Messages

Its really inconsistent. I suggest an option to support both, if both cases are strong enough.
Personally i view the current dx9 implementation as broken/incomplete but I'm sure there are others like you who have grown to appreciate the unusual side effects.

Cheers,
Sparky.

I see. Wow that's complicated! Can't we seriously just change the volume of an AudioClip dynamically?

For the meantime, I suggest we have the ability to do this:

Code: ags

aMySound.Volume = 25;

Cheers,
Sparky.

[1]

While I'm not going to post all my code in here (too long), I've got a great module for Footstep Sounds that can be changed dynamically per region & per room.
What I can't change easily is the volume of these footstep sets. I've got three sounds.
1 = the stopping sound (Idle). 2 = walking variation A. 3 = walking variation B. I'll be adding more sounds to this variation later on.

I suggest properties become avaliable for regions so we can assign things like dynamic volume adjustments for footsteps based on character location etc.
There are other benefits of this idea pointed out below.

Cheers,
Sparky.

Isnt there a way to adjust the volume of my varied footstep effects dynamically in the script?
I'm not sure I want to have 2 copies of every footstep variation. Im sure theres a better way.
Thanks though. I really do appreciate the assist.

Sparky. 

Thanks for the hand Khris. But where is the volume bit? I somehow need to change the volume of the footstep sounds and don't know how. You can only change the volume of a channel and I still don't understand how those work either.

Thanks again in advance.

Sparky.

Ive been raving about this scaling problem for ages. Im glad a few more of you are on the bandwagon. Nice examples, Snarky.

Cheers,
Sparky.

Okay. I admit it! I don't have a clue how the new audio system works. But for what I want to do with it, the system seems counter-intuitive.

I have a list of footstep sounds that I want to change the volume of based on which room the player is in.

Code: ags

function repeatedly_execute_always ( ) 
{
  AudioClip *idle;
  AudioClip *regularA;
  AudioClip *regularB;

  if(player.Room==4)
  {
    idle=aFootstep_dirt_B_stop;
    regularA=aFootstep_dirt_B_walk;
    regularB=aFootstep_dirt_B_walk;
  }
etc, etc, etc.

However, how am i supposed to change the volume of a collection of specific sounds (footsteps) if you have to play the sound before you can set the channel's volume. DOH! I just don't get it.

Do I write something like this?

Code: ags

  AudioChannel *FS_IDLE_ROOM4 = aFootstep_dirt_B_stop & aFootstep_dirt_B_walk_1 & aFootstep_dirt_B_walk_2 & aFootstep_dirt_B_walk_3;
  FS_IDLE_ROOM4.Volume = 25;

I'm totally confused with the whole channel thing right now and the help file does nothing to make sense of it.
I would appreciate it if someone could explain it to me in english.
Cheers guys and sorry for sounding completely fresh. It's just the audio I swear!

Sparky.

It would be cool to have support for a looping sound for mouse over like a low humming or something. Tying it in with the new AGS audio system and its repeate/play once properties for this would be good.

Cheers,
Sparky.

[Edit:]

I strongly support Prog's suggestions. This also ties in well with an earlier suggestion of being able to manipulate characters in the room editor and view realtime feedback of walkable area scaling, tinting, walkbehinds and coordinates. So, yeah I can see a real use for this and I hope it becomes one of the higher priorities for the next version.

Edit: Also another suggestion - It would make sense if the room editor simply remembered the last bitmap import directory just as the sprite editor does.

Cheers,
Sparky.

Thats actually quite brilliant Monkey. Thanks dude.

I'm glad I spawned a new idea into your brain Rick.
Hope it serves you well!

Cheers,
Sparky.

We have a text field that is a certain width that it only allows letters that dont exceed a 2 pixel gap from the border of our text box. We have a blinking cursor that we want to turn off on the last character stroke.

Is there anyway we can intercept the function that decides when to cull a character based on its relative width? For instance an "M" will be culled where an "N" will not.

Thanks in advance,
Sparky.

Yeah alpha channels are really buggy in AGS right now. I beleive I sent CJ on a quest to fix them two weeks ago in regards to inventory items and quite possibly everything else in effect.

I hope they all get solved in one big hit. 

Cheers,
Sparky.

Automated 'benchmarking' combined with in-game configuration would be a radical improvement.
Sparky.

Totally agree with you guys. Some great suggestions there.

Sparky.

Unfortunately, your issue is native to DirectDraw5. It's an older engine and thats just how it shows its age. I doubt anything will or could be done to special-case fix it.
Your lower-spec customers are probably going to have to put up with the slight difference. I would however warn them of the differences and encourage them to play your titles on a DX9 capable computer.

What IS fixable though is DirectX9's up-scaling feature particuarily with low res games in that it doesnt scale pixel for pixel. It ununiformly interpolates the pixel grid, creating a mish-mash of different sized pixels-between-pixels.
Somewhere a fix is out there for this so that the upscaling algorithm forces a 1:1 match on the pixel grid.

Good luck with your new game Dave. I'm a proud customer of your Blackwell series. Keep it up.

Cheers,
Sparky.

Well if AGS is to one day port games to iPhone/PSP then custom resolutions would be an extremely valuable feature.

Cheers,
Sparky.

I think we should have the ability to change the way text boxes appear.
For one, theres an automatic limit on the length of the textbox depending on the width of the item.

Something like

Code: ags

int TextBox.MaxChar

would make it easier to build more sophisticated save/load screens for example.

Another thing that bothers the hell outta me is the old DOS style underscore that leads the input.
If this could be toggled off, we could write out own system like a blinking vertical line or something.

Anyway, just a few ideas.

Cheers,
Sparky.

That would be most appreciated!
Is there any workaround way I can force disable it until your able to support otherwise?
I'm kind of guessing not.

Cheers,
Sparky.

As the title suggests. We're making an awesome dynamic save/load system and like many others, we have reached the limit of 30.

Increasing this limit to 50 would solve our issue however I don't really know why there still is a limit on GUI controls. They certainly must be less expensive than the infinite amount of GUIs that can be created.

Cheers,
Sparky.

I've done a few tests in AGS with windows mouse acceleration on and off.
It seems the windows setting has no effect on AGS or perhaps AGS itself has it's own internal mouse acceleration?

One simple test is to compile a high-rez game and move the mouse slowly from one end of your mouse pad to the other, measuring how far the cursor goes. Then flick your mouse from one end of your mouse pad to the other as fast as you can and see how much further the cursor goes flying.

More of an observation than anything else but I really would like to get to the bottom of this so that I can figure out how to disable the effect for finer control over our games. Particuarily low-res ones.

Cheers,
Sparky.