Topics

['please register' nag screen]

Yeah, that's right...

... A BIG SECRET.

...

And you thought no one would ever check the bottom of the changes.txt file included with all copies of the AGS Editor:

REVISION 10.07.97
NOTE: You will need to re-compile any games you made with any versions
before revision 10.07.97.A.
- added StartPos option to INI file, to define where the man starts on
   the first screen. Also fixed the jump which happened when he first moved
   from the beginning.
- removed the 'please register' nag screen, since I've decided that the
   Adventure Creator is now swap-ware (see LICENSE.TXT for info).

VERSION 1.00, FEBRUARY 1997
Original release.

What is the meaning of this?! I thought we were friends... why did you try to sell AC in the beginning?! :'(

[Update]

I was just wondering what's slower to have: 100 graphic overlays moving around on the screen or 100 objects moving around on the screen? Let's say that all graphic overlays and all objects would be based on the same sprite. Also, perhaps 100 characters would be another option?

I guess I could always program a demo and let people test it, huh?

---

Update: Oh, I ran into a problem. Looks like I can only do 20 overlays at a time?! That's nonsense! I need at least 150

How am I supposed to push the limits of AGS with so few, sheesh!

Is there any way to make the mouse cursor move a lot slower? And also, make it constant, because when one moves the mouse a lot faster, ther cursor moves faster, too.

For those, who don't know about it...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/31st_G8_summit

Any comments, thoughts about poverty in Africa and Global warming?

I found this quite interesting...

Development of a joint declaration on efforts to tackle global warming has been much less successful, principally because of a hardening of the US position of refusing to recognize the existence of global warming. The other G8 nations â€" France, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada and the United Kingdom â€" have ratified the Kyoto Protocol and are committed to reducing their carbon dioxide emissions by 2010. Hopes had been raised that the unprecedented joint declaration by the G8 countries Academy of Sciences - including the US National Academy of Sciences - on the need for urgent action on global warming would help moderate the US negotiating position. Instead, the US has

    * Removed all reference to the fact that climate change is a 'serious threat to human health and to ecosystems';
    * Deleted any suggestion that global warming has already started;
    * Expunged any suggestion that human activity was to blame for climate change.

Hmm...

Hey guys,

I was wondering if we could work together to get a cutscene mechanism to so that you don't have to put StartCutscene(eSkip...); and EndCutscene(); in every single bit of cutscene. Hopefully if we get something working, we can put it in the Technical Archive!

This is what I've got so far:

Code: ags

bool cutscene = false;
function repeatedly_execute_always() {
  if(!cutscene && !IsInterfaceEnabled()) {
    cutscene = true;
    StartCutscene(eSkip...);
  }
  else if(cutscene && IsInterfaceEnabled()) {
    EndCutscene();
    cutscene = false;
  }
}

It actually works pretty well, but up to the point when you start a dialog, because then what it does is skip the whole dialog. The options do show up, but when you click on them nothing is displayed, like the game is frozen waiting for you to stop the dialog. Once you stop dialog, then the game goes back to normal.

So, I'm thinking two things: Either a way to never start cut-scene when a dialog begins, or what I really wanted was to skip dialog conversations when you press Esc, which would be super nice.

Help!

[1. A better global/room message editor.]

Hey, I think we need the following:

1. A better global/room message editor.

First, I don't think there's any reason why the global message editor and the room message editor should work differently. It would be nice to set characters to say global messages, and have a display next message after this option. And no double clicky on the messages. how about a list at the bottom with all the messages, and a textbox on the top to write them?

Now, as for the rooms message editor, I think it should be a subtree in the room editor branch just like the global messages, and take up the whole screen so that you can easily edit the messages without going to a separate screen that blocks the dialog while you're scripting. Why? because sometimes I'm scripting and I type Display( and then I have to switch back to the general editor, click on the abc, then find the message, then close that window, and then switch back. If I don't close the window, then I think I can't switch to the script editor or something.

2. Enum support on dialog scripts

Man, it would be nice because now days instead of using numbers for global ints, I'm using enums... so I do things like SetGlobalInt(eBlah, eJunk), and it would be nice to do a set-globalint eBlah eJunk instead of doing a run-script and then doing it in code.

3. Block check
It would be nice to check if you're blocking somehow, because then I could do something like this on repeatedly_execute always:

Code: ags

if(!cutscene && Blocking()) {
  StartCutscene(eSkip..);
  cutscene = true;
}
else if(cutscene && !Blocking()) {
  EndCutscene();
  cutscene = false;
}

And bam! that takes care of skipping everything for good

What do you think?

This is kind of a wild question...

Can the interpreter be ported to Java? and if so, can you EvilTypeGuy do it? (if you know Java, that is.)

I want to ignore the player character's scrolling completely for this thing I'm working on where when I move the mouse to the corner of the screen the character also moves, but I want it to move through setviewports instead of the player character's room-scrolling abilities...

The problem is that they both collide, like I can never lose control of the character's scrolling.

http://www.trumgottist.com/crowsnest/

When did that happen?

---
Stop whining, Custard! Or else I'll eat ya.

This should be a sticky, because I'm sure is going to ask this and I think it's  important.

What are the key versions of AGS? That is, versions that drop an important feature and so on.

I remember the following:

2.2 - Last version with the original scripting system (I think? I'm not really sure. I used it to work on the old rob blanc games for the windows version, though!)
2.31 - Last DOS editor
2.4b - Last version that supports graphical scripts
2.62 - Last version with the original scripting system
2.7 - Object-oriented scripting and beyond!

Any more? Where can I get these, anyway? Basically I'm reinstalling everything on my computer and I want to have these in my AGS folder, because they're useful from time to time.

Finally, this is the game you saw a preview of at the One Room, One Week competition last month, and I finally got around to finishing it. it was a tough game to get scripted and such, but anyway, enjoy!


Download

I have this inventory where there are no buttons. I want the user to right-click to select the cursor mode, Sierra style. I can get it to right click on the GUI itself and on top of a inventory item, but on top of the inventory box nothing happens! Can anyone offer a solution to this? (2.7 solution is fine).

While we're at it, when you handle custom inventory clicks in script, how do you set the cursor mode to active inventory? I have:

Code: ags

else if (button == eMouseLeftInv) {
  if(mouse.Mode == eModeInteract) player.ActiveInventory = inventory[game.inv_activated];
  else inventory[game.inv_activated].RunInteraction(mouse.Mode);
}

... on my on_mouse_click, but that's not doing the trick.

Hey, is there any way to check if a cutscene is running? This would be for the case that every time there is a cutscene you want to do something like turn an object/character off or change or hide the cursor.

For example, I have a StartCutscene(eSkipetcetc); in a bunch of places, but now I've decided that everytime that hapens I want to change the cursor to look like um... let's say a cookie (a biscuit in non-American). I would have to add a ChangeImageCursor() or whatever before or after every startcutscene and end cutscene, and that's a lot more lines of code!

How can one avoid this? is there a funciton I missed? if not, can one be made? or can we have thing added to on_event() like eStartCutscene and eEndCutscene?

Looks like Grumpy Gamer (aka Ron Gilbert, father of the good adventure games) is going to England, and maybe it's time you guys host Brittens or something if you want to meet him.

More info: http://grumpygamer.com/6425809

Puma, or someone:

I was wondering what the hidden characters for the AGS fonts are. For example, I screwed up on commenting the wrong script line and I ended up with the following message on the screen: 

That's right, I got a little face that looked like  , so I'd like to use that kind of stuff! I think it should be documented too.

Hey, this might be something for ags 2.8 or ags 2.71 or whatever:

On the properties, I know you can have a string, boolean, or integer to set the values, but what if you could also point to characters, objects, and inventory items?

Here's an example of how this is useful: Let's say that characters can get married. There could be a property that states who the character is married to. Yes, I'm aware that you can also use numbers to identify characters, but you always have to think "oh, what's 7 again? Oh, that's Tim!" and such....

Some programming languages allow you to do the following gimmick:

Code: ags

int *a;
(...)
if(a && *a > 5) {}

But I tried doing something similar on AGS and it broke! does it not have some sort of "short-circuit" mechanism? or do I have to do it this way:

Code: ags

if(a){
  if(*a >5) {}
}

Actually, what I did had nothing to do with pointer, what I checked for was if a property did not have a certain value and then if the player had the inventory with the property value... which broke when I didn't set a value to the property (default being -1)

[Psychonauts PC demo available for download]

The game is out! At least in the United States. PS2 version coming out the 21st of June.

Formerly known as the Psychonauts PC demo available for download thread

----

For those of you who have a PC and broadband, you might want to check out the demo for the excellent game Psychonauts. It's 457 MB big, and you can download it from:

http://www.fileshack.com/file.x?fid=6682 (registration required)
http://dlx.gamespot.com/pc/psychonauts/moreinfo_6121978.html (registration required)
http://www.filerush.com/download.php?target=PsychonautsDemoInstaller.exe (Bittorrent but no registration)
http://www.3dgamers.com/dlselect/games/psychonauts/psychonautsdemoinstaller.exe.html (Bitorrent but no registration)

END OF TAPE

Hey, guys, just to let you know that you should participate on this:

http://www.psychoportals.com/

It's unfortunately for US Residents (and people who live in BC) [edit: um... I meant DC] only, and you have to be at least 13...

Basically it's this Psychonauts promotion thing going on April 16 where oou solve puzzles as a team or something like that. You can win prizes like Psychonauts itslef, or even an entertainment system (hopufully that means a home theater of some kind). All the info is in the page, so check it out.

And remember, "if you're not a Psychonaut, then you might as well be dead."