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Messages - Kaz

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61
Technical forum / Re: Rotation for Dummies?
« on: August 13, 2009, 02:35:51 PM »
Yup. Missed it.  ::slug

(With deft flick of ankle, plants own boot upon own jacksy)

Thanks for help chaps.


62
Technical forum / Re: Rotation for Dummies?
« on: August 12, 2009, 10:06:44 PM »
Thanks Lacosweb for your time and effort.

I put your suggestion in.

The result is that nonetheless, the entity remains as fixed and unmoveable as paint. Rotation is what it won't do :)
 
Is there some meaning of the word "Rotate" I haven't grasped? Have I got my entities wrong? Does it simply not work in a window?

BTW, this is a well-worn path - it's a jigsaw puzzle.

Any other thoughts, chaps?

Thanks

63
Technical forum / Re: Rotation for Dummies?
« on: August 12, 2009, 04:14:52 PM »
Setting q.Rotate = 0; first did it. That's great, thanks.

But should it work in a window, where a container 'EntImage' has an entity I want to rotate? I have a button with its own script that is supposed to start the entity rotating. No rotation is produced. Help please?

Thanks

Code: [Select]
on "LeftClick"
  {
  var x = Game.MouseX;
  var y = Game.MouseY;
  Game.LockMouseRect(x,y,x,y);
  this.SetCursor("scenes\black\RotateCursorP.PNG");
  Game.PlayMusicChannel(0, "scenes\black\StarsAndStripes.ogg", true);
  global w;  // Call the loaded window
  var i;
  i = w.GetControl("EntImage");
  i.Rotate = 0;
  while(true)
    {
    i.Rotate = i.Rotate + 10;
    Sleep(100);
    }
  }
on "LeftRelease"
  {
  this.SetCursor("scenes\black\RotateCursor.PNG");
  Game.StopMusicChannel(0);
  Game.LockMouseRect(0,0,0,0);
  }

64
Technical forum / Re: Rotation for Dummies?
« on: August 12, 2009, 11:41:17 AM »
Nope. Change applied. Entity still as staunchly rigid as ever. No sign of rotation.

65
Technical forum / Rotation for Dummies?
« on: August 12, 2009, 10:15:05 AM »
Hi all

I read of all these clever people making things rotate, but I just don't get it. According to my warped imagination, the code below should have the sprite in the entity in the node "png" spinning like topsy, but no. The sprite appears, but remains resolutely upright and immobile.
Code: [Select]
var q = Scene.GetNode("png");
var r = q.GetSprite();
r.Rotatable = true;
while(true)
  {
  r.Rotate = 10;
  Sleep(100);
  }

I realise it's probably because I've got the whole concept wrong but after ages on the forum and the docs, trying this and that, I can't figure it out. Can somebody please point out what I've misunderstood?

Galaxy Quest - "explain as you would a child"

Thanks
 

66
Of course! Hemm, I mean, that sounds reasonable. No wonder you smiled  :)

We'll test it.

Ah - double-clicked it as fast as I could. And it worked as it should. :(

Never mind, your suggestion sounds right, so we'll lock the routine down.

Thanks

67
Mnem

I humbly and apologetically take your point. The overriding TakeItem from game.script:

Code: [Select]
method TakeItem(var ItemName)
  {
  // call the original method we have just overriden
  this.TakeItem(ItemName);
  global InventoryOn;
  if(InventoryOn == true)
    {
    Game.PlaySound("sounds\ToInventory.ogg");
  global InventoryHint = true;
  Sleep(1000);
  InventoryHint = false;
}
  }

The full script where the method is called:
Code: [Select]
#include "scripts\base.inc"
#include "scripts\keys.inc"

self.GoExclusive();

on "LeftClick"
  {
  var a = Game.IsItemTaken("LetterRhiannon");
  if(a == true)
    {
Game.PlaySound("sounds\NoticeboardOn.ogg");
}
  else
    {
    Game.TakeItem("LetterRhiannon");
global gGotLetterRhiannon = true;
    }
  self.Close;
  Game.UnloadObject(this);
  }

The script that checks whether the letter is in inventory as a condition on an action:

Code: [Select]
if(gFAC.Seen != true)
  {
  global gFireIsLit;
  global gGotLetterRhiannon;
  if(gFireIsLit != true || gGotLetterRhiannon != true)
    {
    // Fire not lit or study not visited - just rattle the door
    Game.PlaySound("sounds\LockedSuffolkDoor.ogg");
gRhiannonHaunt.TriedDoor = true;
}
  else
    {
// Play the FAC sequence
    Game.Interactive = false;
gRhiannonHaunt.Summon = false;
    Game.PlaySound("sounds\LockedSuffolkDoor.ogg");
    Sleep(1000);
    Game.SetMousePos(1024, 768);
    var video = Scene.GetNode("video");
    video.Active = true;
    video.PlayTheora("Video\FAC.ogg");
    Sleep(20000);
    video.Active = false;
// This gFAC.Seen = true will prevent the Summons from running again
    gFAC.Seen = true;
    gFAC.Solved = false;
    Scene.InitializeDoor();
    Game.Interactive = true;
}
  }

Anything you can suggest as to why it works usually, but not always?

Thanks

68
Acknowledged.

69
Mnem,

Thanks for having a look at this but I don't think there's any point sending any other code. There's only one place where the letter goes to inventory and there's only one place where the global gets set or not. The letter is in inventory, so it has to happen in that sequence. If the 'else' is entered, the letter gets taken, so the global should get set. But sometimes it's null.

Just one of those things I guess.

Suggest we classify it as 'can't reproduce'.

Noel

70
Wow, who set the question? Is that inherent bias supposed to be an academic approach? :)  Perhaps 'relative decline in mass market appeal' but 'unpopularity'? Try telling that to Big Fish or Her Interactive. The games industry is up 16% on the year before in the middle of a recession and adventures hang on to their 6% share. They're not unpopular, it's just that people of a certain age and gender don't get to hear about them.

This is a market issue, not a player issue. Places to look:

1) The horrendous advances charged by console game manufacturers which force developers to spend millions marketing console games and thus to swamp retail shelves. I could show you a city game outlet with its entire stock of PC games on one rack next to the staff toilets :).

2) Absence of marketing channels. Take a look at the pictures of the editorial staff of any mainstream games magazine. Exclusively young and male. Totally unrepresentative of the gaming demographic, but the magazines dominate the readership with a very, very, narrow agenda. There is no print adventure specialist magazine in the US or UK. Actual average age of gamers is 35 and the gender split is even (NPD). The magazines and retailers do not realise they are ignoring the majority of the potential market.

3) The state of adventure publishers in the US is also worth considering. A number of them have seen their developer lists change dramatically, which begs the question why they can't hold on to their developers. One well known one last year - 42 games, 38 developers - everybody leaves. Why? Small firms, small marketing budgets, possibly tight cash-flow? Or something else?

4) The decline of the PC - popular in the 90's and early 00's with Email and the rise of the Web, the younger generation uses mobiles for those functions and plays games on consoles.

But it's about to turn round. See Steve Ince's excellent article at AdventureGamers. He contends the HOG is in decline and the adventure game will take over. We just need better distribution channels to replace the retail outlet, which fell off a cliff last Christmas.

Cheers

Noel
Arberth Studios

71
Game design / Re: How to write a script for a adventure game?
« on: August 10, 2009, 07:11:18 PM »
I've used all these one way or another
"Writing for Video Games" by (the) Steve Ince
"The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design" Flint Dille & John Zuur Platten
"Story" by Robert McKee
"The Complete Guide to Standard Script Formats Part 1 - Screenplay" by Cole/Haag

Cheers

Noel

72
Not a bug / Declaring and setting globals in same statement unreliable?
« on: August 10, 2009, 06:37:36 PM »
No complaint, this engine rocks, and nothing invented by humans can be perfect. Here is a weird one.

I have a script that does this:
Code: [Select]
else
  {
  Game.TakeItem("LetterRhiannon");
  global gGotLetterRhiannon = true;
  }
Rhiannon's letter goes to inventory as it should but occasionally - not on every playing - the global doesn't get set. The player complains that "the letter is still there". I have a savegame from a player to attest. I can see the letter in inventory, but the debugger tells me that the global is in a null state.
I believe I'm right that I can declare and set a global in the same statement, and the majority of times the game is played, both instructions are executed. It sounds like a bug, because usually it works and occasionally it doesn't.
Should I have used
Code: [Select]
else
  {
  Game.TakeItem("LetterRhiannon");
  global gGotLetterRhiannon;
  gGotLetterRhiannon = true;
  }
instead, as a best practice principle anyway?

Cheers

Noel

73
Can't reproduce / Re: Probable bug in 'Editor' object
« on: August 04, 2009, 07:55:59 PM »
The problem with something that happens and then stops happening is that it obeys the law of Murphy rather than that of physics. Just tried to reproduce it. No luck. But we have recognised the beep as the Windows 'Default Beep' as specified in XP/Control Panel/Sounds.

Could it be that we don't try to trap keyboard input? We have a lot of windows that have no "on Keypress", for example. Could trying to make keyboard input when one of those is running, screw up the keyboard buffer? (I presume there still is such a thing in Windows)

 

74
Can't reproduce / Re: Probable bug in 'Editor' object
« on: August 04, 2009, 03:51:34 PM »
Actually, it's not safe to say it worked before. Although on this occasion it was in the German version, it's happened in the English too, not just in XP but in Vista, but seemed to cure itself before we could spot a pattern. This time, the two states appeared in the same playing session, separated only by an Alt-Tab to Windows, then back into the game. Nothing could have been changed during that, because it was a compiled version.

Windows language version in this case is XP SP3 English. Keyboard layout is UK English. Password content not an issue because it doesn't use specifically German characters.

We arrived in the gameplay at the point where the password has to go in. Every entered keystroke got a 'beep' and no text appeared - I don't know where the beep comes from. We called the in-game menu (Exclusive window) and attempted to save - same thing, beeps only, text not accepted. We resumed play, back to the password screen, same thing. So we alt-tabbed to Windows desktop. Then went back into the game. Now, both password field and savegame field would accept text, no beeps anymore.

75
Can't reproduce / Probable bug in 'Editor' object
« on: August 03, 2009, 06:38:01 PM »
Two devices using 'Editor' object in 'Rhiannon' are entering the name of a save game and putting a password into Rhiannon's computer during play.

Test playing this afternoon, both of these objects responded with a beep - probably from Windows - for every keypress, and no text could be entered. Alt-tab out, then back in - suddenly both fields were available. Nothing else was changed. The game was still running.  ???

Unpredictable behaviour - nothing scarier on a computer. Gotta be a bug.  :(

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