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Glad some people thought about it

On scale2x: "It is also used in some closed source projects (which use rewritten implementations due the license restrictions)"

I really like this engine and the community. I don't post here a lot, barely do actually, but hope to get this message out.

I was looking at older games, and "game-runners" like dosbox or scummvm. Both involve some sort of neat looking "scalars" like advmame2x, advmame3x, wich make pixely graphics look NEAT (that is no more pixels). I've seen that both use the same names, therefore there is an algorithm common to both, found someplace else. I don't know where to find it, but I believe is burried into the dosbox sourcecode for example. I wonder if AGS could use this feature. It's more a question of is it nice to have something like that and to implement it, rather than "gimme the thing."

This page gives some screenshots to see diffrences betwen the scalars offered by dosbox (scummvm has twice as more)
http://www.osnanet.de/dermelch/dosbox.html

And a second feature. I know that AGS has certain limitations with rooms, items, stuff. Why not let the user define the size of the things. All you need is that malloc or calloc (i'm not shure which is platform indepentet) or any other memory allocation. I did not look trough the code to see how AGS is made. But probably there are some arrays predefined. Instead of predefining the arrays, have them created with whatever the users puts in (and if he enters nothing in, then have them made with some default values).  In this way, I think the game would be faster somehow, because the limits will be tailored to the game.

listen the tsunami is bad. really bad. i mean, is beyond anything i have ever heard. probably simmilar things happened in the past.

no animals died? isn't that interesting? animals did not forget earth, they still sense danger. we, on the other hand, forgot about how big the universe is.

some island was moved some tens of meters because of the earthquake.

the earth is spinning a bit faster now. some asked for the day to be shorter by half a second or something like that.

the inclinations changed. now a couple of miliseconds of degrees off.

about 150 thousand people died.
about 5 need assistance fast and injured.
about  2 million are injured.
about 1 million have nothing.

10,000 people died in one day in a village in thailand i think.

i don't know if i have to cry, feel sad, or i don't know. i feel ok now, cause we have no problems here in canada. the perfect place, right?

see, those people. poorly educated. dumb. dirty. at least a couple. but they are people. and if they would have had the chance, they would be equal, perhaps better than us having fun here in canada.

they gathered about 500 million dollars. i think. where 250 is from private donnations only. the wolrd bank is giving out a little bit. big companies like pepsi, cola, etc, are giving out about 60. people try to help.

but is not that. there are no villages left. 80% of the cities are RAZED to the ground. let's say it would help people. then, mister Magundi Mihimala goes to live under the rubble, with his head on a rock. there is nothing left. people have no jobs, no food, no police, no nothing. not only that but people are people, they steal, they kill, they lie and cheat, they cry, they feel abandoned, sad, commit suicide, go crazy. so where to go? they give food and they go? that's it. the GREAT relief. OMGZOR!!! west pawnzor ownzor the east. now they have to rebuild. yes. rebuild everything. but not only that. make their life better.

its like god has changed his mind and kicked some arses, for the fun of it all. and he's laughing out there.

and some countries give nothing. some dont care. they will be alone, in the end.

well, why not?

let's add some earth destabilisation, changing the inclination of the axis. probably some species dissapear. permanent change of the climate. whatever.

anyway. it won't happen. i have faith in the future.

Timosity, don't be so hopeless about the future of things.

I do dream about the unification of the whole world in one big country, but cultures and beliefs must be kept. People moving around. Is not natural selection, is the will of the few that keep one part of the world happy, and don't care about the other.

You cannot say that indians or sri lankans are dumber than white people. You can't. Most of us know one thing good, we are experts in living, in loving, in helping out with money, in doing a job. But for anything else leave that to the experts in that field. There are indians much smarter than some white people that never get the chance because they live in a thirld world (or second) country. Americans tend to give a chance, BUT only if that person becomes american. Someday all those who oppose diffrence will pay, since we need all to be together to survive. There are so many problems in the world that even if all people would be happy, would have everything, you might still bump your head to a invisible rock.

All I hope is that people feel so sory for the affected that they give half their hearts to them. And with it goes the other hope that those affected appreciate what is being done for them and give half their hearts back. Not all, perhaps not most of the people, but if only a few then there it is.

I would like to be there and help out, but unfortunately, I cannot since I am a dumb poor moneyless student. I can't even donate. I only hope that less people die from diseases and hunger and thirst.

Canada gave out 1 million dollars. Soooo much. Sri Lanka can use it to buy a toothpick. Why? Because is almost none at all. Billions of dollars needed, not a million. They don't want to bother themselves with dying people, let them die anyway, since they are poor and dumb :'( Its about everybody, no only sri lanka. Is more than that. Is also how dumb sri lankans to fight between themselves.

In the end we all are people, we all deserve to live, and we are kept alive by the suffering of someone else. We need to learn to suffer for the happiness of others. People make mistakes, and both sides of the equatin ballance out with a constant called stupidity and confort (who want to bother?). Borth can be treated with propper education, and a bit of respect.

[edit] You know what's funny? That west parties and has fun, they go about and celebrate christmas, buy many presents, dance about the tree, tell snow and sady claws stories in the richest part of the world. Then, next day, many people die in the poorest part of the world. That is funny  :'(

I read this on Slashdot earlier. I'm not too worried yet.

1/243 chance it won't hit, and not for another 12 or so years.

You have better luck in dying in a car accident.

actually is more like 1/45 chance of hitting now. At least that is what I've read. The worrying has got a bit higher.

No one will die. Even if an asteroid the size of US hits earth, a few people will still be there. But no asteroid is that large. And if an impact is on the way they will evacuate people on the other continents, or on boats, or whatever. Few will die, almost none at all. IF there will be

42 years old is half your life. You must be nuts to think that it is a good age to die.

It will be probably something simmilar to this earthquake that took place in Indian Ocean, except fewer deaths. some months of darkness (perhaps years), lots of snow or rain, and strange weather troughout the year. If it falls in water then there is no problem, only tsunamis which can be avoided, floods, and that's it, no other side effects. I am just guessing

More websites (for Canadians):

Canadian Red Cross
1-800-418-1111
(or donate through your local Red Cross office)
https://secure.csfm.com/redcross/

UNICEF Canada
1-800-567-4483
UNICEF Canada
2200 Yonge St., Suite 1100
Toronto, Ont.
M4S 2C6
https://secure.unicef.ca/forms/emergency_page.html

Oxfam Canada
1-800-466-9326
Asian Earthquake/Floods Relief, Oxfam Canada
200-215 Spadina Avenue
Toronto, Ont.
M5T 2C7
https://www.strategicprofitsinc.com/hosted/Oxfam

World Vision Canada
1-800-268-5528
http://www.worldvision.ca/

CARE Canada
1-800-267-5232
http://www.care.ca/

Mennonite Central Committee
1-888-622-6337
http://www.mcc.org/

They only need money donations, nothing else. Because is much more expensive to transport any other sort of donations, especialy from far away places like Canada and US.

I took this information from CBC Newsworld.

Actually, now is close to 60,000. I would consider the possibility of about 100,000 died during the earthquake and tsunamis, and about 10 times as that to die from diseases if nothing is done in the next few days/months :'(

thank you everyone for posting.

I think my question is too general, I will try refining it and will come back. I've seen that not all people can answer big questions like what is a good game, what is a good gui, etc. Cause they're to general, too big. One needs bits and pices to work on first then put them all together.

I believe that the questions has already been answered by Oliver. Obviously, one has to try diffrent approaches see what people like best. And what people like best is the best gui

I think larry 7 has some sort of a parser (ie you type things in, not shure though).

MSPaint is good. Notepad and MSPaint and Calculator are probably one of the advantages of using windows. The other is games (and programs that only work on win).

But paint is nice. Is still does something that no other program ever done, it can see white as transparent. Therefore it becomes so powerfull. In photoshop I have to erase the background manually. And ps8 cs has a AdobeLM service secretly installed which gives information on the net? i don't know, but doesn't work without.

MSpaint is made for those 320x200 games, and for designing characters, rooms (barbones at least), and the basics of your game. GOOD program.

Who has anything against paint?

[edit] for jrl2222:
You are right, except one thing. Photoshop is made to edit photos (not exactly ). In other words you need to have something to edit and improve using hi-tech fancy layers, and opacity, and many styles/bevels (which i dislike), etc. But if you want to draw three lines and a guy that has a sqare head and square body you will find is much easier in paint. I know I do find it easier to draw it by hand, scan it and paint over using psp. But for character to think of a character, and start playing around in paint, then move it in psp for final touches. That's whay I think anyways

I agree with MystikShadows that the gui should be adapted to the game. For example, you can't have a gui with pretty flowers in a game about the life of the vampire. But then again, you can't have a blood filled gui with horrid icons for aaa. you get the point.

What I have seen is that people find it much easier with "walk to", "look at", "talk to", etc... than with icons. Also, I have never seen an icon with a verb underneath (simmilar to a windows icon). Text is much easier to read, deal with, but icons offer diversity. For example, a hand can be "pick up", "use", "push", "pull", "open", "close" in the same time. While to have it all in verbs you use "interact" (dull) or have it separated "move", "open/close", "use/get".

I think images are more abstract, mean more things but harder to understand. And anoying if they are annimated. While text is easy and straightforward, but not very exciting.

Orik, some people find accents very interesting Doesn't matter. The thing is, if I understand what you are trying to say, then it's okay. Only philologist or perfectionists need perfect spelling/writing. I don't care Use icons instead of verbs, for example  It is also said that copying is a secret form of respect.

What I DON'T LIKE about lucasarts gui is that is very simple, too simple, and covers half the screen.

I think, if you have less buttons visible, and more backgrounds (graphics) help you "live" the game more. It's nicer to have a text on the background and read it from there, rather than have three lines, and click look at to see what the hell that suppose to mean.

How many verbs? That old game, mysterious house(mansion?) or whatever the name was had 15 actions. Monkey Island I had 12. And the classic ones had 9. "Give" is not very usefull, since you can say "use obj on something." How many times you have to use something on someone, and not to give him anything?

I like the three-way mouse-based gui of Discworld.

I never played Larry, but I think I know what you are talking about (the parser, ie like a terminal where you say "talk", "use", etc...). What about, typing talk and mouse cursor changes.

Also, another thing I have seen is that I dislike when I have to switch between mouse and keyboard. Is nice to have some keyboard shortcuts, but distastefull when somethings are done using keyboard and others using mouse only. Adventure games are mouse-only games (most of them at least )

What I am thinking is having a game with no guis whatsoever. Only mouseclicks. All items should appear somehow near, above, below the mouse cursor and can be selected using the mouse wheel for example (or cycle with left right middle).

Even if people say that they prefer one thing for one game and another for another game, or one likes one thing another another thing :PP everybody has something in common in liking specific elements of an adventure gui.

How should a good GUI look/feel like?Ã,  Think of the most efficient and practical graphical interface.Ã,  If many people would answer, this thread might be used as a refrence for designing a good gui.

My idea is that the best gui is no gui. Using single clicks, double clicks and probably no inventory (but somewhat diffrent way around) might be intersting and efficient.

I liked the way Ecstatica worked. You just carried one thing in one hand, and that's it. While essential items like the weapon, the journal were kept nearby.

The way sierra adventure games (ie king's quest) displays the text seems very nice. You can play around with positions giving more freedom, and diversity to the speech.

The colour coded speech of lucasarts is also interesting.

Are icons better than writing verbs? (an image of an eye versus "look at"). Is that @overhotspot@ label nicer than just writing nothing at all?

Is it better to have many diffrent icons for each type of cursor/action, or just one cross for all actions.

Whoever played indiana jones 4, would see that in the beginning of the game indy goes trough an ordeal finding some statue. But the gui there is only a text that appears above the mouse cursor. That part of the game is only played by using left and right clicks. Left, by default, is look at. And right is action, but things that have no look at interaction are used with left click, and things that cannot be used ar looked at with right. Therefore the actions intermingle. Look at becomes use, and use becomes look at, etc.Ã, 

What about the inventory? Should an inventory be visible from the game (lucasart style), or should a new window appear containing the inventory items, and only the current/selected inv item appear from the game (sierra style)?

[edit] I think this thread should have been posted in the "Adventure related...."

looks nice.

try making his head bob down each time he finishes a step.

Yes, makes more sense. I will try is out. Thank you.

[edit] 

but one cannot use 2 modes at a time.

so Give should set a flag as checked. then before running the use command, check if the flag was set then do the give, rather than the use, if set, if not, do the usual.

that's what you mean. but I don't really know how. i mean I do, in theory, but I have a feeling it will not work. i think I will have to give up "give" but I am interested how the other users implemented give option. because i have seens some games having "give" as a mode.

I think the code strazer gave me would work in specific circumstances. I might be missing something. I don't really know.

I will retry both ways and look trough the demo, since give does work but it displays not available for everything i click on, but for me, when I click give, it crashes.

It does not.

error: GetInvName: invalid inventory item specified.

which makes sense since Give does not work with active-inventory.

the Give command is but another version of active-inventory. but I don't undrstand HOW use works with active-inventory?!?

if i click, use <item> it switches automatically to use-active-inventory, which is not the same as interact/use.

in lucasarts status there are two options

MODE_USE
and cur == 4 (active_inventory)

HOW CAN ONE USE THE ACTIVE INVENTORY MODE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

I am not shure about your code, but is simmliar to what I had before. both don't work.

Is GIVE supposed to be used ONLY from cur_mode == 8? I will try switching around. But in the demo it says "not available yet" so I suspect is not available yet :PPPP

So, no, it doesn't work that way. there is a trick to it, I can sense it.

[edit] do i have to initialise the global variable? SetGlobalVariable(80,2) == 0;

but the error is simple, i have no active inventory, therfore no item name, therefore crash

I am trying to make a for a give command. Give "item" to "character." The problem is that it always crashes because of invalid name. That make sense, in a way. But I cannot repair the problem.

I have this script:

else if (cur_mode == 9) {
if (GetGlobalInt(80) == 2) StrCat(madetext,"Give "); {
GetInvName (player.activeinv, buffer);
StrCat(madetext,buffer);
  StrCat(madetext," to ");
}

the GetInvName does not make sence. That is the reason why it crashes, and I can see the problem. But i don't know a way around it.

I just need to ad a "to" after give. The demo does not help me at all. When trying to give any item the character speaks out "not available at this time."

I will try to look at the other commands. But use is the only one that allows active-inventory.

Do i have to script it manually?

e.g.

click Give on item
and put in the item interaction, run script
and the script should be something like
make lucasarts status = Give
then change the cursor to that item
then change the text to that item
then run some action (the character accepts it or not)

but that means a script for each item i use give. and I will probably use it a lot.  :'(

I don't know. I just need an aswer to see what i can do. Otherwise I will have a script for each item.

Can i use, get object name under mouse. I don't know the function name, but there is one.

I have found something else!!!

Inventory items behave like hotspots
Having the label with @overhotspot@ over and item would display the item's name. Therefore you might not need the code above.

Ok, move it to technical archive, if you think this is usefull.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEES. THANK YOU. That was what i needed. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. No need to yell but THANK YOU. I am happy ))))))))))

This part was taken from the previous post. And put here.

[cut and paste from previous post] I think i have found a way to switch the gui on and off without turning it "I don't know how many" times per second.

Using a flag to swich between the on and off states.

int BagFlag = 1;

function repeatedly_execute() {

// (the bag)

Ã,  if(mouse.x <= 52 && mouse.y >= 210) {
Ã,  Ã,  if (BagFlag == 0) {
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  GUIOn(BAG);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  BagFlag = 1;
Ã,  Ã,  }
Ã,  }
Ã,  else {
Ã,  Ã,  if (BagFlag == 1) {
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  GUIOff(BAG);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  BagFlag = 0;
Ã,  Ã,  }
Ã,  }

// close of repeatedly_execute
}

^^ This script will switch between the two states in repeatedly execute. a way to close the repeatedly execute for some things. if you make a BIG if statement, you have an open or close switch for repeatedly execute Sorry for the long post. [end of cut paste]

Now. Playing around withÃ,  the flag I have found a way to toggle between two guis.Ã,  I don't know who might need this but here goes.

int Flag = 1; // 1 = on 0 = off

function repeatedly_execute() {

//GUI 1
if (mouse.x <= 40 && mouse.y >= 200) {
Ã,  if (Flag == 0) {
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  GUIOn(BAG);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Flag = 1;
Ã,  Ã,  }
elseÃ,  {
Ã,  Ã,  if (Flag == 1) {
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  GUIOff(BAG);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Flag = 0;
Ã,  Ã,  }
}
if(mouse.x >= 280 && mouse.y >= 200) {
Ã,  if (Flag == 0) {
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  GUIOn(CRATE);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Flag = 1;
Ã,  Ã,  }
elseÃ,  {
Ã,  Ã,  if (Flag == 1) {
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  GUIOff(CRATE);
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Flag = 0;
Ã,  Ã,  }
}
//end of function
}

what this does is:

when mose is over the 40 px rectangle in the bottomleft it turns BAG on and STAYS. when the mouse is switched to the right 40 pixels in the corner down of the screen the CRATE gui turns on, the other turns off. the nice thing is taht it stays on. one could use this to use a small space for a HUGE gui to appear. and another small space for the gui to dissappear.

I am not shure about the suefullness of this code It is testest and it works. Only if I have made a mistake.

Now, taken only half of it, would toggle a single gui on and off when mouse is over and on. I tried this and it still works. The nice thing is taht it toggles the gui on or off ONCE only. i used to toggle it 40 times per second before.