I was wondering if there was any possible way to have either a looping QT movie or a looping animated gif in the background of the startup screen. I tried using animated gifs but when I tested it, I got a wierd fuzzy white screen. It wouldn't recognize qt movies.
Any help?

In case any of you are wondering why, I have a pretty cool raining scene made in photoshop (and imageready) which doesn't look quite realistic unless animated.

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Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.

(This message has been edited by spitfire (edited 02-04-2002).)

In case anyone wants to see it, you can find it here:
(url="http://"http://itools.mac.com/WebObjects/HomePage.woa/22/wo/ziNb83hlLI12ceYs.1/4.0.0.6.2.0.2.3.13.81.1.0.1.0.1.0")http://itools.mac.co...b83hlLI12ceYs.1 /4.0.0.6.2.0.2.3.13.81.1.0.1.0.1.0://http://itools.mac.com/WebObjects/Ho....81.1.0.1.0.1.0://http://itools.mac.com/WebObjects/Ho....81.1.0.1.0.1.0(/url)
It is a little large, (.5 MG for the gif, 1.1 MG for the QT movie) so you might want to have a high speed internet connection for this.

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Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.

(This message has been edited by spitfire (edited 02-04-2002).)

What you can do is make a MAP for your title page. Meaning the startup screen can be some very small and basic with just commands ( startup ) and ( quit ). Then when you click startup ( makes the user think you're botting up the program ) it goes to a map where it has the (Start Game) (Load Game) etc.... and you can put any animated GIF's you want.

experiment around. The secret is to master Coldstone, then realize what you can't do. And try and work around it.

Quote

Originally posted by Potatoman:
**What you can do is make a MAP for your title page. Meaning the startup screen can be some very small and basic with just commands ( startup ) and ( quit ). Then when you click startup ( makes the user think you're botting up the program ) it goes to a map where it has the (Start Game) (Load Game) etc.... and you can put any animated GIF's you want.

experiment around. The secret is to master Coldstone, then realize what you can't do. And try and work around it.**

A decent suggestion. So far it has not worked (the game quits when it sees the startup screen, but I will continue experimenting, as this idea has promise).

What you have perhaps failed to realize in your cursory scan of the posts here that this is a community of users, some of whom need to sit down and RTFM before shooting off another panicked post, and others who are already capable of duplicating the techniques used in PoG and are currently exploring the boundaries of what is feasible -- in exactly the spirit of creative enquiry you speak of.

(Given the snide tone of your posts so far, I must mention that I don't normally freeze at the Startup Screen. I have a fully functional test game using my own sprites and interface graphics that I have been using to test new ideas.)

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everywhere else, it's --
"Nomuse"

if no way else works, try making the location launch an event that says wait 10 milliseconds then go to the next frame and have all of them do this. You will have to make a seperate graphic for each from though.

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The word politics is derived from the words poly, meaning many, and tics, referring to blood sucking parasytes.

Quote

Originally posted by Commander Arashi:
**Given the snide tone of your posts so far, I must mention that I don't normally freeze at the Startup Screen. I have a fully functional test game using my own sprites and interface graphics that I have been using to test new ideas.)

**

I hope that isn't about me. If it is, I apologize.
I'm sorry for giving the wrong link, if anyone is still interested, then the real link is (url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/spitfire4/FileSharing2.html")http://homepage.mac....leSharing2.html(/url)
It's not the best, but I feel that it's descent.

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Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.

Quote

Originally posted by spitfire:
**I hope that isn't about me. If it is, I apologize.
I'm sorry for giving the wrong link, if anyone is still interested, then the real link is http://homepage.mac....leSharing2.html
It's not the best, but I feel that it's descent.

**

Not about you; no apology needed.

Did some more experimentation. I got a map to work for the startup screen but neither animations nor characters work on it. Simply put, the game engine generates a preview picture of the map, names it "Startup Screen," and uses that.

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everywhere else, it's --
"Nomuse"

Quote

Originally posted by Commander Arashi:
**A decent suggestion. So far it has not worked (the game quits when it sees the startup screen, but I will continue experimenting, as this idea has promise).
**

It's a very decent suggestion indeed. It's how we did to create the illusion of animated backgrounds in Cosmic Memory.

It's normal that the game quits when you get to the startup screen. It's because you need to have an active game to display a map i.e. a map cannot be displayed (teleport to) before a "New Game" engine call.

You can fake it by being sure that none of the new game dialogs are activated (see the misc panel in the game options), call a "New Game" directly in your startgame event and then teleport the guy on your startup screen in the main event.

Unfortunately, this prevent you from using the built-in name dialog and race/class/stats dialogs. You would need to do it by yourself (like using the dialog entry action to request the player name).

Hope this help,

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Dee Brown
Beenox inc. - (url="http://"http://www.beenox.com")www.beenox.com(/url) (check our new web site!)
(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/games/coldstone/")Coldstone Game Engine(/url) / (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/games/pog/")Pillars of Garendall(/url) developers

(This message has been edited by Dee (edited 02-05-2002).)

Thanks, but I think I'll just have to keep it unanimated. I care too much for those workarounds, thanks anyway.
I don't need it that bad.

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Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.

Quote

Originally posted by Dee:
**It's a very decent suggestion indeed. It's how we did to create the illusion of animated backgrounds in Cosmic Memory.

It's normal that the game quits when you get to the startup screen. It's because you need to have an active game to display a map i.e. a map cannot be displayed (teleport to) before a "New Game" engine call.

You can fake it by being sure that none of the new game dialogs are activated (see the misc panel in the game options), call a "New Game" directly in your startgame event and then teleport the guy on your startup screen in the main event.

Unfortunately, this prevent you from using the built-in name dialog and race/class/stats dialogs. You would need to do it by yourself (like using the dialog entry action to request the player name).

Hope this help,

**

Thanks for the detail on that technique. Pity there's no way of playing with the loading screens and so forth, but starting the game before "starting the game" (aka, presenting the user with a button) is a quite acceptable work-around by me.

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everywhere else, it's --
"Nomuse"