Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

61

General Discussion / Re: 3D characters public test

« on: September 07, 2004, 08:58:08 PM »

I'm not sure if the second demo was intended only for the Radeon owners or not so if it's worth something, with my NVIDIA TNT2 I see the shadow inside the file but not in the scene itself.

62

General Discussion / Re: 3D characters public test

« on: September 06, 2004, 09:47:54 PM »

Hi,

It's been long since I posted here but be assured that I never left, I've just been (and still am) extremely busy working on the story of my game. Who would have thought it'd be so difficult to create a good story for a game... Nevertheless, I kept lurking here all this time on a daily basis (honestly!).

Great news about the 3D characters, I know you've been very busy lately with other stuff as well, among others the Dead City translation and the constant help you give here on the forums. Just wanted to say thank you for the hard work, it's much appreciated.

Now to the issue at hand:

1) does the demo run at all?

Yes, it does.


2) do you see a shadow at character's feet?

No shadows here.


3) is the character affected by colored lights?

Yes, Trinity is getting a reddish and greenish tint when in the red and green areas respectively.


4) does the demo exhibit any unexpected graphical glitches?

- Here too the chair is getting darker when trinity reaches the left and right edges but I think it's part of the scene itself and not a glitch.

- When moving Trinity to the area of the window, it would seem she stands diagonally, as if the floor of the room is spherical.


5) what videocard do you use with how much videomemory?

NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro + 32.0 MB 


6) what's the approximate FPS (a the upper left corner)?

Around 30 FPS when Trinity is on screen and around 60 FPS when not on screen (after taking her to the rightmost edge).


Two further things I'd like to say here:
1. Cool moonwalk, Trinity!
2. Won't Molly get jealous of Trinity?


Please let me know if there are any further tests you'd like me to do on my pitiful machine, I'd be happy to help if needed.

63

Software and games / Re: Posel Bohu

« on: June 12, 2004, 10:23:08 AM »

Thanks a lot!

So the heavenly prophets are probably the ones living in Nibiru that are supposed to descend back to Earth. Well, it's something. Thanks!

I'll appreciate any other info anyone else might have on this. Btw, are all the Czechs in the Czech forum only or do they venture here as well?

64

Software and games / Re: Posel Bohu

« on: June 12, 2004, 09:29:48 AM »

Well, that was the quickest response ever!

Anyway, I know about the new game in production and it being a kind of remake of the old game, I just need to know about the original game. I tried to find something in English about it but I found nothing. There are a few Czech reviews about the old game but I don't understand a thing in Czech. I tried to use online translators to translate these reviews to English but even Czech to English translators couldn't do the job and I have no idea why.

Bottom line, I need to know how the mythological concept of Nibiru is integrated into the story of the old game. Anything about that?

65

Software and games / Posel Bohu

« on: June 12, 2004, 09:03:00 AM »

I have an odd question :
Has any of the Czech people around here ever played Posel Bohu? If so, can you please tell me in what way the concept of Nibiru is connected to it?

Thanks.

66

Feature requests, suggestions / Re: post filter (& question about icon change)

« on: May 26, 2004, 10:28:20 AM »

As for the raindrops etc., we were discussing a native particle effects gererator for WME at the IRC channel. I think it might work nicely, if we defined the right parameters it should be able to handle.

I'm so glad this is being discussed. Particle effects are exactly what I need for creating a certain atmosphere in the game I'm working on. I hope so much you'll manage to pull this off.

Currently maybe it would be possible to fake more raindrops/snowflakes by animating groups of them, instead of single ones.

I thought about it but, without knowing what I'm doing, I went all the way and created a rain animation to cover the entire screen. It was composed of some 30 full screen bitmaps, each one of about 1.5MB. Well, the game didn't like my approach very much...

I don't know what approach did AGDS use (I'd guess it's hardcoded) but I can ask Tol about it (hehe).

I thought Peregrius and Unknown Identity are two different and separate teams under Future Games. Are they both using AGDS? Anyway, I'd be glad to hear his answer.

I know our community is much smaller than AGS, but I dont think it's a handicap for newbies (as have been recently stated by some AGS user), because they will get helps regardless.

I read that "handicap" thing from an AGS and WME user, well, it might *seem* like a handicap for an outsider but it really isn't. I know for a fact that no question of mine has ever gone unanswered so what does it matter if there are hundreds to answer my questions or just a few as long as I do get an answer? And when they talk about the *quantity* of users factor of the AGS forums, they somehow manage to neglect the very important *quality* factor. In those AGS forums with the so many users, there are only a few "quality" ones to give all the help and answers - much like in the WME forums...

67

Feature requests, suggestions / Re: post filter (& question about icon change)

« on: May 25, 2004, 10:59:02 PM »

Hi gfx johnny and welcome. I love your spirit.

My game is at concept stage as well and a lot of engine tests are being performed. My lead artist is testing Maya and I'm testing game engines. Because of the nature of the story that is being written as we speak, we'll need a lot of graphic effects to convey a certain feel and atmosphere. Things like haze, fog, rain and other weather effects are a must as well as other blurring effects.

I share your belief that WME could become an instant hit just as soon as one or two games come out using this engine and sporting all the fancy features you mentioned as well as the currently dormant 3D characters with shadows. You have no idea how much trouble my artist is going through in order to try and achieve some graphic effects without the support of the engine. I mean, if you ever want to go commercial with your game, the game should meet some minimal industry standards, and 3D characters, dynamic lighting/shadows and all kinds of weather and other graphic effects like sunlight-through-haze are a must. I did try Jerrot's rain script but, as he himself had stated, I can't get good enough performance for more than 200 raindrops or snowflakes, and 200 raindrops don't look good enough for a real storm... I mean, even the AGDS engine (the one that is used by Black Mirror) managed to pull off some neat thunderstorms and it didn't seem to be a very advanced engine at all.

As I see it, WME is a lot better than most other adventure-oriented engines when considering creating large-scale games. As such, it is perfect for professional and commercial use. Those who want to release short and silly games just for the fun of it will probably use AGS anyway since games can be created with it with close to no scripting at all and it has a *huge* community base. The rest of us, who wants to go pro, will stick with the more serious WME. I only wish that WME will take itself as seriously as I'm taking it and make all those effects available for the more professional of us to create really modern adventures, but I know that it's only a side project and that Mnemonic is working on it on his spare time. Oh Mnemonic, how I wish you had lots of money so that you wouldn't need that day job of yours... Come to think of it, if you had lots of money you wouldn't be working on WME either...

Anyway, I'm staying with WME because it's the best engine I found but I do vote for giving WME the edge it needs for positioning it as the most advanced adventure game engine for professional use.

68

Software and games / Re: Dreamfall

« on: May 14, 2004, 09:58:36 PM »

Like the rest of you, I liked TLJ a lot but I had been moderately pessimistic regarding Dreamfall up until yesterday. After reading what Evan Dickens from AG had to say about it from E3, a cautious optimism has started to grow in me.

As I got it, the reason for all the Action/Adventure confusion regarding Dreamfall is because Funcom is using interviews to advertise and promote their game. Because of that, when they talk to a general gaming magazine, they say it's full of action, fights and stuff but when they talk to an Adventure specialized site, they say most Action parts can be solved in a non-Actiony way as well, and that the entire game is actually an Adventure with a few action-packed sequences and nothing more. Go figure.

We'll have to wait and see I guess. One thing's for sure, for me, Dreamfall is the most interesting Adventure showing in E3 this year. All the rest is ranging from "mildly interesting and we'll see what comes out of this" (e.g. Still Life and Fahrenheit - which is pretty Actiony) to "terribly lame" (e.g. most of TAC's lineup).

Some german adventure site had the chance to play (!) a special preview and they will get a full preview the next days (I wonder why the game comes in 2005 then... well...). They said, you should forget about that "action" discussion, it's an pure real adventure game. And I trust those guys... yet

What German site is it?

Regarding personal Hype-O-Meters, Dreamfall is up there in mine as well together with Moment of Silence, Legacy: Dark Shadows and BASS2. Does it show that I'm a Sci-Fi freak ?

69

General Discussion / Re: Project Jane-J put on hold

« on: May 13, 2004, 10:29:06 AM »

Well...Booby Trap seems to be a Mine Sweeper clone with dialogues on top *cough*

Jane Jensen has my respect and will always have it, but it doesn't mean I must like *everything* she does. She's now concentrated on a different audience (the casual gamers) and although it makes me very sad, I still respect that and her. I find it ridiculous, though, that JA and AG are covering this game as if it were an adventure, just because it is developed by an accomplished ex - for the moment, at least - adventure game designer.

Somewhat off-topic - some E3 impressions, Dreamfall is starting to look very promising, IMO . TAC's lineup, on the other hand, is extremely poor for a company that specializes in adventure games...

70

Technical forum / Re: Speech & System Exclusive Mode

« on: May 07, 2004, 03:31:03 PM »

Okay... You might look at it like this... I would have considered changing it but of course it's a lot easier for me to say it since I'm not the one who actually has to do it...

But the more important thing I was saying is that Active and Visible are really two different attributes and I think the game objects should have both. In a perfect world, the windows and the other controls would have the attributes Visible and Enabled (and not Disabled, btw), along with their design-time equivalents VISIBLE and ENABLED. Game objects would have the attributes Visible and Active, along with their design-time equivalents VISIBLE and ACTIVE.

Of course none this is a must since there are easy workarounds. It's just me and my bloody perfectionism...

71

Technical forum / Re: Speech & System Exclusive Mode

« on: May 07, 2004, 10:26:50 AM »

Ok, I finished and it looks great now. It was also a good opportunity to learn how to use the entity containers, a feature I didn't touch till now. Pretty cool feature, now that I've actually seen it working. It opens a hell of a lot of cool possibilities.

Btw, is the Visible = Active thing by design? It seemed pretty weird. I mean, it's the same attribute but it is sometimes called Visible and sometimes Active. As a matter of fact, these two names have two very different meanings. The Active attribute states whether the entity is able to do things or not (like talking, for example), while the Visible attribute simply states whether the entity is visible or not. It is perfectly legitimate for an invisible entity to be able to talk (well, in the game-world, I mean... ).

72

Technical forum / Re: Speech & System Exclusive Mode

« on: May 06, 2004, 11:41:52 PM »

The solution is to embed an entity into your window (using the entity-container control) and then simply call its Talk() method with an empty text.

I embedded one of my existing entities into my "Options" menu and tried the Talk method while moving the slider. Everything worked just great. Now since I didn't want the entity to be seen on the window, I set it to VISIBLE = FALSE. Well, it had indeed become invisible but, unfortunately, it had also become inaudible...

Do I have to create a transparent entity specifically for this purpose so that I'll be able to leave it with VISIBLE = TRUE and still it won't be seen on the window?

73

Technical forum / TAB key

« on: May 06, 2004, 09:48:20 PM »

I'm not receiving the TAB key in my "Keypress" event handler in game.script. Does anyone know anything about it?

74

Technical forum / Re: Speech & System Exclusive Mode

« on: May 05, 2004, 08:20:18 PM »

There's no hardcoded limit on total sound channels playing simultaneously, you're only limited to one channel per object (actor/entity/game/item), not counting sounds played by animations.

Nice. VERY nice, in fact! In AGS there is a total of 6 channels, and that's including the speech, music and sfx channels. One of WME's greatest advantages over AGS, in my opinion, is that almost nothing is limited in WME. In AGS almost *everything* has a limit.

75

Technical forum / Re: Speech & System Exclusive Mode

« on: May 05, 2004, 02:06:01 PM »

Mmmm, I forgot about the global volume... If I include a global volume slider I should really play music, sfx and speech all together while moving it.

Btw (and way off topic), is there only one channel for sfx? I mean, in a scene where there is, say, a machine that makes constant noise (on top of the scene's background music), can I still play footsteps or some other sfx if the character opens/closes a door or something?