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I want there to be a compass on the screen which shows the correct North.Ã,  The direction of north will be a room variable.Ã,  When a new room is entered, I want the compass to rotate and point in the correct direction...using harmonically damped motion (aka, sinusoidal).

I haven't programmed in AGS for a while...but as I recall...we don't have sin functions or log so the equation couldn't be written, and we can't rotate sprites anyway.Ã,  So I'm sure any workaround would involve a sprite for each degree of rotation.Ã,  But still...I'd need the capability for playing back the animation at arbitrary starting frames, for arbitrary frame durations, in forward or reverse...

Any ideas..?

some AGS games which run in different resolution do not have their screen adjusted correctly so it shows up off the edge of the monitor...but I don't want to have to change my screen settings everytime I start and stop playing.  does anyone know how to fix this problem?

Well, it's about time.  What kind of 21 year old computer science / computer engineering student doesn't own a laptop?

After being forced to adjust to other people's mouses at work, after constantly crawling into the dusty dark behind other people's PC's to insert my USB storage device into their unweilding crannies, after faithfully lugging my 80 pound monitor up 6 flights of stairs 10 times in the past year, after considering taking up an off-shore internship...I finally decided to take the plunge..it should be here in a few days...and I can't wait!

Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz,, 512MB DDRAM, 60GB HD, DVD+R/RW and CD-RW Combo Drive, 15.4" TFT Widescreen, 56K, 10/100 Ethernet, 54g wireless LAN, WIN XP  $1250

I think it was a pretty good deal.

But I'm a bit confused about the memory:
•  533MHz Front Side Bus 
•  512KB L2 cache 
•  512MB (2 x 256MB) 333MHz DDR SDRAM; 
•  maximum memory 1280MB(1 x expandable to 256MB, 1 x 1024MB) 

It seems that they are saying it has 2 slots for RAM, one of them can only fit a 256MB, the other can fit 1 GB...but it only has a 256 MB in each of them now.  Is that correct?

Also, I didn't know that RAM had a frequency associated with it (333 MHz)...what is the relevance of this number?

Also, if the L2 cache is in addition to the 2x 256 MB chips...why isn't that included in the total summary (512 MB)?

Oh, and what's the relevancy of the front side bus frequency?

I'm thinking about taking the plunge and upgrading one of the RAM cards to 1 GB (for $300) since I plan to load all of my modelling software onto it.

this is a little out there, but I know some of you guys dabble in 3d, so...anyone know of any good free or trial plugins animating clothing in max?  I have got clothfx but my version is buggy.

if something like this exists for another 3d program like blender or cinema 4d that will work for me also.

[When Wistan accepts a dying fugitive's wish to deliver an item of great value, he has no idea that it will lead to the unearthing of an historical secret that will change his life forever.Branded as an accomplice to the fugitive, Wistan sets out on a quest to find the mysterious recipient of his burden with little more to go on than a name.The answers he seeks are hidden all around him, and danger faces him at every turn.Ã, Everything seems to draw him deeper and deeper into the mysterious haunted forest known as the Tanglewood.Ã, Does Wistan possess the determination and wit to succeed?Ã, Play the game to find out...]

When Wistan accepts a dying fugitive's wish to deliver an item of great value, he has no idea that it will lead to the unearthing of an historical secret that will change his life forever.

Branded as an accomplice to the fugitive, Wistan sets out on a quest to find the mysterious recipient of his burden with little more to go on than a name.

The answers he seeks are hidden all around him, and danger faces him at every turn.Ã,  Everything seems to draw him deeper and deeper into the mysterious haunted forest known as the Tanglewood.Ã,  Does Wistan possess the determination and wit to succeed?Ã,  Play the game to find out...

What you will find
•   Original plot and expansive history of medieval game world
•   Original poetry, riddles, and rhymes
•   Mentally challenging word and logic puzzles
•   Fantastic colorful hand drawn backgrounds
•   3D rendered sprites and items
•   Numerous different character animations
•   Arcade style combat
•   Findable weapons and equipment
•   Character creation where individual strengths and weaknesses are chosen
•   Carefully selected musical accompaniment from real composers and musicians featuring such artists as Patrice Deceuninck, Faith and the Muse, and Cocteau Twins
•   A surprising conclusion with plans for a sequel
•   Ability to export character for use in the eventual sequel

What you won't find
•   Limited mindless fetch puzzles
•   Impossible to be a dead-man-walking
•   Enough direction and clues will be given so that completing the game should not necessitate a walkthrough for a determined player
•   No annoying MIDI music
•   No encouragement to engage in fights (no experience points)

Project start date: 12/03
Expected completion date: None yet
Accomplices: none
Progress report:

The plot and game history is basically all done (although subject to minor changes as I continue with the dialogue).  Basically I have a lot of background art to draw and then a number of characters to model, and then it should be smooth sailing.

Contact: sheinric(at)uvm.edu (hidden for webcrawlers)

Screenshots:

having the character wade through water?  would I need to make a new walkable area for each horizontal row of pixels?

I'm not sure how to improve the water's realism...paint-overs desired!

a very mysterious part of the forest...how can I make it better?

Well I would have rather posted this in the C&C forum where all the artists go but I'll abide by forum decorum *this time*...

So... how do I make my own custom brush images, and specify randomized transformation limits (rotation, density, etc) for their use?

I'm using photoshop 7.  Any help is greatly appreciated, it will really improve my ability to do rust and mildew and grass and leaves and hair oh my

hey guys...Im back! still working on the Tanglewood...

ive been using c# and am extremely impressed with it's capabilities...which blow away C++, java, and everything else I've touched.

however, I can't figure out how to use arrays of non-primary types.  does anyone know how to do this?  example of what im trying to do:

public class Game{
public Piece[] arrPieces = new Piece[32]; //array of each piece in the game

public static void Main(){
arrPieces[1] = new Piece(this, "Pawn", 21, 2, 2, 1);
}
}

but it says an object reference is needed for the nonstatic 'Game.arrPieces'

do these exist anymore?  i can find plenty that SAY they are free...but then you go to their website and it actually costs money.

im trying to back up a dvd, using Dvd Decryptor...it supposedly decrypted all of the VIDEO_TS files which I can load into WinDVD and play as chapters...but they have no sound.  IS sound extracted differently?  IS there a different freeware app that does video+sound easily?  Im not trying to burn to a new dvd just onto my hard drive.

thanks all

perhaps this should go on the useful apps list later

okay...I made this game in all of an hour as a break from the Tanglewood, but it might actually be fun.Ã,  It could very easily be imrpoved with 3d cartoon graphics and and interface...but it's completely playable as is.

there is a blue player and a red player.

blue's controls: arrow keys (movement), enter (fire)

red's controls: WASD (movement), z(fire)

the plot: you both have bazooka's, but are out of ammo.Ã,  there will always be 1 grenade on the screen...pick it up, and a new one will spawn on the screen.Ã,  obviously each one you pick up gives you 1 shot.Ã,  and the objective is to shoot the other player.



so...if you have a friend in the house....give it a shot.Ã, 

http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/showdown.exe (800 kb)

1 - i've noticed i get a faint but very noticeable black box surrounding sprites displayed with an alpha channel, even though the edge of the alpha channel is pure black.  This problem occurs when the importated sprite is shown in the editor as having a solid color border.  if the sprite is shown with a pink "transparent" border, the problem doesn't happen.  however, there doesn't seem to be a way to choose between the two...sometimes when I choose "upper left corner transparent" it will show that color as transparent even though it is being overrided by the alpha channel...and other times, it keeps it the regular color...under the same circumstances i've had it go either way.  but many sprites just seem to always want to have a black border and no matter how many times i try to re-upload it it wont get that pink border.

2 - the second problem isn't actually with the area scaling, it's with the "adjust character speed with scaling function," which just doesn't seem to work right.  with little scaling, my character appears to walk normally.  but zoomed out, his walk step will cause him to jump up to double his sprite width...when close up, he does not do this.  it also is getting really wierd pauses, so what i see is my character pauses...takes a huge jump across the screen...pauses...repeats, it looks nothing like walking :/ 

As it stands I see no way to have a walkable area that accurately represents walking over a hill parallel to the viewing direction.

You can have an abrupt change in scaling, as they go from being on the front side to the far side, but still when they walk to the top of the hill then its a continuous walkable area and all of a sudden they are way far away.

So I have 2 ideas for simple ways to change this.

1) Allow walkable areas to overlap each other, and give them a layering order.  By default it is assumed they are on the top layer.  Make a new tool, the "seam" tool which allows you to join walkable areas.  When the character walks over a seam, the area they are on will switch to the area it was seemed to.  This would allow for characters (in 2d) to appear to be realistically traversing mountanous or other odd terrain.

Here is a screenshot to demonstrate what I mean:



does this make sense?  I think it does...

the second Idea I don't have time to explain because i have to go on a date but ill explain later

im trying a new style.  this is one of my first attempts to actually paint with the wacom.  i didnt paint over a scanned sketch.

no text needed..

when playtesting my game, i am finding it difficult to not accidentally skip over information that should be gained in talking because it is given through dialog trees...and clicking the mouse skips over what is being said.  the text seems to hang there for a bit too long, which makes me want to click the mouse...but just as im clicking the new dialog comes up, causing it to be skipped.  im afraid this is going to cause important information which cannot be backtracked to be missed by the player, so i want to disable the "click to skip" feature.  how should I do this?