Topics

1

Beginners' Technical Questions / [solved] new left/right click infterface

« on: 12 Apr 2011, 18:09 »

hello there,

this is my first day i am using ags and i have been doing a lot of things today in customizing my own adventure, so far been finding out how to create own gui's (even text gui's), remove the text background, make an outlined text that is only used in speech but not in the menus, and recoded some minor stuff that i didn't like (added escape key option for inventory), done a transparent inventory with only 2 options and created own alpha channel graphics (i guess i can only use 1 colour as transparent, not really use an alpha channel so i could use anti-aliased sprites around the edges of the objects ?)


now i have found out how to use eMode for the mouse clicks.


what i want to do is : left click does walking AND using objects (and inventory objects), right click does look.

i implemented that already, but all i am missing is a trigger that tells me, if the cursor is on a usable object or useable hotspot, so i can set the mouse.mode to interact, else i would set the mouse.mode to walk.


here is my script so far:

function on_mouse_click(MouseButton button) {
  // called when a mouse button is clicked. button is either LEFT or RIGHT
  if (IsGamePaused() == 1) {
    // Game is paused, so do nothing (ie. don't allow mouse click)
  }
  else if (button == eMouseLeft) {  // LEFT MOUSE BUTTON
    if (CURSOR ON A USABLE OBJECT OR HOTSPOT) {
      if (player.ActiveInventory!=null){ // IF INVENTORY OBJECT IS SELECTED
        mouse.Mode=eModeUseinv; // SELECT USE INVENTORY OBJECT MODE
      }
      else {
        mouse.Mode=eModeInteract; // ELSE SELECT INTERACT MODE
      }
    ProcessClick(mouse.x, mouse.y, mouse.Mode); // DO LEFT CLICK WITH SELECTED MOUSE MODE
    }
    else {
    mouse.Mode=eModeWalkto;  // IF CURSOR IS ON NO OBJECT SELECT WALK MODE
    ProcessClick(mouse.x, mouse.y, mouse.Mode); // DO LEFT CLICK WITH SELECTED MOUSE MODE
    }
  }
  else if (button == eMouseRight){
    mouse.Mode=eModeLookat;  // SELECT LOOK AT MODE
    ProcessClick(mouse.x, mouse.y, mouse.Mode); // DO LEFT CLICK WITH SELECTED MOUSE MODE
  }
}


i have been searching the forum and looking at faqs and variables, but couldn't find anything specific to this.

i could of course download an existing left/right mod, but i looked at the existing one and it only makes use of the lookat feature together with walk mode, that is available to all objects and hotspots, so i couldn't find the trigger i am looking for in there.

the trigger is this line in the beginning  - if (CURSOR ON A USABLE OBJECT OR HOTSPOT) -

if there is no function for this (like checking mouse.x and mouse.y for objects 0 to 99 beeing there in that room or something), would there be another way to do this ?

2

Hints & Tips / 6 days a sacrifice - story talk

« on: 01 Apr 2011, 20:18 »

hi there, i just finished playing this game after the 5 days a stranger game.

and i don't quite get the point of this game, who can help me with it ?


i really enjoyed the first game of trilby, but the second was a total mess for me..

i didn't really enjoy the game very much, because i can't really get into all this "god" and "bible" thing. i am atheist in real life and don't believe in one "god", i believe in a scientific and spiritual way that many of those phenomens between people and earth and universe DO exist, but i don't believe in a word like "god" that explains all (it doesn't, it's just believing in something you don't understand). i believe only in what i can explain. as i really expanded my conscience some years ago, i know there are brainwaves and magnetic fields around us, that can correlate with each others to make some kind of unconscious "telepathy" working, that is a main factor in life for man and animal, and maybe even plants.

so that may be the reason, i don't quite get this game. maybe this game is just about "god", and so i can't cope with that.


it's nonetheless somehow interesting and the characters were done quite promising.. but i still don't get the whole picture of it, if there really is one (can anyone explain to me pls?)


or is this all just fantasy, there to show you the meaning of the words pain, fear, soul, mind, spirit and how they are related ?


if the guy in red is the prisoner johnson, did he have the same fate as the mischild of the defoe family and therefore became a mind & soul ghost (because he killed himself) who is there as a slave of the last god on earth who lives in a magick world that is timeless ?

did i get this right ?

if so, ok.. but i don't quite get all the story with the defoe kid. and how the burned house can be in the cellar of the optimology building.
in another scene there was talk, that this whole defoe house was just in the mind of the prisoner.


if this was all just fantasy and the main story was the story of the "prisoner" seen as a metaphor to a person living in fear of pain from others and therfore killing them in his mind and lastly himself, so he gets his freedom, and therefore living as a spirit person with mind and soul to help others, there is no real sense in all this, there is no explanation of what to make out of this all. so it's still a sad game and just shows some kind of "bible truth" to me, but no real truth that is adorable in real life.


do you have other ways of seeing this game ?


edit: what also troubles me: if the prisoner is the only real characters, and the trilby is some kind of protecting instance in his mind from the horrors that will kill his soul, and the monk is himself after he killed his body, how can the monk (aka the prisoner) appear in his dreams before he kills himself ?
is this related to the timecontinuum magick world, that is timeless ?

3

Beginners' Technical Questions / no midi output

« on: 29 Mar 2011, 17:28 »

i was trying to get some midi sound out of the games (just playing games, not coding yet), but couldn't accomplish that.

i got a creative sb aufigy 2 zs platinum in here and working drivers for win vista 64.

it doesn't matter if i set audio out to speakers of spdif (got spdif connected and i get all other sounds like sound fx in games when using spdif or speakers).

i read the beginners sticky and searched for midi, but couldn't find a clue on how to enable this.

i tried all settings in the winsetup.exe, like winwaveout or directout and also mci and win32 midi mapper.

could it be, that all of the games i played just don't have midi music, but only sound effects ? like the vacuum, 5 days a stranger and some others..

does a game only have midi music, when there is a .mid file in the game directory ?


i also tried using my mainboard soundchip from realtek (a good one, ALC1200 on the asus m4n82 deluxe board) but i don't get any midi music.


i tried downloading .mid files and play them with windows media player and irfan view on the sb audigy and on the realtek speaker out but i don't get any music either.


do i have to install some kind of midi sound banks and midi driver for vista 64 to hear music when playing .mid files ?

i also checked the MIDI VOLUME in the windows sound playback device - levels - settings, the slider at Midi Volume is on 86 and not muted.


i also checked the vista 64 driver information for my sb audigy 2 zs:

Supports all Audigy card with a Hardware EMU10K2 DSP chipset (OEM / Retail models):
- Audigy 2 ZS (including Platinum and Platinum Pro)

i also got a creative "Windows Vista MID Device Configuration Utiltity" and can select one of the following "Default Midi Device - Microsoft Midi Mapper" Settings:
- Microsoft Midi Mapper (was selected and is selected as default)
- SB AUDIGY 2 ZS MIDI IO 2 [B880]
- SB AUDIGY 2 ZS Synth A [B880]
- SB AUDIGY 2 ZS Synth B [B880]
- SB AUDIGY 2 ZS MIDI IO [B880]

this soundcard has hardware midi in and output, so this should refer to the MIDI IO.

i could try to select Synth A or Synth B, but normally the Microsoft MIDI Mapper should work ? i also searched my whole system for GM.DLS, which is the MIDI Soundbank for Windows Vista, and found even 6 files with that filename on my system, so i guess it "should" work, but it doesn't.


now i found a creative app called SoundFont Bank Manager.

i can play notes in there with the sb audigy MIDI IN (not needed for games) set to MIDI IO or MIDI IO 2 and the SoundFont Device set to Synth A or Synth B.

i then can select one of 9 Banks with 128 sounds each and additional DrumKit.

so i guess Midi works on my System and with my Aufigy card, just not with Windows Vista somehow.


what could i try to get music running in games and playing .mid files in vista 64 ?

4

Advanced Technical Forum / running a 640x480 game on a 720p TV in fullscreen

« on: 25 Mar 2011, 19:50 »

hi there,

this is my first post and i apologize if this question was discussed before, but i searched topics before posting and couldn't find an answer.

the problem i am facing is this:

i have an ags game that uses 640x480 resolution.

i have a sony kdf e50a11e widescreen connected to my nvidia gtx 260 via hdmi in vista 64.

i can set the game running in fullscreen, but as my screen is a TV and not a monitor, i don't see about 10 % on the upper and lower side of the game screen, so the inventory and text is not readable.

i can only run the game in 640 x 480 in a window and that is very small when using a 1280x720 resolution in windows (can just use 720p or 1080i).

when i try to run it with 2x, it shows me a resolution of 1280x900, i tried that, but can't start the game, because this resolution is not supported by my "monitor" aka TV.

so i tried running it in windowed mode in 1280x900 but it won't work either, i get the same startup message.

there is also no possibility to run it windowed in 640x480 and simply resize the window with the mouse on the desktop.


is there any solution to this problem ?

i guess many people are facing this problem with HD TVs connected to their pc today.


i can play other games running in 640x400 resolution with sidebars without problem, it just matters in 640x480 games, as this resolution is 4:3 and so even more 1:1 than 640x400 or 320 x 200 for example..

is there a possibility to make a feature in winsetup.exe for Widescreen "TV"s so that the picture is resized to about 84 percent in height and centered, so TV users can see the top and bottom of the game screen ?


i know there is a nvidia resize feature so i can adjust the edges of the visible screen and make a new resolution, but this doesn't really work like it should and the picture is not sharp anymore and text gets blurry or unreadable.