Messages

Is anybody able to design a module for wrapping scrolling rooms like this? Think the Nexus in the LucasArts classic 'The Dig'.
In case anyone hasn't ever seen the room or played the game:
http://www.shuugouteki.net/paul/Images/nexus.gif

In the Dig resource files the room background graphic had a reasonably short repeat buffer however I chopped that off as I don't believe it would be necessary in AGS. It may have been a workaround in the old SCUMM system back when the game was being made.

Cheers,
Paul.

Sure. Thanks anyway Ashen.

Before I began attempting to code the interface stuff I imagined it would be rather basic. And I agree I reckon I was working under unusual circumstances. The thing that really gets me stuck is the mouse interactions. If, as you said the interactions are set to mouse release by default then coding around that may prove more difficult than what I originally had in mind.
Anyway, I'm back home now, and when I copy my stuff over I'll dive back into it. If I can't figure it all out by then, I'll move this issue into the beginners forum.

Thanks again for your help, Ashen. Your a total champ.

Cheers,
Paul.

Are you using a 256 bit sprite in a 32 bit game?

Yes actually. Thanks again Chris, I havent drawn any art for my main character yet. I'm using Roger right now.

Cheers.

Excuse me pal. Would you mind cooling your temper. I'm overseas, I've got severe jet lag and If you go back over my post that I wrote only 4 minutes ago youll see I have added SOLVED to that issue. I did't realise beta 10 was out til i browed back in through the forums.

I suggest excersinging a little patience and self control when deciding to blast someone who has taken their time to look for bugs and think of improvements.

I should have posted it in this forum, sure. My apologies to the moderators. I'm a little zonked right now. I'm sure everybody else understands my situation.

No point in even reading the rest of the post now.

Rui, that last comment was beligerant and immature. The rest of the bugs i listed have not been solved and I beleive I have some important suggestions for Chris to look over. So, please, please, grow up, son.

A toast to Chris Jones for eight years of hard work on the greatest thing to ever happen in the classic adventure game business.

Paul.

[------BUGS------]

Hey, Chris. I'm 99% sure these are bugs and not something I'm confusing with normal program behavior.

------
BUGS
------

EDIT: //SOLVED//  Thankyou chris!
'Animated Cursor View' adds +1 to specified view number. If told cursor to use view 6 for animation, the game will use 7. //SOLVED//

**************************************************************

Functions in script like function trashcan_Look() don't work unless you have clicked the button on the right of the field in the 'Look at hotspot' field of the visual scripter. The field must also be empty before hand.

The same goes for any function for any room item. (hotspot, region, object) Clicking that button does not remove previously manually scripted functions, however, which is good.

**************************************************************

When using an if statement with an external variable such as 'import int DoorKeeperIsAgreeable;' in a room script, if the code ran due to the variable being equal to 1 is SetBackgroundFrame(1); the main character's color table becomes shifted. (The ego sprite looks somewhat inverted.) The game is set to 32 bit and if I choose the same background as frame 0 for frame 1 the problem still persists. If in the code I choose to set the background frame to the same number it is currently set on then no problem occurs.


-----------------
SUGGESTIONS
-----------------

'MinScalingLevel' & 'MaxScalingLevel' should be swapped and when 'UseContinuousScaling' is set to true, it should preserve the previous scaling value in 'MinScalingLevel'.

**************************************************************

'SetHotspotWalkToPoint' needs an x,y picker.

**************************************************************

Ability to delete Views.

**************************************************************

Remove automatic spaces after comma's. They are annyoing when going back over grammer.

**************************************************************

'AnimatedView' option in room object properties.

**************************************************************

Be able to change a hotspot's walk to point during gameplay.

**************************************************************

When right clicked 'Inventory Items' and chosen New Inventory Item, the properties for the new inventory item just created should be displayed below and not the properties of a previous item.

**************************************************************

When clicking inside a field in the properties panel of any game item the entire field sholuld be highlited for easy replacing. At least this should be the case for numeric fields.

**************************************************************

In addition to or instead of OnClick functions for buttons, include OnMouseDown and OnMouseUp options.
This is usefull for things such as scrolling invatory arrows particuarily when the user has set mouseOver sprites but doesnt want those mouseOver sprites to be displayed before the mouse button is released and the button can be disabled.

It's basically a much easier way to prevent buttons from flashing before they are turned off in addition to allowing users a more simplified control of buttons under both mouse states.

**************************************************************

Add 'Is Clickable' option to objects. Basically returns 'mouseover' functionality to an object behind the current object.

**************************************************************

The suggestions above are not demands and should require community approval before implmentation. If I have listed a bug or a suggestion for 2.8 that has already been posted then take my sincere apologies as i am using pay per use internet in the singapore airport and cant afford enough time to browse through other peoples post.

Cheers AGSer's.

Okay guys, Ive made leaps and strides and Im stuck on this last thing.

Basically what happens is when I click the mouse button down on an inventory item before I can release the mouse button, the inventory item is used on itself and thus whatever happens when i use that slot on itself occurs. cEgo.Say("I dont want to crease my money")

It seems that the game doesnt know when Ive actually released the mouse and it doesnt stop the code. I know you were talking about this, Ashen, however exactly what part I am doing wrong seems to elude me.

If you could have a look at my code:

Code: ags

#sectionstart repetedly_execute // DO NOT EDIT OR REMOVE THIS LINE
function repededly_execute() {
InventoryItem *selectedItem = InventoryItem.GetAtScreenXY(mouse.x, mouse.y);
  // Mouse Left:
  if ((mouse.IsButtonDown(eMouseLeft)) && (InventoryItem.GetAtScreenXY(mouse.x,mouse.y) != null)) {
    if (mouse.Mode == eModeInteract) {
        player.ActiveInventory = selectedItem;
    }
    else {
        selectedItem.RunInteraction(mouse.Mode);
    }
  }
  // Mouse Right:
  if ((mouse.IsButtonDown(eMouseRight)) && (GUIControl.GetAtScreenXY(mouse.x,mouse.y) == invCustomInv)) {
    if (player.ActiveInventory != null {
      mouse.Mode = eModeInteract;
      mouse.UseModeGraphic(eModePointer);
    }
  }
#sectionend repetedly_execute // DO NOT EDIT OR REMOVE THIS LINE

Ignore any typos as I am typing this while reading from another monitor. If this stupid hotel offered wireless internet services I would have used my laptop and copied the code from AGS. Sorry in advance for that.

Cheers,
Paul.

Most appreciated Ashen. Thanks a million for the example code. this should be enough for me to solve the problem. You have to understand that what I am doing is racking my brain at full capacity. Its like being thrown in a chinese maths school  and having to learn the language and algebra at the same time.

Anyway I really appreciate everybodys help. If I have any more stumps Ill post back.

Cheers,
Paul.

Im still way off. I'm not a programmer and while this is a technical issue it may best be put into the beginners thread. Unfortunately help is a little slow there as not as many programmers seem to like reading posts there because of how simple these questions must seem to them.
It is however important to me as I am building a small demo while I travel overseas and while most of my game is pretty easy for me to program, coding things like these melt my brain. I have a very light understanding of the AGS programming language and even less of any other.

This is a personal experiment to see how far I can get with the knowledge I have and can get from others, including any avaliable tutorials and it is also an enjoable pastime.

I would appreciate as much example code as I can get. I don't expect to be able to make any sense of a few lines. I need more than 80% to make a mental map of how the code works and where it goes. Again, I'm very light in my understanding and I ask the community willing to assist to be patient with me.

I know CJ has other priorities and I'm extreamly appreciative of his help so far but if there is anyone else out there who can offer their expertise that would be most appreciated.

I'm not asking them to write my game I just need half a minute of their time for them to show me how to code what I want the game to do. It's actually extremely simple.

Cheers,
Paul.

I have in fact made more sense of it as the last hour passed. I'm sorry I couldn't update my original post before you saw it. I guess I caught you at the right time here in Italy. I'm actually using 30 min logon sessions at the hotel. They don't have the internet cafe idea quite worked out yet here in Rome so I'm stuck to 30 minute periods until I have to go to reception and sign a form over and over. Bloody hell. 

If you see anything wrong with the following code and ONLY if you can spare 30 seconds, could you edit it to at least resemble working code so that i can test it myself. I know I'm a long way off so if you could perhaps throw me a few steps ahead in a forward direction I would really appreciate it.

Okay well this is my entire mouse click function code:

Code: ags

#sectionstart on_mouse_click  // DO NOT EDIT OR REMOVE THIS LINE
function on_mouse_click(MouseButton button) {
InventoryItem *selectedItem = InventoryItem.GetAtScreenXY(mouse.x, mouse.y);
  
  // called when a mouse button is clicked. Button is either LEFT or RIGHT

  if (IsGamePaused() == 1) { // If game is paused, don't allow mouse clicks.
  }
  else if (button == eMouseLeft) {
    if (mouse.Mode == eModeInteract) {
      player.ActiveInventory = selectedItem;
    }
    else {
    selectedItem.RunInteraction(mouse.Mode);
    }
  }
  else {
    ProcessClick(mouse.x, mouse.y, mouse.Mode );
  }
  
  // If right clicked mouse:
  if (button == eMouseRight) {
    if (gInventory.Visible == true) {
      mouse.Mode = eModeInteract;
      mouse.UseModeGraphic(eModePointer);
    }
    else {
      mouse.SelectNextMode();
    }
  }

  // If right clicked mouse whithin the inventory area:
  if (button == eMouseRightInv) {
    mouse.Mode = eModeInteract;
    mouse.UseModeGraphic(eModePointer);
  }  
}
#sectionend on_mouse_click  // DO NOT EDIT OR REMOVE THIS LINE

Thanks anyway CJ for you time.

Ciao,
Paul.

Darn! An internal error has occurred.

Error: run_text_script1: error
-6 running function
'on_mouse_click':
Error: Null pointer referenced
in "GlobalScript.asc", line 73

Code: ags

#sectionstart on_mouse_click  // DO NOT EDIT OR REMOVE THIS LINE
function on_mouse_click(MouseButton button) {
  // called when a mouse button is clicked. button is either LEFT or RIGHT

InventoryItem *selectedItem = InventoryItem.GetAtScreenXY(mouse.x, mouse.y);
if (button == eMouseRight) // If right clicked mouse anywhere while gInventory is visible.
{
   mouse.Mode = eModeInteract;
   mouse.UseModeGraphic(eModePointer);
}
else if (mouse.Mode == eModeInteract)
{
  player.ActiveInventory = selectedItem;
}
else
{
  selectedItem.RunInteraction(mouse.Mode);  [[[LINE 73...Doesnt like this line]]]
}

// If right clicked mouse whithin the inventory area:  
if (button == eMouseRightInv)
{
   mouse.Mode = eModeInteract;             [[[DOESNT DO ANYTHING]]]
   mouse.UseModeGraphic(eModePointer);
}  

if (IsGamePaused() == 1) { // If game is paused, don't allow mouse clicks.
  }
  else if (button == eMouseLeft) {
    ProcessClick(mouse.x, mouse.y, mouse.Mode );
  }
  else { // If right clicked mouse, cycle the cursor modes.
        mouse.SelectNextMode();
  }
}
#sectionend on_mouse_click  // DO NOT EDIT OR REMOVE THIS LINE

I'm sure all this code is tangled up.
Chris, you said before that was basically the code for inventory clicks. Am I missing something? When I say inventory area I don't just mean the GUI itself, I mean the actual rectangle where the item icons are drawn.

Cheers,
Paul.

Thanks so much Chris. I didn't expect a reply from yourself.
Thanks Ghost. Cheers.

EDIT:
Chris, would you be so kind as to post the default code that is automatically run if you do have inventory clicks handled by the editor?

Most appreciated you guys thankyou.
Paul.

Is there any way to change the cursormode if you right click in an inventory area? Infact is it possible at all to RunScript on an inventory area?

I'm using the default template and I want to use right click to perform

Code: ags

mouse.Mode = eModeInteract;
mouse.UseModeGraphic(eModePointer);

instead of the arrow button. (Think Sam & Max)

I've experimented with the following to no avail:

Code: ags

#sectionstart invCustomInv_Click  // DO NOT EDIT OR REMOVE THIS LINE
function invCustomInv_Click(InvWindow *control, MouseButton button) {
   if (button == eMouseRight) {
      if (player.ActiveInventory != null) {
          mouse.Mode = eModeInteract;
          mouse.UseModeGraphic(eModePointer);
      }
  }
  else {
  }
}
#sectionend invCustomInv_Click  // DO NOT EDIT OR REMOVE THIS LINE

Any ideas on how one would handle this?

Cheers,
Paul.

I think the start page is a grand idea however I think it could be expanded in a few key areas:

     1. All help and documentation can be explored inside the main window like the start page.
     2. All documentation in the main window should be presented in wiki format for convenience.
     3. A 'live' online start page with recent news and updates.

I personally like the idea of tight intergration and with the way things are going, it seems rather fitting to have everything within the editor viewport including help and doccumentation.

Does anybody agree with this little idea?

Cheers, Paul.

Brilliant! For a long time this is just what AGS needs and your absoluyely right. A good game is not just about gameplay or fancy backgrounds, it's about the experience as a whole. A game blessed with beautiful background art should indeed be blessed with an equally fascinaing interface. Thank brass monkeys somebody mentioned it before I did. I'm an Artist and wouldn't know where to start.

I have manually developed an interface / hud similar to Loom that fades in with an icon when you move the mouse over something of interest. It fades out when you move the mouse off the item. This sure would have been a lot easier and enjoyable if all this could have been graphically designed with minimal scripting.

As an artist, the design of the interface and how it works is just as important as how it looks. I would suggest a graphical approach to designing an interface through views and such to minimalize the impact on artists and indie developers when it comes time to script.

As for the name of this module, how about Graphical, Object-Orientated, Interface Enhancment (GOOIE)?


Cheers and best of luck with this!
Paul W.  8)

Come on fellers. Cheer up!
We're suggesting tools and alternatives for your benefit. I took the time out of my very busy day to soucre out links that might help you create flash games. I never suggested you ditch our beloved AGS for something else although I will admit my suggestion may have been better in the General Topic forum.
My apologies for that.

Pls try not to snap at people who wish to assist you.  :'(

Cheers,
PW.

No your right actually. I was thinking 320x240 but was typing 320x200.

although it's not accurate to say it's the resolution of the DS, iPod, or most handhelds

Really. I thought most handhelds besides PSP use 320x200. From memory this is pretty standard cross platform.

Yeah I would have though so. It's a common development resolution for Nintendo DS ipod other devices. I don't see microsoft discarding that screen format for quite some time.

Well you can keep your point. In all honesty the information I submitted was directed at everyone and not the induvidual who started the thread. If somebody else makes a flash engine or we all use an existing one (see the links) then our friend TerranRich may be inclined to make use of it.

Cheers,
PW.

[Some examples of flash based graphic adventures:]

In an alternative route to flash adventure games why not build your own flash engine. FlashAGS anyone? Please don't abbreviate that. 

Some examples of flash based graphic adventures:
http://www.langleycreations.com/andrew/blog/experiments/flage1/
http://theexchangestudent.com/index.php?option=com_contentask=blogsection&id=4&Itemid=27
http://lassie.gmacwill.com/lower.php?section=games&page=index
http://www.weremsoft.com.ar/flash-scumm/