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[vatre]

Hey, everybody!

I am new here (not new to scripting and/or programming), just started playing with WME a few days ago. I am testing it to see if it fits our needs, and I gotta say - I like what I see... 
Me and my friend (The Artist Not Really Known At All)  grabbed a few discarded sprites and backgrounds and I went to work to make a simple two-scened "game" just to see what one can do in WME.

However, documentation seems rather confusing and not really updated. That is why I am posting here, and I guess you will hear more from me...

First thigs first - options/features like close up layers and rotation levels (both found in Scene editor) are not mentioned anywhere in the docs. Now, I am already using CloseUp layer for "zooming-in" certain parts of the scene (for example, when one opens a cabinet drawer I could activate Close Up layer with drawer contents drawn nicley). As I understand, it is exclusive and can hold interactive entities/items so I suppose it's purpose is to do exactly what I did. Am I right? Rotation levels, however, left me puzzled. I saw no effect on the actor nor other entites, so I would really like if someone could explain just what they do.

What really scares me is the fact that, while searching this forum, I found a lot of code samples using methods/attributes of objects I never saw in the docs. How much of the funcionality is kept undercover like this?!  I could spend days solving a problem while I could use an undocumented function... I don't like the sound of that... 

Now, this is it for now, gotta go back to my real job  but I'll be back soon with interesting problems including staircases that go into floors and various similar mindbending stuff...

Vatre

[Mnemonic]

Welcome Vatre,

Now, I am already using CloseUp layer for "zooming-in" certain parts of the scene (for example, when one opens a cabinet drawer I could activate Close Up layer with drawer contents drawn nicley). As I understand, it is exclusive and can hold interactive entities/items so I suppose it's purpose is to do exactly what I did. Am I right?

Yes, precisely.

Rotation levels, however, left me puzzled. I saw no effect on the actor nor other entites, so I would really like if someone could explain just what they do.

Thhe rotation levels are supposed to simulate the "fish-eye" effect of a camera. As the actors are approaching the edges of the screen, they are slightly tilted left or right, i.e. you'd place one rotation level to the left edge of the sceen, setting it to -10 degrees, and another rotation level to the right edge, setting it to +10 degrees. You can see this effect used in Project Joe demo in the bathroom scene.
For rotation levels to work the game must be run in accelerated mode and the actor(s) need to have the .Rotatable attribute set to true.

What really scares me is the fact that, while searching this forum, I found a lot of code samples using methods/attributes of objects I never saw in the docs. How much of the funcionality is kept undercover like this?!  I could spend days solving a problem while I could use an undocumented function... I don't like the sound of that... 

I dare to say the scripting reference manual section is complete now. Make sure you have always the latest docs version (there is a version written at the bottom of the first page).

[vatre]

Thank you for such a quick response, Mnemonic!

Anyway, let's get to the real deal...

In one of the scenes, I've got stairs running down into the floor, like to a basement. I've got problems getting my actor to follow the steps. Staircase is laid out left-to-right, and in front of it is an entity that masks the actor when it comes on the stairs-region that is behind that entity. However, that stairs-region, of course, must follow the steps, and therefore, on a scene it actually goes diagonally, up-left to down-right. Now, I managed to keep the scale of the actor constant using the scale property of the stairs-region, but actor still uses a "dr" sprite when walking down the stairs, and "ul" sprite when coming back up, and that looks wierd. Is there any way to force a "rr" and "ll" sprites to when walking on that region?
Also, to get the actor to find his way down the steps, I had to remove the floor region from the part of the floor in front of the stairs-hole. There is now the masking entity and stairs-region I mentioned. However, it looks silly that you can't go to that part of the floor.

So what am I really talking about is having two (or more?) overlapping regions, but forcing an actor to use different paths (and animations), depending on where he came to the area with overlaping regions from. In my case, I would like to walk all over the floor in front of the stairs-hole, but when (and only then)  I click an entity that makes him go to the staircase, he should use another path, walking on the stairs-region, behind the masking entity, using a different set of sprites...

Pfff... I hope this make sence.

[Mnemonic]

Pfff... I hope this make sence.

Well, a picture would help a lot, I think But generally speaking, IMHO it's best not to let the player to walk freely at the staircase, but better override the up/down walking simply by using custom animations, i.e. the actor walks to the stairs, the game switches to non-interactive mode, aimation is played where the actor walks up/down the stairs, then the game becomes interactive again and the actor continues walking.
As for the region issues, you can use the Actor.StickToRegion method to override actor's z-position within the scene.

[vatre]

But generally speaking, IMHO it's best not to let the player to walk freely at the staircase, but better override the up/down walking simply by using custom animations, i.e. the actor walks to the stairs, the game switches to non-interactive mode, aimation is played where the actor walks up/down the stairs, then the game becomes interactive again and the actor continues walking.

Yeah, I came to that conclusion too. I guess there really is no need for actor to roam around the stairs since there is nothing for him to do except go up or down...

Anywayz, thank you very much for your quick support, this is like having a WME tutor of my own
Here's to you,  ,  and I'm back to work.

Vatre