Graphic adventure creation help.

[DancingWolf]

Hey there,
Sorry if this is in the wrong place but the past month or two i've been starting work on a simple AGS game.
I use dpaint for the artwork, 32 colours 320x200px I was wondering if there is an equivelant software out there for amiga, And if so what are the limitations. (I can barely use AGS scripting so programming is right out)



I searched around the forum and saw that GRAC 2.5 is in development somewhere. but are there any other alternatives?


Also a question about making amiga music.


Is there a way in winuae to interface a modern midi keyboard with some tracking software? I got as far as using a midi test program that registered inputs, but no software to use it. Bars&Pipes only and i couldn't figure that out either.


Thanks for the help.

[DamienD]

Thread moved from the Amiga scene section to the project.Amiga Game Factory section

[Estrayk]

AmigaWave and Goblins were updating GRAC, contact with them.
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...highlight=grac

[kikems]

I hope we can help you. I'll send you a private msg.

[kikems]

Post your questions here, I'll try answer and help.

[DancingWolf]

Hello and thank you for your reply.


I'm just curious about technical limitations.
character sprite size and colour limits.
animation limits. (eg max amount of anim frames for an object/character)
is there support for colour cycling in images?


I should get familiar with the current version of GRAC but I see you are working on an updated version so I thought I would wait and start there when it's done.


Game will have two playable characters,

some cutscenes, In AGS I can just use a videofile for that, but they would be short dpaint anims. (I could scale this back to just showing still images in sequence)
ideally 8 frames of animation for characters, but I can work within limits.
game will have approx 20 locations, approx 30kb each.


I see already you added support for multiple mod files, so that is the music, also sfx works?


Any information is helpful, I will get the main character and rooms finished soon.


Thanks again.
Nathan.

[kikems]

You can use the size you want for characters, but if you want your game run smooth on A500 use small characters, if you want A1200 you can use big characters.
About color you usually use 32 colors in 320x200 and use 320x56 pixels for the interface. Your backgrounds and characters/objects should be use the same palette. If you want work in Hi res or Interlaced you should be use only 16 colors for OCS Amiga, you can use Hi-res interlaced in 64 colors, if you want but the game only works on ECS Amiga.

About mod, with GRAC 2.5 you can use 99 music .mod files. It's possible use sfx up to 99.

Of course you can make anims from frames and assemble with AMAL code or use standard dpaint anims ( only for cut scenes ). Dpaint anims load into ram before play, in this case you need an Amiga with extra ram if use long anims.

For character we usually use ;
1 frame for stay in front
1 stay back
1 1 stay right ( GRAC auto flip stay right for stay left )
8 frames for walk right ( GRAC auto flip right sequence for left walk )
1 frame for take objects looking right
1 frame for take looking back
1 frame for take objects looking front
4 frames for talk front
4 frames talk back
4 frames for talk right ( left talk is the flip of right talk, GRAC do it auto ).

You not have problems with 20 locations, now GRAC 2.5 can manage 99 locations, the real problem is the disk space if your target is a floppy disk, but you can manage and assign few floppy disks for the game. If your goal is Hard Disk you not have space problems.

You can use color cycling for backgrounds, color cycling use 4 first colors of palette.

[DancingWolf]

That's great information thank you.
I think I will continue as I am until I have a full set of assets, and await the release of your updated software.

From the outset of this project I have kept the palette to 32 colours so no problem there. , the sprites i wanted to use were 32px wide roughly, is this too big for A500 use? 16px limit for A500?

Thanks for the info on character frames, Is it possible to add an extra custom set of anim frames? (like a death anim for example).
One more thing about palette, I'm assuming one of the 32 colours is for transparency?

The colour cycling sounds good, Can different palettes be used at all, I know you said same palette for fg+bg, but could i for example have 32 colours, 1234 different in each palette, and 5-32 the same across all palettes?

One last thing about ram usage, how much by itself will grac use without any assets?

Thanks again so much for your time.

[kikems]

GRAC use BOBS , this not have any limit of size or colors.

Yes it's possible add 99 extra frames for any action you need for your character , and can use this extra fames to build anims like death or anything.
You have a graphic bank (99 frames per bank) for characters (up to 99 characters) and another graphic bank (99 frames per bank) for objects (up to 99 objects banks). You can combine frames for make characters or background anims.

You can use different palettes of course, simply reserve colors that not affect characters or other objects.

GRAC is ready to work with any Amiga with 1MB ram (512Kb chip+512Kb fast/slow). Try to make a complex game that work with only 1MB(512+512) ram need a lot of work but it's possible. The main limit is the chip ram, if you use 32 colors + mod music + sfx at the same time you overlimit the 512Kb chip ram easy. It's possible but need work hard , we do RetroWars game in 32 colors, with big character, lot of layers in screen, music in game and background scroll all with 1 MB ( 512Kb+512Kb ) but was a hard task of optimization. In GRAC 2.5 we provide some extra commands for flush music from memory and sfx for free chip ram as possible.

If your target is Amiga with 1MB chip ram or Amiga 1200 you not have big problems.
If no use music in game and use 16 colors you can build the game for Amigas with only 512Kb ram.

[DancingWolf]

Thanks for the extra information.

I would really like to try for the A500. But I think A1200 is more realistic for me. 16 colours would be a fun challenge though I think, maybe a smaller project in the future for that.

Now I realise Grac 2.5 (or 3) is not released yet, but is it worth me learning how to use Grac 2.0 in the meantime? Assuming things work the same way.

I only just started but I intend to make this for AGS and Amiga, maybe sell the AGS one for pennies, but Amiga will be free if i can make it.

Thanks again for all your help. I didn't know GRAC existed until recently.

[kikems]

Originally Posted by DancingWolf

Thanks for the extra information.

I would really like to try for the A500. But I think A1200 is more realistic for me. 16 colours would be a fun challenge though I think, maybe a smaller project in the future for that.

Now I realise Grac 2.5 (or 3) is not released yet, but is it worth me learning how to use Grac 2.0 in the meantime? Assuming things work the same way.

I only just started but I intend to make this for AGS and Amiga, maybe sell the AGS one for pennies, but Amiga will be free if i can make it.

Thanks again for all your help. I didn't know GRAC existed until recently.

Until GRAC 2.5 will be release you can use actual GRAC 2 to start your project, GRAC 2.5 can import GRAC 2 projects without problem.