How do you get the sprites to show while the text is running in 4.5?

Bucket Mouse

Active member
How do you get the sprites to show while the text is running in 4.5? It's off by default, and I can't find a single actual use of HideSprites in the current code, so I don't know what to dummy out.
 

dale_coop

Moderator
Staff member
It's different is this core.
The variable "gameStatusByte" is set when the textbox starts... and when this variable is set, all the object management code is skipped (no collisions, no input, no drawing, ...)

You could comment out the line when this variable is set (in the doDrawBox.asm)... but you would have (unwanted) effects: your objets will now remain visibles, but they will reply to your inputs, collisions, ....
 

Bucket Mouse

Active member
I tried it. It made the text box unresponsive since the player controls for the B button overrided the text box itself. I tried adding this to the beginning of the A and B button attacks:

Code:
LDA npcTrigger
    AND #%00000001
    BNE +
    JMP canNotShoot
    
    +

But the screen still froze.

Also, the sprite moved ahead to the next step in the cutscene BEFORE the textbox could draw! They don't even pause.

THIS MEANS CUTSCENES ARE IMPOSSIBLE IN VERSION 4.5!
 

dale_coop

Moderator
Staff member
No, it's totally doable.
Like I said, the core that comes with this version is made for the Summer Camp! For the needs of this tutorial videos... not for YOUR needs, or not for be used for a commercial game, ...
The way you are trying to do that (like the way you did on the previous version) is NOT a valid way to do it with that version!

It's doable... just not with the code you are writing ;)
 

Bucket Mouse

Active member
I don't know what the right code is. I got a big clue on the Facebook page when someone suggested to make a Game State for cutscene screens. Sounds like a great idea but I'm missing the most crucial bit of information, which is how to make the monster sprites stop advancing their Action Steps whenever a text box is onscreen. Where is the part that governs that and how do I re-route it?

My first guess was a script called "doObjectAction," so I tried putting this at the front of it:

Code:
doObjectAction:
	LDA npcTrigger
	AND #%00000001
	BNE +
	JMP donotmove
	
	+

But that didn't work; it just slowed the game to a crawl and the text box never appeared.

I tried putting it in TimerEndScripts under "advance_action," because I was trying to prevent the action from advancing until the text was through. Instead, it blocked the text ITSELF and just played the previous action in a loop.

I tried putting it in the custom script from a couple days ago to make a monster move in a specific direction, wondering if THIS was what I had to block until the text was gone. The character moved in place with chuggy animation for the step I was trying to delay, and then moved onto the next steps.

I tried making my own variable and turning it on at the beginning of doDrawBox and turning it off at the end of doDraw Text and telling these places to not do anything when the variable was on. It was ignored.

I should also mention that on all these attempts, the text box froze on the first message. In fact it looks like dummying out gameStatusByte is the thing that makes it freeze. What do I do about that?

And no, I can't just wait for a fixed version. Joe implied there were no more major updates coming to the Adventure module and this is what I have to work with.

Please help; I'm losing my mind.
 

dale_coop

Moderator
Staff member
Yeah, really man..
I don't understand you.
As we say again and again , that version 4.5 is a summer camp version, just made for the camp, just made to follow the tutorial lessons... and to learn what Joe is teaching us. And playing with it.
Don't try to hard making big things... because we will modify the core module again, we do that on every video and by the end of the Summer Camp, we will have new core and new modules!
So the code might be totally different, the code that manage the text box and the sprites thing might be different, too.

If you don't find, take a break, and wait to see what will be in the final official modules. Maybe it will contain easier way to do what you want to do.

It's the reason I don't nothing deep with that module, because it's just a small sandboxing module, it's not the final one. A lot of code will be different. Don't push too hard on you. Do fun easy & things with that current version module.
 

dale_coop

Moderator
Staff member
PS: btw yeah, the GameState for the cutscene is a great idea... and I think Joe said that in one the videos ;)
 

Bucket Mouse

Active member
Yeah, I'm officially giving up....I tried some hints directly from Joe and they didn't work, so I'm out of ideas. Going back to 4.1 to finish.

It's a real shame I couldn't get this version to run my game yet. The improvements in 4.5 make building the graphics much easier.

What gets me is that I have no guarantee that the issues I encountered will be fixed whenever 4.5 gets finished enough for me to pick it back up. If the sprites disappearing during text is a permanent thing with no way to fix it, that's a serious problem....and more people will be complaining than just me.
 

CutterCross

Active member
I'm not really even bothering with 4.5 until the Summer Camp learning stuff is over and it becomes more complete. Like Dale said, it's meant to slowly guide you through how the new codebase is set up, how it works, what's new in the GUI, etc. It's for users who are new to diving into the codebase and understanding what everything in it means, or even understanding assembly language or programming in general. The definitive "feature-ready" 4.5 isn't out yet, so it's not fair to treat it as such.

The Summer Camp modules are tutorial stuff, not meant for proper game-building yet. That's the thing I see many users overlook.
 

dale_coop

Moderator
Staff member
Yeah , exactly... It's being killing be always repeating that, but this version (4.5) is just for the summer camp!
It is NOT the definitive new version... after the summer camp (or at the end), we will get a lot of new core and modules... it will be different.
Don't lose too much time and energy and health on the current core and module, it's just for playing... doing small experiments!
Try again with the definitive version.
 

Jonny

Well-known member
CutterCross said:
I'm not really even bothering with 4.5 until the Summer Camp learning stuff is over and it becomes more complete. Like Dale said, it's meant to slowly guide you through how the new codebase is set up, how it works, what's new in the GUI, etc. It's for users who are new to diving into the codebase and understanding what everything in it means, or even understanding assembly language or programming in general. The definitive "feature-ready" 4.5 isn't out yet, so it's not fair to treat it as such.

The Summer Camp modules are tutorial stuff, not meant for proper game-building yet. That's the thing I see many users overlook.

I need to take note of these comments because I just realised, I'm "that guy" who's getting frustrated with 4.5 for no reason. Using it to learn rather than build a finished game is great advice. There's always other things to do in the interim, like graphics/sounds.

Are you planning to do anymore tutorials CutterCross, I really liked the cutscene one you did.
 

CutterCross

Active member
Jonny said:
I need to take note of these comments because I just realised, I'm "that guy" who's getting frustrated with 4.5 for no reason. Using it to learn rather than build a finished game is great advice. There's always other things to do in the interim, like graphics/sounds.

Are you planning to do anymore tutorials CutterCross, I really liked the cutscene one you did.

Once DART is released and I can finally dive into 4.5 I will be planning a few more tutorials. With the current state of 4.5 I MIGHT wait until the version for Byte-Off'20 is released so I don't have to worry about constant codebase updates and whatnot, right now things are a bit messy to really get deep into that stuff. But I dunno.
 
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