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[Rocco]

hi,

i have no actor in the game,
are there some other options to display text in the game, or is the only approach to use an invisble.actor??
thx

[Jerrot]

i have no actor in the game,
are there some other options to display text in the game, or is the only approach to use an invisble.actor??

It doesn't have to be an actor, any entity will work fine as well, they support the Talk() method as well.
(or the Caption to go the direct way. You might checkout the verbbar example, I used it there. It's 2 years old though, but the basics should still be the same. http://forum.dead-code.org/index.php?topic=239.msg1634#msg1634 )

[Rocco]

big thanks,
i thought, maybe there are other methods then the Talk(),
like message("string",x,y); but if not its no problem to go this way.
i'd allready examined your example, and its very cool.
it could be the base for an ManiacMansionMania template.
MMM is an RON-Style serie, which takes place in the MAniac MAnsion Univers.
its in german, but some episodes are translated, i did Episode 9, englisch translation will follow this month (hopefully).
here is the URL: http://maniacmansion.microspace.ch/index.htm
now there are templates for AGS, Visionaire and PaC-DK.
this could be a good approach to reach a larger community.

one question to translations:
how can i manage, to choose a different language (string table or localization package) at game start??

[Jerrot]

hi again,

i thought, maybe there are other methods then the Talk(),
like message("string",x,y); but if not its no problem to go this way.
i'd allready examined your example, and its very cool.

If I remember my own example right, I somehow used the Caption property instead of methods like Talk, etc., but you can easily script a message function that works exactly as you described it - it would simply move the message-entity to your coordinates and change the caption to display it (or call the Talk method, whatever your purpose is).

Just ask in detail if you need some help.

it could be the base for an ManiacMansionMania template.
MMM is an RON-Style serie, which takes place in the MAniac MAnsion Univers.

Yeah, I know it (coming from Germany ) but I won't find time for it... Feel free to use published code in this forum whenever you want though.

one question to translations:
how can i manage, to choose a different language (string table or localization package) at game start??

Err... *hem*... I'll better give this part to people who already used these things in their projects.

[Mnemonic]

one question to translations:
how can i manage, to choose a different language (string table or localization package) at game start??

There are basically two ways:

1) You can create separate language packages for all the translations. This is a recommended way, because this "language packages" can contain not just a translated string table, but also localized graphics, different fonts or even different speech sounds. Before running the game you must copy the right language package to the game folder. This is done either when the game is installed, or using some kind of game launcher which allows the player to choose a language. Both Five magical amulets and the multilingual version of The Dead City are using this approach.

2) The easier but more limited way is to load a correct string table from a script, using the Game.LoadStringTable() method. If you are going to use this, be sure to also reload the inventory items (using Game.LoadItems()) otherwise their captions won't get localized.
To achive this, you'd simply create some GUI window which would allow the player to choose a language and then you'd call Game.LoadStringTable() for an appropriate table.

[Rocco]

Yeah, I know it (coming from Germany ) but I won't find time for it... Feel free to use published code in this forum whenever you want though.

thx, Im allready using all snippets i found extensively  ,

There are basically two ways:

1) You can create separate language packages for all the translations. This is a recommended way, because this "language packages" can contain not just a translated string table, but also localized graphics, different fonts or even different speech sounds. Before running the game you must copy the right language package to the game folder. This is done either when the game is installed, or using some kind of game launcher which allows the player to choose a language. Both Five magical amulets and the multilingual version of The Dead City are using this approach.

this is the way to go for me, but i have no experience with such programms.
can you recommend some install manager, or game launcher tools??

thx, greets
rocco

 

[odnorf]

2) The easier but more limited way is to load a correct string table from a script, using the Game.LoadStringTable() method. If you are going to use this, be sure to also reload the inventory items (using Game.LoadItems()) otherwise their captions won't get localized.
To achive this, you'd simply create some GUI window which would allow the player to choose a language and then you'd call Game.LoadStringTable() for an appropriate table.

I always wondered why this method is more limited and now it's the time to ask.
You can have localised strings, localised captions and if I'm not wrong localised graphics if you use an if...else code cheching a global sting. And with the same way different fonts. Am I missing something obvious here? (Except the fact that the first method is easier.)

[odnorf]

this is the way to go for me, but i have no experience with such programms.
can you recommend some install manager, or game launcher tools??

If I remember correctly Mnemonic is going to release his launcher (the one you can see in 5ma and Deadcity multilanguage) as opensource. But I don't know when.

[Mnemonic]

I always wondered why this method is more limited and now it's the time to ask.
You can have localised strings, localised captions and if I'm not wrong localised graphics if you use an if...else code cheching a global sting. And with the same way different fonts. Am I missing something obvious here? (Except the fact that the first method is easier.)

Well, yes, you could do that. But the package approach is much more flexible, because, as you said, it's easier and you can even add new languages without modifying the code.

[Rocco]

can you recommend a launcher, or can you tell me what launcher was used for 5ma.
is it a public launcher??
thx

[Mnemonic]

can you recommend a launcher, or can you tell me what launcher was used for 5ma.
is it a public launcher??

5ma uses my custom-made WME game launcher, which I'm going to release as open source sometime later when I polish the code a bit. But it's not designed to be easily customized without modifying the code and recompiling..
I'm sure there are various freeware/shareware launchers, autorun builders etc., but I can't name any from the top of my head, sorry.

[Rocco]

ok, thx i will search.
another question about the talk() method.
i use an invisible entity now for talking, as jerrot mentioned.
How can i specifiy, when a newLine occurs?
I guess the method centers the text at entity X,Y Coords, and set a NewLine after a specific amount of chars,
can i edit this behavoir??

[Mnemonic]

another question about the talk() method.
i use an invisible entity now for talking, as jerrot mentioned.
How can i specifiy, when a newLine occurs?
I guess the method centers the text at entity X,Y Coords, and set a NewLine after a specific amount of chars,
can i edit this behavoir??

You can specify the desired with of the speech captions by setting SomeEntity.SubtitlesWidth attribute.