Preparing a Vis. project... (Catyph)

Thanks for your help.
It doesn't have 0 - 9 inside each animation : the double hour, double minute and double second have a 0 - 5 animation. I did the same than in your template, so I don't think it's the problem

This is what the log file says :

11:28:37: Error: Failed to run string in Lua: [string "load_Scripts()"]:1: attempt to call global 'load_Scripts' (a nil value)
11:28:37: Error: String content: load_Scripts()
11:28:37: Error: Failed to run string in Lua: [string "startCountdown()"]:1: attempt to call global 'startCountdown' (a nil value)
11:28:37: Error: String content: startCountdown()

I don't understand well what it means, I hope you will.

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also that script is a countdown timer - it's also possible to edit it to count upwards instead.

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I'll ask you later about that, if the countdown works in my game, but I'm interested !

you did set the scripts up as definition scripts? you click on a script in the editor then the properties tab for it & set it to definition. & if you are loading via my external script then you should make sure it is placed in the correct location: your project root folder where .ved file is located/scripts/the file.

it would be much simpler if you just copied the text from the lua file itself into the editor as a definition script & then removed the load script & the execute a script function which loads the file. you can open lua files with notepad, notepad++, sublime text or probably most other text editors.

Yes I set the scripts as definition files, it was done already. The .lua file was at the right place, however I tried as you said : I copied the whole script in the editor. It doesn't change anything, unfortunately, and the timer keeps running super fast and looping.
There has to be something I did wrong. Maybe in the variables definition ?
Well I'll keep trying. If you have an idea someday, let me know.

I can't say really without being able to look at the .ved/your project itself... it was quite a complicated/large script & also involved a fair bit of work in the editor too, as far as I can remember.

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I can't say really without being able to look at the .ved/your project itself... it was quite a complicated/large script & also involved a fair bit of work in the editor too, as far as I can remember.

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Thanks I understand. If I don't find a solution I will try to share the project with you. Having this countdown working is a necessity for the whole game, but not at this state of the development. I'll keep working on it sometimes and maybe i'll find the bug.

You'll be glad to learn that I finally made the save system. I used the basic save function in the end.

if you don't mind, I'd like to ask new questions :

Diary
how would you make the perfect diary system ?
- is there a tool for that in Visionaire ?
- would you use the speech/text system ?
- would you create your own jpg/png pictures ?
The last solution seems to be the best for a very personal look of the diary, but the question of the localisation becomes more difficult. It would need to convert the text in each picture into another language, and then importing the good picture in the game depending on the language defined. It is totally possible (I did like this in ASA), but if there is a system in VS I'm interested.

Foreground
It is quite easy to add a foreground in VS, but when the background is larger and allows horizontal scrolling : how do you fix the foreground so it doesn't move on the screen when the background moves ? Example : you look into binoculars, there is the black area around the screen which is static, but what you are looking at is moving.
When I try to do this, the foreground is on the very left and disapears when I scroll to the right.

Escape key issue
I often have an issue with the Esc key. I have my Option menu assigned to it. It often happens that the Esc key is like "disabled" in VS : the menu won't show (and if there is a video playing I can't skip it). I know that the menu works, because if I use another key it will show up. And the keyboard works as well. Have you ever heard of this bug ? It seems to happen more frequently when my PC is low in memory after hours of work, or when I have Media Player running in the background.

1. I would opt for the png image solution & just hide/show the required ones based on the current game language. There is actually an if query option for checking the current language. It is also possible with Lua to check the game language & in the upcoming release is also a new option which allows you to check the os language of the players machine too. Using the if query & some conditions, you can easily determine what should be displayed.

2. If you are wanting the background to scroll but keep the binoculars in the same position then just add the binoculars image & black border/overlay to an interface. Then you could use the mouse on screen edge or some buttons or something to make it scroll around the scene.

3. No idea about this one. I've not noticed this issue before, but I've not used 3.7.1 all that much to be honest as I have access to dev & beta builds.

Thanks AFRLme

Hey, I'm happy to say the the development of the game is going well ! I have a nice working Datalog (diary) and the first puzzles are done. The beginning of Catyph is fully playable (about 15 minutes of game) so it's great.

There are still a few things that bother me :

- the Timer script still doesn't work in my game. Same problem than explained before.

- I was wondering if it's possible to add subtitles in a video ? When you're in Windows and run an AVI file, if there's a .SRT or .SUB file (subtitles) with the same name, then the subtitles are automatically shown in your video. I tried that in VS but the subtitles won't show. Do you have an idea ? I need to switch between different languages of subtitles.

- I was planning to release a playable demo in private and share it with chosen people here and there (including some people of the VS staff if you're interested). Before doing that, I thought it would be much better to wait for the new version of VS, because it would fix some issues in my game (example : the background music stopping during videos). Does anyone know if the new VS will release soon, or very soon, or very very soon ? I read somewhere that it would release in the 1st quarter of 2014. More info ?

Is there a thread on the forums where we can list the improvements we wish in future versions of VS ?
Below is one of the things that bother me : most of the paths are frozen. Example : when you load a picture (image tab / browse), it opens a "Load graphic" window (see attached image). At the bottom, there is the path of the picture, but you can't change it manually ! You always have to browse the folders until you find the picture. Most of the time it would be much faster to write the path, particularly when you already know the name of your picture. Sometimes you duplicate a layer in your scene, and you just want to change the background picture "pic1.png" into "pic2.png". It's just the number 1 to replace into 2 in the path, but you can't do it. Well it's not a big problem, but I think it makes me lose a lot of time. I'd love to have this possibility.
Just wanted to let you know

there is a feature/bugfix wishlist thread somewhere on here... try searching for it, or browse in the improvements & conception section of the forum.

if you use .mkv format for your videos then you can add subtitles. see here ( http://wiki.visionaire2d.net/index.php?title=Video_encoding ) for additional information & encoding tips by David (BigStans).

Like I said before: I can't really do much about the timer script issue without being able to see what it's doing/why it isn't working, for myself.

Oh great, glad to read that VS supports MKV.
Maybe I missed something but when there are several subtitles in the MKV (english, french, spanish...), how does VS find the good one in the game ?

About the timer yeah no problem, I remember that you are willing to help if I send you my files (I was just listing the things still to be fixed in that part of the game
If I sent you a build version would you still have access to the scripts, or does it have to be the vis project ? I ask this because I'm going to upload a build version soon.

Would need to be the .ved & resource files. I'm not sure about how the subtitles work for .mkv videos. I assume it selects based on current active game language. You would be better off asking David how it works.

P.S: in the upcoming release you will be able to assign independent active languages for text & speech output. So the player could leave speech in vo format & view subtitles in another language or vice versa.