes the first of the "chat" categories: judged not necessarily on helpfulness but on general contribution to a forum. AGS Talk & Chat is our adventure-related forum and once again I was nominated. It just shows the quality of the other nominees when you realise that I came last with only 5 votes! This category ius another of the close-run ones but in the end, DGMacphee pipped the others to the post.

Now we have awards for the efforts made by people in two of the less-visited forums, which was reflected in the vote counts here. Still, there was a decent haul and everyone nominated here had a good count of votes too:

Best constructive criticism in the Games in Production forum goes to Dave Gilbert, who doesn't post a great deal but it obviosuly counts when he does.

And the most helpful hinter has been chosen to be a real afficionado: AGA

Finally, the second "chat" award, for General Discussion contribution was another close-fought battle. But it seems that one man's efforts to rouse the hispanic vote succeeded and thanks to the support of pretty much anyone who speaks Spanish on the forums, Farlander takes the FOREGO.


It is a great shame not to reward the runners-up, who are greatly deserving too, but I will be contacting the winners so they can sort out their custom forum titles.

Thanks and see you next year (if I can't fob it off on to someone else)


FOREGO NOMINATIONS:



1. CJ's single best deed of the year (CJ gets his own award so we can exclude him from everything else, otherwise he'd win everything)

a) Being Awesome/Breathing
b) AGS2.6/32-bit colour&alpha support
c) Smart speed scaling

2. Best board moderator: OK, CJ can be included in this one too
a) CJ
b) MrCollosal
c) C. Leksutin
d) DGMacphee
e) Gilbot

3. Most helpful person in the Beginners Tech Forum: who keeps patiently telling n00bs how to do things?
a) Scorpiorus
b) Scummbuddy
c) TK
d) SSH

4. Best unimplemented suggestion in Tech forum: what is the thing you most want to be implemented next in AGS?

a) Lens Flare
b) Character/animation preview
c) Icon-based dialogs

5. Most helpful Tech forum person: who has donated the best plugin, script, function or other technical things?

a) Proskrito
b) Scorpiorus
c) Gilbot

6. Most helpful artist: Who has most helpful with art in the Critics lounge, directly or through providing tutorials
a) Darth Mandarb
b) Miez
c) MrCollosal
d) Pessi
e) Scotch
f) Loominous

7. Most helpful musician: Who has given most music help? directly or through providing tutorials
a) m0ds
b) remixor
c) Trapezoid

8. Best AGS Chat contributor: who has put the best stuff in the AGS Talk & Chat?
a) Yufster
b) SSH
c) m0ds
d) GarageGothic
e) DGMacphee

9. Best constructive critciser in Games in Production: who gives the most edifying feedback that help get those games or demos done?
a) Timosity
b) Snake
c) DaveGilbert
d) Scotch

10. Best helpful hinter: Who is most helpful in the Hints & Tips forum?
a) AGA
b) Inkoddi
c) Jane

11. Best contribution to Gen-Gen: who has put the best stuff in the Gen Gen?
a) DGMacphee
b) Yakspit
c) Rodekill
d) MrCollosal
e) Darth Mandarb
f) Farlander

OK, OK, so I put 6 noms in for some categories instead of 5, but that was only because of a deadlock in nominations, so my discretion was used. Also, nominations are listed  in no particular order sometimes and sometimes in order of number of noms: but i'm not telling which! So vote by email or PM and I'll announce the results same time in two weeks. If I don't get enough votes I'll pick the winners myself, so I'm favourite to win those categories I got nominated for

DONT DELAY VOTE TODAY!

Also, congrats to the other folks who got nominated but missed out: Dark Stalkey, Terranrich, Jannar, Flippy_D, Petteri, N3tgraph, Archangel, BionicBill, Goldmund, Simple, Helm, RickJ, fjeronimo and a-v-o


Original header:

So, the AGS Awards are for games
The Ergos are for funny stuff
I thought that to encourage helpfulness and "good behaviour" on the forums, we should maybe have a few awards for that kind of thing. And they will be called the "Forego"s (pronouced 4go).

In some games, I have seen the feature that if there is only one dialog option left, the game automatically chooses that option without presenting a list of dialog options to the player. Is it possible to have a switch for enabling/disabling this feature in AGS?

Thanks!

My game is going to have quite a long opening sequence. I am wondering if I should make it more interactive, to make it more interesting for the player? The interaction would be pretty linear, because it would just be having a dialog with a couple of characters. Of course, if it was played as a movie rather than interactive, it would be skippable and individual lines of dialog would be skippable, to allow the whole thing to go quicker if you are a fast reader and don't care about the voice sound (if I do do a voice pack)

So: choice is :

Skippable intro scene that plays as movie*
Or two very linear dialogues at the beginning of game

I did think about making it a game option to have one or the other, but the way dialog scripting works doesn't make that easy...


EDIT:
* by movie I mean you sit and watch without clicking, rather than AVI or anything...

Well, this is one of those threads that ppl will either love or hate. It may be locked or it may be teh 1337est thread ever!!!111!one!

What's behind the door on your advent calendar today? Mine's a pretty traditional one my mum gave me so it was Mary, but yours may be some kind of chocolate, or something amusing or rude... share it with us

Or, if you're a moderator... lockity lock!