Messages

Haha! Good eyes, Rui. I ran into that problem a while ago but didn't think anything of it.
Adventure gaming will never ever be truly complete without a Roger.

I do agree with you, I think we should be able to name our characters anything we like.

Cheers,
Paul.

[Edit:]

WHOA SLOW DOWN GUYS!!! 
Nobody is abandoning anything! All that has to be done is the following:

• Add support for automatic aspect detection
  
• Add a layout editor so that the developer can tailor their game for either 4:3 or 16:10 aspect ratios.
  
• Add support for windowed play with black background instead of desktop. (I was sure this had been done already. Guess not yet).
  

These few features add onto what has already been established and should not obstruct the compatibility of older games. These features are also a hell of a lot of work for poor Chris so I don't expect this kind of overhaul for another few betas yet. As long as CJ feels he is able then I'm sure the demand will be met. Poor bugger though. It's a lot to ask so soon. 

Cheers,
Paul.

Edit: Misspelled compatibility. Darn spell checker changed it to comparability. Fixed.

Thats an interesting idea and seems to fit with the 'user friendly' trend we have going here with AGS 3.0 system so I agree; it would be rather convenient and this is something I would also like.

Paul.

Hey Chris! Not much today but I have this annoying inconvenience. It is in the view editor where I click 'animate' in the show preview section. The problem is is if i want to quickly hide the preview section for more room, when I turn it back on again, the 'animate' check box defaults back to an unchecked state.
Just one of those formality things I'm afraid but it's bloody annoying. 

Cheers,
Paul.

Brilliant, sir! Brilliant.
Would this be too hard, CJ?

Cheers,
Paul.

Well I was thinking that if AGS could store the filename and directory of a sprite on import, then you could right click a sprite folder in AGS Edit, and choose 'Update Sprites', or something?
Assuming of course that you saved over your original sprites in the directory from which you imported them from.

Cheers,
Paul.

But in that case, she could just run setup.exe and change it, no?

Thats quite true, but should we not consider the possibility of building games with a higher minimal requirement or should all our games always be defaulted back the the minimal standard established last decade? I don't think this has changed since anyway, has it?

Cheers,
Paul.

so it would be better to have a fixed game resolution and then allow graphics filters to be used on top of that if the player wants to

So you mean that our games will be restricted to one resolution only of your choosing and the graphics is scaled up to fit the monitor or do you mean the game will have a fixed aspect and all other aspects are scaled up dynamically?

I'm not sure if thats what you meant but I think if you are going to overhaul the resolution system I strongly suggest an automatic resolution system as I suggested in this thread:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=33578.60

If it is in the hands of the developer, then we can actively choose whatever resolution to support and even multiple aspect ratios. Instead of simply stretching our graphics to fit 4:3 and 16:10 aspects, we can tailor our games to work with both at native resolution.

I think we need more control over game resolution, Chris, as opposed to less. But thats just my opinion.

Cheers,
Paul.

... wow.  I've wasted so much of my life.

Ags 3.0 is full of handy little goodies now!

Cheers,
Paul.

nd changes the resolution to 640x400 using your GUI

Not at all my good Chris. As I mentioned earlier it would be up to the game developer to enable what game modes to display to the player maximizing compatibility for the developer's intended audience. Just as Naltimari reinforced.

Ideally I imaged that the developer could choose to use either a fully customizable in-engine dialog based setup screen or the default basic dialog executable. Not in tandem, but rather an alternative to one another.

Paul.

I wasn't being benevolent to GarageGothic, Snarky. I agreed with his reccomendation that the setup exe has its place. I do tend to ramble on a bit sometimes so you'll have to forgive me for that.

Why don't you give me a break Snarky, please. Honestly mate, you seem to read into my text reply as if I am speaking it aloud in some smartass tone of voice.
I'm sorry but may I suggest you learn some restraint because your reaction here is clearly out of place.
I don't have an issue with you, why have you got it in for me? 

As Snarky mentioned, as long as savegames do not support changing resolutions, having such a feature in game would be useless ;(.

If this is the case I guess it's not as straightforward a process as I imagined. As Snarky mentioned, however, there is scope to work toward removing this limitation. Cool.

Cheers,
Paul.

[EDITED by mod] Double posting.

I think the option should still be given to developers to control how their game should display these options.

In all honesty its time for AGS to move with the times and despite the obvious points you have expressed about keeping the game setup exe, my suggestion is simple: Allow the very same options to be incorporated as a GUI in the editor so that those who choose not to distribute the lackluster setup executable in their game installs can present those options without feeling tacky or out of date.

I say lackluster in the sense that it detracts from the game experience and is a token mark of the use of the AGS engine. Before anybody starts condemning me for AGS blaspheme I will say this: While some may argue that removing the need or providing an alternate method to the game setup exe is like choosing to leave CJ and AGS uncredited this is not true and is not the reason for leaving the setup exe out of a game. The whole point of an AGS game is the "game" itself and not what its built in.

Since the game engine is irrelevant to the player in the eyes of a developer, all of the game's settings and options should be accessible from within the game the way the developer wants to present it rather than be forced to present their players with a static and aging options program.

If a developer chooses to include the game setup exe instead of making his/her own GUI with custom graphics this should continue to be supported, however in this case, one method should not cancel the other out, but act as an alternative.

I imagine adding support for a GUI based options screen wouldn't be exceedingly arduous, would it Chris?
Can anyone else see the importance of housing in-game settings inside the game or are we all still stuck in the 90's?

My apologies for being so direct, guys, but I have to be the voice of truth once in a while. 

Cheers,
Paul.

I agree however I feel my point still stands. I'll tell you why.

The only obvious reason why AGS games might not run correctly, or at all, is because the resolution of a game does not account for the different aspect formats or the color depth might not be supported. I you haven't noticed already, the few options in the game setup exe control the things in a game that a developer should account for when developing the game. If a developer chooses to make a 32 bit game, then the option to downgrade the game to 16 bit might not sit well with developers who intend their game to be enjoyed in its true glory. I think that option is by far obsolete. As for resolution, seeing there are only 2 mainstream display formats, 4:3 and 16:10, it is not difficult to imagine support for the developer to make their game adjust itself, automatically, for the monitor the game is being played on.

As for windowed support, this option could also be accessible in the game. Theres no reason why full screen gameplay couldn't switch to windowed gameplay on request rather than having to relaunch the entire game after tweaking settings in the game setup exe. As for sound, this is unlikely to be the cause of a game not running at all these days.

I feel that the game setup exe is a little hackish for todays times and lacks the professional polish that should be seen in a state of the art Adventure game. Having said that, the game setup exe does have its place. Older games not designed to work with both 4:3 and 16:10 screen formats automatically, will always come with an external setup exe, although most of the AGS games I have downloaded choose not to distribute their setup exe.

I think that a game developer should be able to choose whether to include an Editor GUI based game setup or a separate executable depending on what kind of polish the developer intends to give their game.

Cheers,
Paul.

I agree with GarageGothic entirely and believe it is a necessary step forward for AGS development. This whole force letterbox resolution thing has always felt a little loose and while it might be appropriate for older games which were developed for specific aspects I believe now is the time to support automatic aspect correction that is put in the designer's hands.

I would like my gamers to stay IN the game and out of the gamesetup execultable as much as can be managed. Having said that, perhaps it's time for the controls in the gamesetup to be incorporated as default GUI's in the game editor itself that can be turned off at will and customized to fit the game's appearance.

It's quite easy to understand that this kind of developer control would offer uniformity and consistency to a game and its options rather than force the player to tinker with a completely separate application, when all he/she wants to do is play a game that works.

Cheers,
Paul.

Actually, that does beg the question ... should the editor folders be arranged like they are at the moment, or should there simply be one root "Game" folder, and then you can just right-click and "Add character", "Add view", "Add font" or whatever else to have everything arranged wherever you feel like it?

I like the current layout. There is a purpose for every element of an adventure game production and it's immediately obvious and accessible. I don't imagine collapsing everything up into another folder would aid accessibility no matter how convenient it sounds.
Thats simply my opinion however.

Paul.

Whoops. I think you replied to my post before I could update it. Darn i hate it when that happens.

My question is irrelevant. So it should be ignored. I don't want to confuse people. 

Paul.

Interesting. I didn't realize there was underlying software that determines what character to display on the press of a key. I thought all that was up the the hardware to determine.
I can of course understand software control for foreign keyboard layouts such as those who's language contains more than 26 letters in their alphabet which in turn requires more keys but as for western keyboards, a physical key no matter where it is on the keyboard should always display, on-screen, the character that is printed on it.

Bloody lazy hardware developers! 

Paul.

EDIT: At least there is some sense in the mapping software when it comes to holographic or light projection keyboards. You can change any key and it's symbol with those. 

I very much doubt whether the designer of a non qwerty keyboard has failed to wire the keys; contrary to the symbol that is printed on the key itself.
Cheers,
Paul.

How about multiple hotspots on characters?

Do you mean if the player is clickable you could for instance move the mouse over the character's arm or face and the text name updates based on those regions?

I'm no programmer but I imagine this is a pretty specialized feature that I'm guessing could be coded in per user rather than be added to AGS for all. However saying that, this is an interesting idea and 'Character Regions' could well be something everybody wants!?

Cheers,
Paul.

This is by design, and has always been the case. If you set the baseline to 0 then it uses the object's Y co-ordinate to determine the baseline, which is the default setting.

Perhaps the name should change to "Local Y Coord"? I found it confusing, I'm sure there might be others sometime.

Cheers mate. Thanks for the explanation.
Paul.