I need help.. I want to have a picture representing an npc whenever he/she speaks. I have saved these pictures into the event pics folder. When I select these pictures in the dialogue box in the event editor everything looks fine, but when I launch my game, they do not appear in the dialogues. What am I doing wrong? I have heard that you can have pictures apear in dialogue, but I cannot figure out why they aren't apearing.
thanx,
Crayon_Eater
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The way that pictures with dialogs should work is that the picture is placed above the dialog itself, which is moved down the screen if necessary to fit the entire picture on the screen. Are you saying that the dialog appears correctly, but the picture doesn't?
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I don't know what I'm talking about.
It needs but one to breed a war, not two... And those who have not swords can still die upon them. Would you have the folk of Gondor gather you herbs only, while the Dark Lord gathers armies?
Do you have Coldstone 1.0.1? The updated fixed a few bugs w/ dialog pictures. If it's the original verision than the image is probably hidden behind the dialog...you need to download the update.
You did go through the standard 72dpi, correct file extension, etc right?
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(url="http://"http://jankostar.net/sanko")my Page of Garbage(/url)
Thank you sanko, I checked and I was not using version 1.0.1, but now that I am, I still can't get my pictures to appear.
Glenn the dialogue apears as it would if there were no pictures in the dialogue, and the pictures will not show up.
if any one knows what I am doing wrong, or is having the same problem as me please tell me
Crayon_Eater
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What did the update fix? Maybe I haven't played with it enough yet, but it all seems the same as before to me. This reply assumes everything works as it did before the update, so if I am wrong, I'm afraid none of it will be helpful. Please correct me if this is the case.
Mr. Eater: Coldstone places dialogue pics in the middle of the screen. There is no way to position it. If your dialogue interface screen covers the middle of the screen, you won't see the pic unless:
1. You "carve a hole" (create a transparent space) in the middle of your dialogue interface the same size as your pic. You'll have to do your own calculations to get it all to line up correctly.
OR
2. Save the pic as a single frame QT .mov. Coldstone puts this format above the interface graphic.
Alternately, you could do what we are doing, which is make the dialogue interface graphic 100% transparent. Don't even use it. Instead use pics for every dialogue, and include the "interface" design in the pic. Coldstone puts the text over everything, so this works fine. Just watch file size: it adds up.
As far as positioning, the only way to put a picture anywhere besides the middle of the screen is by making a 640X480 transparent .png as a template and placing your dialogue pic into that, sort of creating your own screen layout for Coldstone to use, because it will not do it for you.
myshkyn
Dialog pictures will generally appear above the dialog graphic...if your dialog graphic takes up most of the screen there might be problems (just an idea - I've got nothing to base it on) 
Also be sure to double check the graphic files you are using meet the requirements (72 dpi and the file extension is right)
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(url="http://"http://jankostar.net/sanko")my Page of Garbage(/url)
Thanx Goober, i have decided to make all of the dialogue in my game seperate png's. Is this the right format? just out of curiosity...
Crayon
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Quote
Originally posted by Crayon_Eater:
**Thanx Goober, i have decided to make all of the dialogue in my game seperate png's. Is this the right format? just out of curiosity...
Crayon
**
PNG files will indeed work in Coldstone, but you shouldn't need to use them for every single dialog unless you're using custom fonts or something. Goober is incorrect in stating that dialog pictures are always placed in the middle of the screen and hidden by the dialog itself - if this is happening, it's a bug, though I've not seen it before.
Do your dialog pictures work properly in Coldstone otherwise? Can you use them as a stamp, for instance? If not, there's something wrong with the file itself.
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I don't know what I'm talking about.
In Googlis non est, ergo non est.
One other question. If i am using a png file for every dialogue, then is it possible and if yes, how, can I use variables (&&name;) in a dialogue??
^Crayon
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Mr. Eater:
When I said use a pic (or png) for every dialogue, I didn't mean for the text as well, although this is perfectly do-able. The pictures you use for your dialogue picture will appear beneath the text you enter when you actually create the dialogue event. So you can still use the text. Using no set dialogue interface picture lets us use the response fields 1,2, and 3 for things other than response fields. Am I being clear? I really feel like I don't know how to communicate sometimes.
And Glenn: CS puts our dialogue pics in the middle top of the screen, behind any dialogue interface. If CS has a feature that places your dialogue pics, please tell me where it is because I am missing it and I feel dumb.
myshkyn
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"I'll give the fans just what they want, and nothing else at all."
I'm not sure what's going on that you and I have such different experiences with dialog pictures, but here's a couple of images to show you how they work here for me.
Here's (url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/glennfield/Dialog.png")the dialog interface(/url) that I'm using.
Here's (url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/glennfield/DragonWarrior.png")an image(/url) that I'm using for all dialogs with a particular character.
Here's (url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/glennfield/DialogPict.png")how it looks in-game(/url) when a dialog is called with the image.
Here's (url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/glennfield/NoDialogPict.png")how it looks in-game(/url) when a dialog is called with no image.
Can you provide similar files and screenshots for how things are working on your system?
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I don't know what I'm talking about.
In Googlis non est, ergo non est.
Quote
Originally posted by Glenn:
**I'm not sure what's going on that you and I have such different experiences with dialog pictures, but here's a couple of images to show you how they work here for me...
...Can you provide similar files and screenshots for how things are working on your system?
**
Glenn:
1.: Your stuff looks really cool.
2. Dragon. Warrior. Frickin. Rules.
3. I think I figured out what the problem was, thanks to your screenshots, but I'm going to do some serious playing tonight to make sure, once and for all. Until then, this is what I've figured out: I was using a dialogue interface that was too big, and it was fighting the dialogue pics for screenspace. From the look of things, your smaller sized dialogue interface moves down, with plenty of room to do so, to make way for the dialogue pic. Is that right? Also, it seems you positioned the meat of your dialogue pict (the face and title) in the lower portion of an otherwise transparent picture, to manually position the face and title on the game screen. Is this right too?
If I come up with radically different results when I go to work tonigh, I'll upload my findings. You're using OSX apparently, whereas I'm using OS9... I wouldn't think that would be the problem, though. Anyway, I'll get back to you soon, and thanks for the help...
myshkyn
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"I'll give the fans just what they want, and nothing else at all."
Uh, yeah.
CS places the dialogue pic in the top middle of the screen, moving the dialogue interface down to make way for it. If your dialogue interface is too big to give the dialogue pic room (the PoG interface is this brand of Too Big) then the two overlap, causing, as Mr. Sanko predicted, problems, and the dialogue interface comes out on top. Dialogue movies will come out on top, but using a 1 frame mov for a dialogue pic does not work as well as I originally thought. If there is no text in the response fields the whole dialogue just flashes once and is gone. And if the there is text in the response fields, well, the effects are simply unsettling.
Anyone who needs to know how to position their dialogue pic on the screen should look at Glenn's "an image" (DragonWarrior.png) file from his post above. And keep in mind that if there is not enough screen space for both your picture and the interface, the interface is going to win.
Anyway, crayon eater, I hope I didn't lead you astray before...
myshkyn
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"I'll give the fans just what they want, and nothing else at all."
Quote
Originally posted by myshkyn:
...From the look of things, your smaller sized dialogue interface moves down, with plenty of room to do so, to make way for the dialogue pic. Is that right? Also, it seems you positioned the meat of your dialogue pict (the face and title) in the lower portion of an otherwise transparent picture, to manually position the face and title on the game screen. Is this right too?
Yes, and yes. Sorry if I wasn't clear earlier about the specifics of my implementation, but that is indeed how I've done those.
So your problems were due to the fact that the dialog interface was too large and so there wasn't enough space for them both to appear onscreen at once? That's odd, because I seem to recall when I was testing earlier that the game would happily just shove the dialog interface off the screen in such a case. Then again, that would classify as a bug, so perhaps this is the "fix."
One note: There is still a bug in the way the engine works with this setup. If the dialog interface is moved downscreen to allow room for the picture, the text and such will be drawn on it correctly, BUT the "click areas" for the dialog answer choices will remain in the default interface location onscreen - they are NOT shifted downscreen as they should be. I found this bug during the 1.01 beta, and reported it then; hopefully it will be fixed when (if?) 1.02 is released.
Hope I helped.
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I don't know what I'm talking about.
In Googlis non est, ergo non est.
