Messages

Is there a way to check what object is behind another object?

I believe so, I think you can try with object[ID].Baseline.

@Crimson Wizard:

Do you remember about this thread?
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=55649.0

Well, I understand that no matter the video resolution of whatever. If the game resolution is 800x600 or higher then the game run with OpenGl which is work very slowly for me. If the game resolution is less than 800x600 then the game run with Software renderer and fps are 40. This is the problem and I figure it out now.

Khris you are totally right about it. However yes, other people who have tried the game on a more powerful computer have reported that the game runs at a higher speed than I programmed it both for some of the timing and for playing the videos themselves. When they said so I opened this message with the hope of understanding what was happening. Yesterday I realized that the slowdown for me is given by the videos. In fact, if I play the game without video, then the fps are correct as they should be. Right now I'm trying to run a video with a lower resolution for example (640x480) instead of (1280x720) and see if my computer makes any difference.

Crimson Wizard, I understand what are you talking about. Maybe even your idea could be a good one. I will just need to make it work all of this right without any issues. Also, I tried to run the game without video and fps are show to 40 now.

Ps: morganw script works perfectly fine for me. Anyway, now I have to test this with the other testers as well to see how does it work at all.

Khris I understand, thank you very much for the explanation. The main fix is to find out what's wrong with the game and fix it so to make it run at 40 fps on all systems. The only pain in that place is that I can't figure it out why it's running so slow.

@Khris:
Yes, I realize that the game speed it's supposed to travel to 40 fps so far and indeed I was surprised that the game speed travel so low for me. So this is the reason why, maybe some testers can run the game exactly on 40 fps or so (differently to me I believe) so they cannot make the bar grown in any cases. The weird is that for some testers the game run like my computer so the bar width work just okay. Not sure why the game is running so slow but I can give you this info: Game resolution is 1280x1024 (my monitor resolution is 1024x600) I am using OGG Theora video plugin done by scotch. I am not doing anything special in my repeatedly executes only a bunch of "IsTimeExpired" to check some timers status only, nothing more. In repeatedly execute always I have something like this:

Code: ags

if (video != null)
{
  video.DrawEx(DsScene, 158., 95., 0., 0., 0., RtScreen);
  video.NextFrame();
}

I have try to set the game speed to be 10fps at start of the game and I can see the game a little choppy but not that much?! (which I think it's weird or not?!) The thing is that for me and for some testers the script that I showed you before work as it should be, it work everything fine. But I need to understand how can I fix this problem for other computers too. I also can say that the button width doesn't grown more than the little portion on a powerful computer. If it is something about the ratio how can I fix it? Or better how the game can recognize the proper speed to use according with the computer?


@morganw:
I would like to try out to use your script and I will let you know how does it run for me (and for the other testers too). It might could be a solution (I hope), thanks in advance for the time you spent to do this for me. I will let you know as soon.


@Crimson Wizard:
Do you have any idea on how can this problem can be solved so far? Any kind of ideas is okay.

@Khris:
At the moment the parts regarding to increase +2 unity and decrease -1 unity the button width it's not really what I am doing at the moment. I said in that way just to let people understand what I am trying to achieve. So in my final script I am increase the width by +6 unity and decrease it by -3 unity which is working/looking good (for me and for some other testers) and the timer delay it's still set to be 3. With these value it's not really easy to increase the button width, but, of course still possible to see the button width that grown til his max value while pushing the button repeatedly. The main problem is that for some testers no matter how fast they push the button, they could only see a really small portion of the button width that increase. They are not be able to make it grown more than this small portion. So I don't know can I fix this problem... How can I do something like this which is working well for each computer? However I didn't set the game speed manually throught the script. So I think it is set to be with default value 40 fps I believe. I have called the debug command into the game_start and it travel in this way: 1, 5, 10, 12, 11, 12, 11, 12, 10, 6, 8, 9, 12, 10, 11, 13... and my graphic driver is set to be software renderer. (which I don't know if that make a difference)



@morganw
Probably you are more than right. "the built-in timers are linked to game ticks and the time between ticks can increase depending on computer load" this would be the reason why on some computer it work differently. Your idea to make a custom delta time seems cute but how do you achieve something like this? Also, regarding your other idea I didn't understand at all.


I am truly glad that you guys are helping me with this problem, I just wish to make it work good for each computers...

I have a "button bar" which his width increase anytime you click another button. I have a working script which in some computers works fine but for other computers it doesn't work very well. I figure it out that (maybe) it's regarding the game speed and how certain computers handle the game speed and process the mouse clicks. I just wish to understand how can I fix this script so to make this working very well for each computer. I will try to explain you what I would like to do.
1) Click the button increase the "button bar" width +2 unity
2) Set timer to decrease -1 unity the "button bar" width
The main goal is to click repeatedly fast the button as you can to increase the "button bar" width. As I explained previously the script is working fine but for some computers. For other computers you simply cannot increase the "button bar" width because (I believe) the timer expired very much fast. So I really don't have a clue on how can I solve this problem. I would need any of your advice if you don't mind.
Here is the script:

Code: ags

int ButtonClicked, Buttonlength;

function repeatedly_execute() 
{
  if (IsTimerExpired(5)) // decrease width "button bar" 
  {
    if (ButtonClicked != 0) {ButtonClicked --;}
    if (ButtonClicked <= 0) {ButtonClicked = 0;}
    SetTimer(5, 3);
  }
  Buttonlength = FloatToInt ((IntToFloat (ButtonClicked)/159.) * IntToFloat(Game.SpriteWidth[BtnBar.Graphic]));
  BtnBar.Width = Buttonlength;
}

function ButtonPush_OnClick(GUIControl *control, MouseButton button) // increase width
{
  if (button == eMouseLeft)
  {
    if (BtnBar.Width < 585) 
    {
      ButtonClicked += 2;
      SetTimer(5, 3);
    }
    else // button bar has reached the full width
    {

    }
  }
}

Please any kind of help is truly appreciated.

Alright, thanks for all your kind help Crimson Wizard, I much appreciate it.

[fullscreen]

That's because on second screenshot it runs fullscreen - there is no "W" letter after resolution. Your monitor/gfx card supports 1024x600 fullscreen mode.
Since you were running without debugger AGS uses an option from Preferences: "When running without debugger". It was probably either "fullscreen" or "use config".

Thanks, I think that I have miss this option about Preferences before.

The only reason I can think of is that software renderer just cannot create windows of necessary size, and it switch to other renderers. I am not sure why OpenGL though, on Windows it should try Direct3D 9 first, maybe it is also not well supported on your notebook?

We may know more if you turn logging on. If you open acsetup.cfg and put

[misc]
log=1

then run the game, it should write the log into ".ags" folder inside your usual saved games folder.

Yes, I believe that this is what happening at the moment.
Direct3D 9 it doesn't seems to be supported very well from this netbook too.
However, this is the report from the log document so far.


Adventure Game Studio v3.4 Interpreter
Copyright (c) 1999-2011 Chris Jones and 2011-2017 others
ACI version 3.4.1.10

Installing exception handler
Initializing allegro
Reading configuration
Looking for game data file
Located game data file: c:/Users/Vincent/DOCUME~1/FMV/_Debug/FMV.exe

Opened game data file: game28.dta
Game data version: 49
Compiled with: 3.4.1.10
Setting up window
Initializing TTF renderer
Initializing mouse: number of buttons reported is 5
Checking memory
Data directory: c:/Users/Vincent/DOCUME~1/FMV/_Debug
Optional install directory: Compiled\Windows
Optional audio directory: AudioCache
Optional voice-over directory: Speech
Voice pack was not found, but voice installation directory is defined: enabling voice-over.
Initializing keyboard
Install timer
Initialize sound drivers
Sound settings: digital driver ID: 'AXA ' (0x41584120), MIDI driver ID: 'Auto' (0xffffffff)
Installed digital driver ID: 'AXA ' (0x41584120), MIDI driver ID: 'W32M' (0x5733324d)
Install exit handler
Initialize path finder library
Load game data
Game GUI version: 118
Requested script API: v3.4.1 (5), compat level: v3.4.0 (4)
Built library path: ags_theora.dll
Plugin 'ags_theora' loading succeeded, resolving imports...
Game title: 'FMV'
Checking for disk space
Initializing MOD/XM player
Initializing resolution settings
Game native resolution: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit)
Device display resolution: 1024 x 600
Game settings: windowed = yes, screen def: scaling, screen size: 1024 x 600, match device ratio: ignore, game scale: max_round
Using graphics factory: Software
Created graphics driver: Software renderer
Supported gfx modes (32-bit):
   320x200;320x240;400x300;512x384;640x400;640x480;800x600;1024x600;
   
Attempting to find nearest supported resolution for screen size 711 x 569 (32-bit) windowed
Maximal allowed window size: 1024 x 569
Attempt to switch gfx mode to 711 x 569 (32-bit) windowed
Failed to init gfx mode. Error: Unable to find a suitable graphics driver
Attempt to switch gfx mode to 1024 x 600 (32-bit) windowed
Failed to init gfx mode. Error: Resolution not supported
Built library path: d3d9.dll
Using graphics factory: D3D9
Created graphics driver: Direct3D 9
Supported gfx modes (32-bit):
   320x200;320x240;400x300;512x384;640x400;640x480;800x600;1024x600;
   
Attempting to find nearest supported resolution for screen size 711 x 569 (32-bit) windowed
Maximal allowed window size: 1024 x 569
Attempt to switch gfx mode to 711 x 569 (32-bit) windowed
Failed to init gfx mode. Error: Failed to create Direct3D Device: 0x8876086C
Attempt to switch gfx mode to 1024 x 600 (32-bit) windowed
Failed to init gfx mode. Error: Failed to create Direct3D Device: 0x8876086C
Using graphics factory: OGL
Created graphics driver: OpenGL
Supported gfx modes (32-bit):
   320x200;320x240;400x300;512x384;640x400;640x480;800x600;1024x600;
   
Attempting to find nearest supported resolution for screen size 711 x 569 (32-bit) windowed
Maximal allowed window size: 1024 x 569
Attempt to switch gfx mode to 711 x 569 (32-bit) windowed
Running OpenGL: 1.4.0 - Build 8.14.10.2230
WARNING: OpenGL extension 'GL_EXT_framebuffer_object' not supported, rendering to texture mode will be disabled.
WARNING: OpenGL 3.0 or higher is required for tinting shader.
ERROR: OpenGL: Tinting program's fragment shader failed to compile:
----------------------------------------
ERROR: 0:1: '' :  Version number not supported by GL2
ERROR: 0:2: 'out' : syntax error parse error

----------------------------------------
ERROR: OpenGL: Lighting program's fragment shader failed to compile:
----------------------------------------
ERROR: 0:1: '' :  Version number not supported by GL2
ERROR: 0:2: 'out' : syntax error parse error

----------------------------------------
Succeeded. Using gfx mode 711 x 569 (32-bit) windowed
Render frame set, render dest (0, 0, 710, 567 : 711 x 568)
Requested gfx filter: StdScale
Graphics filter set: 'StdScale', filter dest (0, 0, 710, 567 : 711 x 568)
Using gfx filter: StdScale
Mouse control: off, base: 1.000000, speed: 1.000000
Mouse confined: (0,0)-(710,567) (711x568)
Check for preload image
Initialize sprites
Initialize game settings
Prepare to start game
Audio is processed on the main thread
Checking replay status
Engine initialization complete
Starting game
***** ENGINE HAS SHUTDOWN

Sure, this is quite logical for me too but why in the second screenshot it get a different scaled?

First screenshot is 758x569 and the second one is 1024x600.
By the way I understand that there is no way for me to fix this. If I do a resolution higher than 800x600 it display OpenGL no matter what.

At the moment I am using a netbook it has a screen resolution of 1024x600.

I wonder why on your first screenshot the window is smaller than the size of the game.

This is a good question indeed, I really don't know why. But the screenshots were taken at the same game testing with same resolution. One runned by F5 and the other by ctrl+F5.

In theory, software renderer may fail to create a window of certain size, in which case it may try other renderers.

If I try other renderers the game look slowly into the editor and from the exe file too. But software renderer seems to go much smoothly to my netbook.

You mean acsetup.cfg? It's just showing this inside the document.
[graphics]
render_at_screenres=0
[language]
translation=

This is looking incomplete altought I am using to delete the folder of the savedgame and to re build the exe file anytime.

Ok I think I found out the problem maybe...

So the first thing that I do when I open a new project is to go to the default panel in the editor and change the graphic driver to be Software renderer.

Now, if I set the resolution of the game to be lower than 800x600 (and doing Build-> Build exe) it keep the changes to be software renderer when I test the game into the editor by pressing F5. But if I set it to be 800x600 it display OpenGL...

:EDIT: I have just re done in this way and it is worked fine this time.

I believe that it worked because the resolution of the game was lower than 800x600.

Grazie mille Alan,
Ti auguro un felice anno nuovo anche a te e congratulazioni per questa nuova versione di Ags Draconian!
Now Downloading!

Just one shot in the dark, after you've deleted the whole script go to build -> rebuild all files and it should compile again.

Edit: Crimson Wizard much faster.

Also, it is strange that there were differences when you run with debugger and without one, because in theory it should work the same.

Yes in theory both of the way should work the same way as I thought. I was a kind of surprised that they were working differently at all but I am not sure though how to reproduce this. Maybe by changing the graphic driver without re build the exe file?  So maybe if you press F5 it show OpenGl but ctrl+F5 it show as you have setted the graphic driver without re build the exe file.

I don't know because when I first open a new project I change graphic driver into the default panel in the editor to be software renderer, I do build -> rebuild all files then build -> build Exe, I run the game into the editor but anyway it is still show OpenGL as graphic driver...

:EDIT: I have just re done in this way and it is worked fine this time.

Thanks Crimson Wizard for answering.

At the moment I am using Ags 3.4.1 rc3.
I have to say that your advice to use this debug command have been very useful. So the first thing that I do when I open a new project is to go to the default panel in the editor and change the graphic driver to be Software renderer and then I run the game normally into the editor by pressing F5 and this is what I get so far.


I don't know why it is setted to be OpenGL when I just changed to be Software renderer before. Also into the "acsetup" it is setted as driver=Software.

If I do exactly the same thing by pressing ctrl+F5 by running with the debugger then I get it right as it should be.

Good morning to all AGSer!

Recently I discovered a minor issue that I am sure it is regarding my computer but at the moment I don't know why this is happening and I would like to know if I can fix it somehow. So, if I start a new project into Ags (no matter which graphic driver I choose from the default panel) the game seems to go slowly into the editor. But if I run the game from the exe file (with software renderer) then the game run as it should do. Also I found out that if I do (ctrl+F5) run the game without debugger then the game go fine like when I run it from the exe file. So I am wonder why into the editor the game look slowly? There is a way for me to fix this?