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Messages - TheBitPriest

#61
This issue is different.  It's not an issue of order.  All the buttons stop working, except, mysteriously, ESC as read by WaitMouseKey() (unless that's the "bug" you mean, Radiant).

I am 100% certain now that there's an MS update that causes this problem.  I just reloaded all of the most important security updates from 7-8-14, and the problem came back.  Now I'm down to working through them one at a time.  It'll be a fun few hours of waiting and rebooting.  Joy.  (unless I get lucky) :-\

#62
Grr...  It looks like it was a Microsoft update.  I uninstalled every update that was published 7-8-14, and now the games are working again.  The next step is to go back one-by-one and see which one it was.  That will be fun.  (wrong)

No one else had this problem?
#63
This may or may not be related, but I have been chasing a keyboard problem down the rabbit hole all morning. 

Without any (known) configuration changes to my machine, my keyboard stopped working under certain circumstances within the engine.  I say certain circumstances, because WaitMouseKey() is still working (does this make sense to any of you who have examined the input code in the engine??). 

I'm still working backing out *every* MS update from the past week or so... I'm also looking into trojans, etc.  It's a tedious process given all of the rebooting.

I noticed the problem when I couldn't hit ESC to skip cutscenes.  I didn't pay attention to it at first.  KB input is not very central to my project, and I had recently made a change that could have resulted in an input related bug.  Besides, WaitMouseKey() was working on ESC.  But then I noticed that the Save screen was not working.  I tested old projects, and the loaded a few other AGS games, and sure enough -- KB input is broken. 

Anyone else having problems?
#64
What's this?  A leak?  (roll)

Hey... that uniform looks familiar.  I wonder how you get that??  Is wearing it such a good idea?

That girl behind the booth is kind of hot...Captain-Cork-hot, that is.



After playing through the game as it is to date (about 80% complete), my 11 yo daughter says, "It's lots of fun!  I want more!!"  There was a lot of laughter around the screen from the three play-testers, especially during the introductory cut scenes.

(head back down now.  code. paint. code. design. chat with Captain D. run design by boss.  make changes. code design from the capt. bug fix. more coding. and the saga continues.)
#65
My children and I played through this game today.  Very well done.
#66
Thanks for the lead!  Grabbed it and compiled it.  This is the pixel-art program I've been dreaming about!  (nod)
#67

Wow!  I am surprised to see that three people chose mine, number 8.  After seeing the other entries, I felt a little foolish for entering.  There are some amazing stories on that list!  Good job, folks.
#68
Wow!  I am surprised to see that three people chose mine, number 8.  After seeing the other entries, I felt a little foolish for entering.  There are some amazing stories on that list!  Good job, folks.
#69
I thought Adventure Creator basically was AGS for Unity, or are you thinking more about the cost than the functionality?   

...and ditto to what Billbis says.  Now that AGS is opensource, why go back?
#70
Engine Development / Re: Pathfinding bug?
Thu 22/05/2014 15:38:35
You removed the old search and the problem went away?  Do you mean you could still navigate to the point you were selecting?  I am really tempted to roll back my engine code and check that out.  If you're getting to the second search and the image is a 3x3 grid, then the first search must be hitting its limit.  Increasing the limits them can make pathfinding more successful, but it runs to the risk of introducing a more significant lag on slower machines.  I removed them on my machine.

The old search is just plain broken.  There are cases where it should work, but it fails by doubling back on itself.   Based on the text dumps that you uploaded, it looks like that's what happened.  My assumption was that the some of the quirky behavior of this old search became expected.  Otherwise, why keep it at all?  Why not use Dijkstra twice?   In fact, I tried that, and it works like a champ.  It's not an optimal solution though.

My main focus in getting into the pathfinding was to produce non-technical documentation in order to help users working with the current engine.   
After doing that, I replaced the entire thing with an A* based strategy.  It's about 3/4 finished.  I had wanted to make an interface to allow the designers (AGS users) to control the resolution of the search.  However, after CW announced his departure and the forum started talking about refactoring, I stopped working on that code altogether and went back to my other commitments.

Unless your project has the luxury of using its own version of the engine, if you need to get this room working, I would suggest shrinking the mask 33%, and then enlarging it to 320x200 using nearest neighbor.   If that still doesn't work, I'm at a loss... I'd have to throw it into the debugger.  I must have missed something about this system.  :-X

#71
Engine Development / Re: Pathfinding bug?
Wed 21/05/2014 16:08:24
Really, the easiest and quickest fix, with the least amount of side-effects, is to change the editor. 

If someone could either add a "grid paint" feature (or just always lock the painting walkable areas to the grid) it would fix the problem.

Adding a grid paint would probably be better, since there are times when you might want a 1-pixel through a narrow gap, and it's not that it doesn't work.  It's just prone to (seemingly mysterious) failures.

Try this one.





#72
Engine Development / Re: Pathfinding bug?
Wed 21/05/2014 14:56:05
A link to my WIKI on this is in this thread:

Click me.

The problem is not the width of the walkable area, but rather does that area line up with the grid such that a stair-step path can be clearly made.   The docs that say "make it more than 3 pixels wide" are misleading.  Just by looking at your walkable area, I'll bet that if you pad the narrow spots just a little bit to allow a clear 3x3 stair-step to fit it'll solve your problem. I don't have time to run it through the debug version that I made that draws the paths at the moment.

#73
I'm a pretty big Linux advocate, but Windows 7 is great too. Not starting any tech wars... Those arguments aren't worth the bandwidth.
#74
The Rumpus Room / Re: Party like it's 1992
Mon 24/03/2014 13:43:45
It was the summer prior, but we were still singing, "You Could be Mine," by Guns and Roses, with this image in our minds.



Hasta la vista, baby!
#75
Great discussion.

One of the things that sets AGS apart in my mileage is its ability to easily and accurately emulate the 320x200 classic adventure. I have taken almost every other game making tool for a test drive, and only AGS fits the bill. While more modern adventures are a "patch and hack" for AGS, the opposite is true for most of the other engines. In my mind, this is the default, narrow genre of the tool. We're partying like it's 1991! :-)

Just one man's opinion, obviously.

But in my mind, this is more than a mere technical decision to support low resolution pixel art. It's been the core focus of the tool. I would suggest the following mission statement based solely on my perception of our use of the tool:

AGS is a tool that exists to give technically able artists the ability to keep the Golden Era of adventure games alive with new content, contests, and community.
#76
What an amazing looking wedding!  Congratulations!
#77
Quote from: janosbiro on Wed 12/02/2014 03:15:00
Quote
Do you mean walking path finding or the speed of walking?

The path-finding. I guess AGS doesn't have an imbued path-finding algorithm, isn't?

Take a look at my pathfinding wiki for more information on AGS pathfinding.  If there are any specific problems with this demo, I can run some tests through my debugging code for the team.

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/wiki/Walkable_Areas_and_Path-finding

-TBP
#78
I can see what you mean, Khris.  Although it's not completely out of the ordinary, now that you mention it, the pattern looks a little too large for the scale (like in a dollhouse).

To all:  You could call the technique that I was trying to figure out "traditional photoshoping."  I know it's not anything revolutionary, but for me it was about honing a workflow for generating rooms.  My normal routine for making a background with a painted look would be to draw a rough sketch and then paint over it.  This image was composed by skewing different patterns, pasting together images, and then going back to shade the final result. er... Photoshoping...?  Doing this allowed me to produce this in about an hour (while I was waiting for a phone call), whereas my old method would have taken much, much longer and more concentration.  I also did not break out my tablet which hurt the precision a bit.

Thanks for the feedback!  I'll try a few different things the next time.
#79
It does look weird... thanks!  It's funny how you can miss something until someone points it out. 

I think the bookcase also needs a little depth on the left, but adding anything looks odd.  Hmm...
#80
Critics' Lounge / Trying some new techniques
Wed 12/02/2014 00:07:34
This afternoon, I was playing around with a few ideas for making more "realistic," yet painted, rooms.  Any thoughts or critiques on this?   There isn't any real design -- just a chair in a room (zoomed to 640x400).

[IMGzoom]http://i.imgur.com/fprBMnI.png[/IMGzoom]
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