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Rulaman, I built a custom function to do that. It's not very flexible but it gets the job done. Feel free to PM me if you need help with that.

It would be useful to have it built-in, yes (and have the targeted character be dynamic, that's my biggest gripe with my own function - it only works on the PC), but I agree that it's low-priority right now.

In XNA you can collapse different sections of the code, like if there's a lot of stuff in your "Controls" section that you don't want to look at right now, you can click the minus-sign and it will collapse.

To have something like that in AGS would be super super useful.

Need some help early in the game too:

Spoiler

What should I do with the tree root? I got Amber to hold on it, but then what?

[close]

EDIT: Never mind, I figured it out a few minutes after I posted here. Thanks!

How'd you do it then?

Argh, another little oversight on my part! Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

Luckily the fix is quite simple (because admittedly, the error is quite dumb...) - replace the whole btnLoadOK_OnClick function with the following code:

Code: ags

function btnLoadOK_OnClick(GUIControl *control, MouseButton button) {
  if (lstLoadGames.SelectedIndex >= 0) {
    saveslot = lstLoadGames.SelectedIndex;                      // Gets the selected slot
    gLoad.Visible = false;
    mouse.Mode = eModeWalkto;
    if (screenshot != null) {
      screenshot.Delete();
      btnLoadScreen.NormalGraphic = SL_EMPTY_SPRITE;            // Resets the screenshot
    }
    RestoreGameSlot(lstLoadGames.SaveGameSlots[saveslot]);      // Restores the selected slot
  }
  else if (totalsaves>0) Display("Please select a savegame.");
  else Display("There are no savegames yet!");
}

What it did before was make sure there were at least actual savegames to load. However, if you don't select any of those savegames before you press load, obviously it will crash! The script above now checks whether you actually selected a saveslot before trying to load anything. That oughta fix it.

It runs this custom function:

DisplayNarration("blablabla.");

Which calls this piece of code from the Global Script:

function DisplayNarration(String text) {
 cEgo.SpeechView = -1;
 cEgo.SayAt(10, 460, 600, text);
 cEgo.SpeechView = 2;
}


So basically a glorified character.say(), yes.

Yes, I should have mentioned my inventory GUI is entirely custom.

My pointer cursor is, well, a pointer.
My interact cursors is a crosshair.

I open my GUI and say
mouse.Mode = eModeInteract;
mouse.UseModeGraphic(eModePointer);

Ok, good, cursor looks like a pointer. Now, after right-clicking an inventory item and having it's associated LOOK AT msg run, the cursor turns into a crosshair. D:

I have a similar problem with my inventory GUI. When I open it, I change the cursor mode from WALK to INTERACT, and apply the POINTER cursor image. However, when I right-click to examine an item, once the interaction is done, the cursor switches back to the default cursor image for the INTERACT cursor.

This is looking hella good. Can't wait to see it in motion.

You have to play it, to be able to feel the strange satisfaction pressing those buttons gives you. It's hard to explain.

I agree, there's something oddly hypnotizing about the constant tiny interactions that you're doing.

I'm a few hours in, and as has been said, it takes a toll on your emotions. The scenes with Ethan (his kid died) are some of the most uncomfortable and heart-wrenching I've seen in a game. The part in the mall is very well done in making you feel some genuine panic.

And the part

Spoiler

in the police station after Shaun is taken, where you have to answer the questions about what he was wearing and what time it was, I was like "oh shit, I didn't pay attention to any of that!"

[close]

I felt like a bad father.

The walking is indeed a bit of a downside, because the camera is semi-fixed most of the time so I keep bumping into walls and table edges.

But even just those augmented reality glasses the FBI agent has are reason enough to play this game. They are seriously awesome. You could build an entire game around those.

[EDIT] Man, I just played some more, and the part where

Spoiler

the FBI agent has the religious nut at gunpoint

[close]

is maybe the coolest thing I've ever done in a videogame.

A float always has a decimal point in it, so you need to put 125.0 in the TweenPosition function instead of just 125.

Actually I'd recommend starting with a value like 1.0.
125.0 is reeeaaaallllyyyy really slow.

Through my correspondance with NEON I've managed to fix the bug he mentioned, as well as figure out how to make a delete button! I always wanted to include one in the template but I never took the time to figure out how to actually make one. Turned out it was fairly easy too, so I've released an updated template with this spiffy new function See first post for details.

Hmm, I'll need some further information on what exactly you're doing in order to pinpoint what is causing this bug. Or, if you want, you can send me your project files and I can take a look at them directly, which would make it much easier for me to see what is happening.

You have a good point, I didn't realize you can still load a saveslot if there are no saves yet. To fix this, change:

Code: ags

// Load GUI
function btnLoadOK_OnClick(GUIControl *control, MouseButton button) {
  saveslot = lstLoadGames.SelectedIndex;                        // Gets the selected slot
  gLoad.Visible = false;
  mouse.Mode = eModeWalkto;
  if (screenshot != null) {
    screenshot.Delete();
    btnLoadScreen.NormalGraphic = SL_EMPTY_SPRITE;              // Resets the screenshot
  }
  RestoreGameSlot(lstLoadGames.SaveGameSlots[saveslot]);        // Restores the selected slot
}

To:

Code: ags

// Load GUI
function btnLoadOK_OnClick(GUIControl *control, MouseButton button) {
  if (totalsaves>0) {
    saveslot = lstLoadGames.SelectedIndex;                        // Gets the selected slot
    gLoad.Visible = false;
    mouse.Mode = eModeWalkto;
    if (screenshot != null) {
      screenshot.Delete();
      btnLoadScreen.NormalGraphic = SL_EMPTY_SPRITE;              // Resets the screenshot
    }
    RestoreGameSlot(lstLoadGames.SaveGameSlots[saveslot]);        // Restores the selected slot
  }
}

As for not being able to save - did you remember to also copy all the custom functions defined at the top of the global script? The system won't work without those.

You don't have to install AGS to run it. Just copy your AGS folder to the pendrive. Or you can download a RAR file of the current build on the download page.

This is still for AGS 3.1.2 SP1, but it's a pretty interesting bug:

If you hide the player character in a room, SaveCursorUntilItLeaves doesn't work anymore.

It will change the cursor mode fine when you go over a hotspot, but when you move the cursor off the hotspot again, it doesn't change back anymore.

Oh that was intentional.

Cool, I didn't know VLC could convert video too. I'll have to check it out.

Framerates are kinda arbitrary, many videos use either 24, 25, or 30 fps (or 23.97/29.97 for NTSC).
24 is a relatively new addition that's favoured by the movie industry for it's 'cinematic look' - whatever that means. But it doesn't really matter all that much, and if your movie is already one of those values, I wouldn't mess with it at all. Only if it's drastically higher (if it's any lower there's not much you can do anyway (well ok there's frame interpolation but let's not get into THAT!))

In animation class I was taught 24 should be your default value for smooth animations - or 12 if you want to sacrifice smoothness for less drawing work But it's true 25 is slightly more suited for progressive scan displays (LCD monitors etc).

Hm, I'm not sure I've ever seen Ogg video, only audio...

Mov is a pretty good format in and of itself, and the preferred format for people working in the video industry, but I don't think AGS takes movs, so an mpg or avi would be the logical choice. Mpg is the safer bet I'd say, since it doesn't rely so heavily on codecs like DivX for compression, so it will play more easily on a wider variety of PC's.

I don't know what kind of footage you have (live-action I presume?), but for 640x480 you probably won't have to set a bitrate any higher than 1000 kbps at a framerate of 24 fps (24 is pretty much the default for smooth video).

Wow, the fighting engine looks great! Seems very smooth, though I'm curious to see how responsive it is. But still very impressive, looking forward to this one.

Yes I'd say global variables are the way to go to keep track of the state your character/game is in. I recommend making a flowchart or something first if you plan on having lots of choices in the game, because if you try to remember it all in your head I can guarantee you things will get jumbled real quickly.

I've always wondered how the hell Bioware keeps track of all the descision variables involved in a game like Mass Effect...