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Okay, I'm working on this project right now where I have a bunch of stats recorded in a struct/array and I want to copy them all instantly to an array that uses the same stats, but I don't know how.

Although my knowledge of the terms is not exactly ideal, I can give a general idea.  Basically, I have a struct MyStatsStruct and arrays mychar[30] and battchar[10].

In a battle, the battchar stats act as dummies, allowing the characters to be in a different order and allowing some automation of functions.

So, let's say MyStatsStruct includes the properties hp, hpmax, spdmax, spd, sp, spmax, etc.  I first check which characters are first, second, third and fourth in the roster, and then set the stats of each dummy to that of the corresponding character using aditional "id" property.

So, for example, if battchar[1].id = 4, then I set battchar's hp hpmax, and so on to be equal to mychar[4].

Well, I can do this manually so that each of the 40 stats or so is copied from mychar to battchar accordingly, but this is going to be very unweildy very quickly.  Both arrays already share the same struct.  battchar has properties .hp, .hpmax, .sp, .spmax etc, as does mychar.

What I am looking for is a way to copy all of the stats from one array to another that shares the same properties.  I can only see it in dos language, but there it would look like:

battchar[1].* = mychar[4].*;

Is this possible?  How can I accomplish this, and am I even going about it in a way that AGS will interpret correctly?

Thanks

I can't remember how I voted now, though I'm surprised Gladiator didn't get more votes.  It had a lot of substance.

As far as balloonface and puzzles, I don't really understand how it could be said to not have any puzzles.  At first, there is no way to progress.  Through interacting with the interface and following the next logical steps, you manage to progress.  Just because you don't use the whistle on the buiscuits doesn't mean it's not a puzzle.  I can't recall who I voted for on music, I wouldn't have voted on Balloonface because of music "quality" or craftsmanship, but on ambient feeling.  It just fit the game pefectly, made the whole thing feel a bit like an avante garde art instalation.  Technical proficiency is important, but these aren't coffee tables, they're games, and that means sometimes style should win over substance.

Not that substance isn't good too

Yes, it should--I actually found it after my last post.  I have a better idea of how these things work after reading your explanation, although it still seems as if there is a lot for me to learn.

Thanks for all the help, I think I can proceed now.

Wow, I've done a lot of stuff with Global ints, that I can recognize, and the idea behind having script modules I understand, but most of the language here is waayyy over my head.  I am familiar with the terms, struct, module, function, in relation to AGS, but I have no idea how they work or how to make them do things (apart from the absolute basic that modules are like stapled papers of code, structs store things and functions perform actions).

Is there a guide to all this for absolute idiots that somehow relates to AGS?  Something that I could use as a reference as much as anything?  I see nothing in the Knowledge base (though I may not be searching right) and very little in the instructions.

Thank you and any help is appreciated.

Just out of curiousity, the gladitorial arena in Gladiator Quest, that is a room, isn't it?  It seems to be at least a 2 room game, which is a really odd reason to be disqualified, but I just want to be sure about what I could vote on.

Is there an upward limit on imports into the script header before the game will start to slow down?

I don't know that there is a hard limit.  If there is it's quite high as I have never encountered it.   In any case it won't have any afect on game speed unless you consume too much memory, cpu, and/other other resources at run time.

Good, that pretty much answers it, thanks.

Reason being that I am working on an RPG and I have already set aside all 500 global ints ... I may be importing several hundred ints to the script header--is this going to be a problem, and if so, is there an easier way?

If it were me I would make a script module to do this.  It's easier and cleaner.

Well, I am terrible at complicated scripting (I can never remember even the simplest of commands, my help-file is always open), but I have looked into modules.  They're relatively new, I'm guessing? 

You seem to be suggesting here,however that modules would help me store stats, and that would be cleaner than global ints.  I can see how they would allow me to process stats, say in a battle system, or how they could allow me to adjust stats within the game, but I'd still be saving those stats to either globalints or my own declared variables, wouldn't I?  Presumably when it isn't something like a battle system that requires global functions, it shouldn't matter where I declare my variables, or am I wrong?

Thanks for your advice so far , the more I glean from these forums the easier it will be .

Also, I am going to have a group inventory which will allow characters to hold a maximum of 99 of each item...

From what you describe it sounds like you are going to have 99 seperate inventory items for each article such as a helmet or whatever.    Each inventory item a character can carry is represented by an int variable which can be set to whatever value you wish.  See "Character.InventoryQuantity" in the manual. 

Thanks for the heads up.  I don't think I was quite clear enough about my question, I did know how to add in various quantities, I'm just used to character[blah].inv += stuff, not the object orientated way.  I was just asking if having say 99 quantity of a large number of inventory items would be a memory issue.  I definately did not know about character.inventoryQuantity in the new language, and I wouldn't have necessarily understood it's functionality for stores and things, if you hadn't pointed it out, thanks muchly.

I dunno if this is beginner or normal, but something tells me it may be in a part of the manual I just haven't found.  And I am just beginning this project after all.

Firstly, for those who may chide me for making a long game as my first AGS project, this is definately not my first project.

Now questions:

Is there an upward limit on imports into the script header before the game will start to slow down?

Reason being that I am working on an RPG and I have already set aside all 500 global ints for statistics (most of which will be invisible to the character, but are necessary for the skill/experience gaining systems for each of the characters)--in fact, I may theoretically need more than 500 stats.  On top of that, I will need several dozen other minor properties (I suppose these will be ints for the header) and then I will need more ints to store everything that changes in each room (such as treasures taken, characters whose diolog changes as the plot proceeds, etc).  I have calculated that I may be importing several hundred ints to the script header--is this going to be a problem, and if so, is there an easier way?

Also, I am going to have a group inventory which will allow characters to hold a maximum of 99 of each item, allowing for numerous potions, or extra helmets to sell, or what have you. I think I know how to script this (just to a check of number of items and an if statement/else, right?) but will this push the limits of the run-time?  Is there any problem with memory should a character have say, 99 of every item and say 300 different items?  This is unlikely to happen, even if I do get the game finished, as there will be many items of which there is only one, but I may as well find out now what hidden limits there are.  I have already abandoned a very long game before nearly 90% through because of AGS limits (that have since been increased, but then, it's a long story).

Well, we all know they're only sporatically funny, but the game does look like a hoot (unless this is now old news):

http://www.homestarrunner.com/pqtrailer.html

Well, those who know me might know me as the second longest running unregistered user in AGS history.  Others might know me as the guy who isn't doing anything on the games he's working on.

Well, now the main reason for not helping others is finished.  I have finished editing a video of Juggling from the UVIC Juggling club.  It's about 3-4 years in the making, and a real artistic piece, exploring new patterns, tricks and ideas about juggling.  It is very entertaining and might break a few stereotypes about jugglers.  It is aimed at the juggler-hobbiest, but it is entertaining enough on its own, due to editing, music, and the unusual visuals.

The low quality trailer is available from this address:

http://www.vicfootbag.com/vicjuggle/SemiStreet/

Now, if God Quest or Mallorie O'Mussey needs my work, and is willing to discuss exactly what they need of me, I'm willing to help.

But check out the trailer, it's fun.

I think this is better when you read it in a python-esque complaint-letter way.

I just had to say something about people posting pointless posts to complain about people posting.  I'm tired of it.  When we offer unofficial particular problems with the way people post--using endless alliteration, capital letters, pointless posting of petty bandwidth wastes, I think it wastes bandwidth.  It think if anyone points out a pointless post that proferrs pointed commentary over people's pointed posts, they should be punished.

I mean, whatever purpose, when a post complaing about the wasted ways people post pointlessly or people's typos, trancends two pages, the pointless posts have taken too much space for spaced out banter.  It becomes mindless moping mascurading as poweful polemics, or becomes being clever for the sake of being clever.

Sometimes it seems like people who point out pointless problems with pointless posts are themselves more pointless than the pointless posts they mean to point to.  Rather than release really random complaints complaining over people's posts, it would become less costly to be constructive quietly, than argue endlessly uselessly, purposelessly in "purple prose."

I hope sincerely that settles things.

Firstly I appologize if this is Gen Gen material, but I think it fits here.

Here's the scoop.

As some people know I've been working on a few games, for myself and others.  I'm the weakest link on Neole's God game, one of the main writers for the team challenge team 5 game (which is still running), and the creator of Edge of Reality (now with improvements, about 85% done).

This summer I started a new *short* project which is currently 60% done.  It should be finished by the end of September (I meant to finish it in 2 weeks... and then it expanded, and expanded).  The concept was simple.  I do a juggling/comedy show starring myself as a slightly mad goofball called Drake Blakely with a stuffed sidekick named Kropkin the Communist Penguin.  I thought they were great characters, and decided to make a game based on them for Kids in my show.  Naturally, the game would be 100% voice acted--since I would be playing my own character.

Well, the game is funny, the plot is pretty good, the puzzles are challenging but not impossible, and the voice acting has gotten good reviews.  I did a lot of work stretching my voice and finding good actors from my family and friends.  The graphics are generally poor, save my young brother's pretty good anime characters (which I messed up a bit by shrinking).

The game is worth playing, especially with the voice pack.  But here's the problem.  Right now the game is 45 megs uncompressed.  No big deal.  But since this was always meant to be given out to kids on a CD, I have gone nuts with descriptions and voice.  The voice pack is now around 450 megs, and should reach nearly 700 by the time I'm done.  I have a lot of already recorded dialog yet to put in, and a large amount of myself yet to record (but I write and speak it more or less simultaneously, knowing the characters and plot).

So.  I don't want to extend the finish date of this or Edge of Reality by coming up with a whole new demo, but I also want people to be able to see the voice, actions and puzzles interacting before they download.  Would people download 700 megs sight unseen (or unheard in this case) from a relitively accomplished AGSer (or me)?  How do I even upload such a project?  Would people download the game without sound and allow themselves to guess how much better it is with sound?  

Any suggestions?

Thanks for any and all help, especially from fellows (and non-fellows) who know me.

Doddleeedoo!

This is a problem I never had before, and now, suddenly, it's occuring.

My game features a team of characters, one following the other everywhere except in a few specific locations.  I used to be able to turn off this following, but now, there's an illegal exception every time I do.  I checked global scripts, and I can't find any contradictions (like an "always follow" script of some kind).  But the game always crashes at the exact line where I release following (the character is char 1, no doubt possible, I'm passing FollowCharacter (1, -1) as the exact line, with ; etc, of course).  I have tested multiple rooms and situations.

I can't copy and paste the error message box on this machine, but I can write it down now--know, though, that on this same machine, I was able to Followcharacter (1, -1) before:

An exception 0xC0000005 occured in ACWIN.EXE at EIP = 0x004468E0; program pointer is +6, ACI version 2.55.560, gtags (4,0)

AGS cannot continue (blah blah blah, you know this bit)

(Room 63 script line 67)  [that's the line where I put the FollowCharacter script]



What can I do??

EDIT: it works!!!!

I haven't tested this yet, but it appears to be accurate so far (did what he said):

"Press CTRL+K to go to General Preferences (Or click the Edit menu/Preferences/General).

Change the "Interpolation" box to 'Nearest Neighbor' for non-antialiased edges when using the free transform tool and other similar tools etc."


Thanks for the tip, Esseb.  Took me a looong time, but I found that little quote.

Is it just me, or is photoshop terrible for pixel art?

I'm trying to make a juggling character for a game I'm making (it stars the character I play in a real-life juggling show), which involves a rotating chainsaw, sword and juggling ball.

Unfortunately, paint doesn't handle simple rotation well--photoshop is the only program I have which allows mutliple layers for adjusting the trajectory of each object, but it has a problem.  Anti-alias! What a bummer for any transparant background--since shades of the background are replicated around the edge of every manipulated object, even when on an entirely different layer.

I have scoured the help file's index and seach engine, turned off anti-alias on every single available menu (for each major tool), but still it leaves those little colour lines all over my artwork, effectively ruining it.  And I can't stand the action of having to re-outline everything every time I move it (the colour selector can't select the difference between the anti-aliased colour and black even at tolerance 10, meaning selecting all the colour at once is virtually impossible without leaving even more work than with the pixel-by-pixel replacement.

So my question to all you great AGS artists is this: is there any way to turn off anti-alias when doing things like rotation, effects, etc?  If so, how?  If not, any suggestions on an equally robust program that will actually do what I want?  I just want to be able to rotate objects to precise co-ordinates without them getting little mixed colour outlines.

Thanks to all and any who can help.

EDIT: Bah!  The two above posts were finished while I was writing this one.
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There is no animation in your posted script.

If the animation is run *before* the walking script, animation will run before.

If the animation is run *after* the walking script, the animation will run after.

You must have created an animation first to play, which is handled through views.

I suggest you check out the script of the demo game to see how scripting is done and read through bits of the manual.  This is not an insult.  The manual is a really useful resource, and we can't possibly help you as much as it can (especially since at this point, there are a lot of fundamentals to cover).

Also, please read the "Read First" post at the top of this page as it has helpful hints as what to do when you need help.

Welcome aboard matey!

Why is it that every time women start a thread about women, guys have to charge into the "I like sex with big-breasted bisexuals" and "ugly chicks use computers" stuff? (   ) Frankly, having a number of friends that are bisexual female computer users, I can say that they are neither ugly nor oversexed exhibishionist cheerleaders (though "But I'm A Cheerleader" *is* popular movie-- and a few of them are "Radical Cheerleaders" -- which is to say the coolest group in the world).  I mean, until you had met every woman in existence, how would you know what any particular strata looked like?

Anyway, sorry about this, it was meant to sound more tongue-in-cheek than it probably did.  Carry on (Cabbie?)

Use shakescreen.

That's the answer.

ShakeScreenBackground might work even better though.

If you still don't understand, try out some basic scripting first, it's really quite straightforward when you get into it.

Also, animations can be done by a series of sprites or by moving objects and characters about in the room.  Learn the MoveCharacter/MoveObject commands, setting transparancy etc.  You can search for all these terms in the help file, which is really useful.

Believe it or not, this is about AGS (WOW!)

I've been working on a new game (don't worry all 3 or 2 of the fans, Edge is still rollin' along), a short one which should be ready in a couple weeks (no hints, but it's about a certain juggler and communist penguin) and I just wanted to point out how great AGS really is.

Since animator and walkable areas issues prevent me from upgrading for Edge of Reality (animations changed, or maybe a bug I was harnessing the power of was eliminiated) from version 2.22 (or whatever), I haven't really tried an upgraded version apart from tinkering with my psychotic nightmare game (which I believe about 3 people played).

But the latest version of AGS makes me PEE! It is fantastic!  Chris Jones has come up with so many huge improvements in a very short period of time.  Just think of all the new features that enter in one month alone!

First, I went in, looked at the engine, tried to find bits like the dialogue editor (faster), the views editor (much faster--and you can click through views instead of having to go back and forward tediously), the rooms editor (rooms with names so I actually know what the room is? That's craaazy!), the interactions editor (Conditionals rock!), and script editor (WHAT? It fills in my script *for me*?  That'll save the constant referents back to the help file.  Hell, why bother scripting at all--the engine does it for you).

I was amazed.

So then, I'm typing in co-ordinates for rooms, and I check the forums because miraculously, the room I imported at 320 x 200 remained proportional when I upgraded the game to 640 x 480 -- I mean, that has got to be an error that will disappear later, right?  It can't all have worked so beautifully and smothly, right?  Well I never bothered asking, because I read about the 'right-click to save room co-ordinates to the clipboard' feature, and I literally died.  I'm dead now as I write this.  I believe my left arm has become infested with those flesh eating insects the medics are all using these days.   The one most difficult and painstaking part of room interactions has been fixed.  And that only barely touches into the realm of regions, THOUSANDS of text colours, and easy "new room" feature (plus simple voice acting options, etc).

ARRRGGHH!! This engine is TOO GOOD!!!

Chris Jones, you are insane.  I am going to call the police, seriously, man, really, going to call up MI5 or Scotland Yard or the local constabulary and have you comitted because your are insane.  As soon as this death thing heals.

I really hope my girfriend is a necrophiliac.

I consider this AGS general chat, because it refers directly into AGS game making--especially after that post about ambient sound.

http://www.sounddogs.com/start.asp

There is some kind of payment system, but darned to heb if I had to pay so far.  Probably only accounts for certain libraries.  But just go to the search, type in the sound you want to find and see why this is my favourite sound download imporium.

Also, would have been vastly useful for my film class.