Ok will try it later thanks.

About that capital H thing, that's strange.....

That function has always been in GM since like Direct3D was added, however the function is deprecated along with all the others in Studio. Now, that said, that function only sets the display resolution, so you will also need to size up your view to match the display resolution. Game Maker has always been quite a bit a pain in the ass in this department, just Google about setting the resolution for GM, anything that applies to GM applies to ENIGMA.

https://www.google.com/#q=game+maker+resolution

a pain in the ass indeed   So I guess I should not bother with resolution and simply allow the game to use whatever resolution the player has at runtime.   and let the engine take care of it.

Thanks, but what I actually need is a direct text entry with cursor, no boxes whatsoever and no dialog boxes.  I would like to handle my own text input area and just have the text input start at whatever area of the room that I point it to.

EXAMPLE, I have a sprite shape on my screen and want the text entry to be done on top of that (superposed), so it's simple, no dialog boxes, no boxes, just the getting keyboard entries input directly from a coordinate, with the flashing cursor.

get_string is implemented, along with get_color and all that Jazz. Darkstar2 if you have the latest version there is the Asynch extension you can enable and use get_string_async which is from Studio and allows the game to continue updating while the user inputs the string, then the Asynchronous Dialog event is triggered when they've entered their response. I can also make you an example that just uses script_thread.

However, I think you may be looking to custom render the input, if that is the case, use keyboard_string, I have written you an example for this.

Hit tab to open the input box, enter a string and then hit enter. This is a simple way of accepting input from a user for a while in GM.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/c0mnfzw10dsffvg/keyboardstring.gm81

There is currently a bug with keyboard_string though where backspace does not clear your last character but adds a new capital 'H' this little piece of code will resolve that until it is fixed, just add it at the very top of the step event.

Code (EDL) Select Expand


if (keyboard_check_pressed(vk_backspace)) {
keyboard_string = string_copy(keyboard_string, 0,
string_length(keyboard_string) - 2);
}


I am looking to add interaction in my game, where the user inputs data, however I do not want the pop-up dialog box to appear but only the flashing cursor would appear at an x,y position and allow a user to input text.  In short, it is the get_string without the dialog box.

Something like

get_string(x,y,len,def)

(x,y position to set input cursor, maximum length of str, default value)

Please advise.

Thanks.

ohhhh I missed that one thanks a lot !

Now what happens if my game is made entirely in 1920x1080 16:9, but a user selects a display that is 4:3 or does not support my native game resolution, what will the results be ? dose ENIGMA handle this well ? as well as the drawGUI events and all ?

Strange I never saw this function before (testing resolutions), since when was this added in GM ?  I usually read all the updates as they are released by them.

I am able to use ENIGMA on D drive without problems, same folder.  My program files / programdata is on C.

This sounds like symptoms of running it from command line as opposed to directly accessing the folder and running it from windows.

Try running enigma directly from windows, manually go to your enigma folder and locate enigma.exe and make a shortcut sent to desktop.
Should work.

Very old thread, hope it's not too late:

Glew
http://pastebin.com/efZ4EJHK

VisualInfo
http://pastebin.com/0T9xQAS7

DXDiag
http://pastebin.com/zh1Yvwcf

System specs: Intel Core i5 3570k 4Ghz OC
RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR3  16GB
EVGA GTX 660Ti SuperClocked
Windows 7 64bit
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro

There are some misleading info in the sound aspect as I have my soundcard panel settings to movie/music mode, otherwise if I were to select game mode, you would see all the EAX and extra goodies enabled such as EAX (all versions up to 5).

I noticed int he game settings under resolution you have 320x240, 640x480, etc.....up to 1600x1200, but where is 1920x1080 ?  Is there a function to manually change resolution with custom settings but before doing so probing the graphic card / driver to see if the resolution is supported, if true, change resolution or false, don't allow it ? This way one could make a menu inside a game to allow a player to customize it, much like commercial games ?  More so, is it possible to make games that are Full HD 16:9 (meaning allowing program to access those resolutions), as I'm sure many people use LCD monitors now, so I can't imagine using those lower resolutions they probably would not look nice downsampled .  320x240 displayed on a 1080 native resolution is not really nice.

I would like to build a menu in my game allowing the player to decide what they want, and quality sttings.  I can handle the rest, but how would I go about polling the hardware for specific resolutions whether they are compatible to current display used by the player ?

Thanks

This actually goes back to why the issue isn't YoYoGames removing features. If they wanted to take GM in a fundamentally different direction, why the hell only go half way?

That's the million $ question, and the answer is simple.  They took the easy approach.  When the acquired the project they had something already made to work with as opposed to starting from scratch.  They were under attack at the time, it would have probably hurt them more had they completely changed game maker.  Well now people 100 years later,;) are paying the price. 

They've gone with a pseudo clone, they would be miles ahead of themselves right now had they done this since the beginning of their take over and with much better reward too.

Yeah but it would not have been the popular approach seeing as they were not too liked at first. 

You got to understand GM came out in the 90's, 1999 to be specific, though the actual original Game Maker, not GameMaker, came out in 1992 hence the reason why they've changed their name to avoid a lawsuit, and has not changed pretty much at all since then.

From what I recall the original project was an animation program that later became game maker.  I have known about game maker since version 5 and I remember all hell breaking loose when the project got taken over by YoYo. 

Here is GM 2, 3, 7, and Studio.

I'm speechless !   

games as well, this would be a positive for learning, instead of how it teaches bad habits that you need to unteach yourself when moving to other tools and real programming languages.

Yeah that's hard for some. I must admit I have bad habits sometimes with programming, GML, I know there are things I do in several lines of code I could do in a few, I can do the advanced stuff but take the long approach, I have lots to learn to do optimal GML coding / structure.
I did not spend as much time as most people in the GMC did......
Like you, time lacks !

Right, that is why it should be redesigned to focus on helping them understand modern game design, not raster graphics from the 90's.
The difference is you only see draw_() functions which are raster graphics in programs like Windows Forms/Java/etc or basically Software, game engines are Hardware, well even software is becoming Hardware now, i.e. JavaFX/Qt

Well said, couldn't agree more, but keep in mind with modern games has to come modern skills and know-how.   How many people in the game maker community can you honestly say have skill and knowledge to make a modern game ? In terms of graphics design, sprite design, coding, etc.   Not many, and so this is the reason why overall people are happy with game maker the way it is, they don't understand their flaws because they never will discover them given the type of games they do don't require much fuss.  Agreed ?  Now one has to ask the question, do people want to do modern games and aim high or stick to making as many games as they can in short period of time.  It is somehow of a competition of which person can publish the most games more so than making quality games in my opinion.
Perhaps game maker lacks the "modern" because they target a different audience ?  Perhaps game maker will always remain what it is, with its limits so long as it is not completely rewritten from the grounds up, with a new team that think totally different and have the skills to make a program to cater to full 2D, 3D and latest technologies to allow modern game design, all this can be possible while at the same time offering an easy interface (that can be customized from simply to more advanced) and proper documentation !  A modern game design software does not have to be overly complicated, it all comes down to the interface.

But that was all hypothetical, the project here does what people want it to do. My only point is that GM's functions are verbose and could be redesigned to be more consistent and more powerful, LateralGM's interface also suffers from having options for every single GM version at one time, a result of its development having never been 1 to 1 with GM's.

That's all good as long as when it's done there is an easy transition and full documentation to show how it was done before and how it is done now.

So example, a GML that was revamped, would look like

The old way with GML:  command, etc.

The new way........... etc.  So people can have a reference to work with and avoid guessing work.

Not much will change with Yoyogames and game maker anytime soon.
They still have not released 1.3 officially, and a long way to go for 1.4, working a new ide (not necessarily better), so their priority is set, I don't think we can expect a major revision of game maker anytime soon.

Now that's a good sell : D I really like the one about creating your own GUI, so you could effectively use this program to make good apps and not just games, mind you, you can already do that but it's a pain in the ass

Removing drag & drop might not be a good idea, adding new D&D icons maybe good.  It is practical for those who are getting started and want to progress slowly. Besides in older versions of GM it was known that GML was faster, but it's a non issue non because of changes they made, whether you use D&D or GML.   I still think retaining some compatibility is good, at least creating a SMOOTH transition as opposed to suddenly dropping things, because that would rhyme too well with YoYo and I'm sure people don't want that ! 

But you can have your cake and eat it, I'm sure you can offer all those new changes for the better but keeping older functions ?

Not everyone learns quickly or is familiar with all the technical jargon and coding, I think that was the top selling point with GM, easy to use interface, fast learning curve, etc.

I must admit what throws me off using other programs is the steep learning curve and interface.

Moving forward is good but allowing backwards compatibility thrown in there is essential in some cases, if that were not true, then Microsoft would have been done with many things ages ago, so would many other software.

So if I am understanding correctly you are talking about the LGM aspect of the program right ?  If it becomes too different and unique it would certainly have to go through a name change....and discretely support GM functions (GML) etc, but have several new ones, new interface, etc.   Also wouldn't a significant change warrant LGm 2.x as opposed to 1.84/5. etc. ?

First about JAVA, why do some people still have Java 6 anyway, wasn't there a huge campaign to encourage people to move to 7 due to major exploits ? Besides some programs / sites required you to use 7 minimum.  Personally I voted the last option I would not mind 12MB extra download, it's not going to be a problem unless you are updating the core program hundreds of times daily

I guess some people are attached to old things, but there comes a time where a move is necessary (imposed ).

I am glad you understand where I am coming from, but with that said, I do not plan on doing it any time soon until it becomes absolutely necessary, where it starts getting in the way of performance and stuff.

I fully agree with you when you say ENIGMA/LGM and Studio should go their separate ways.  The whole idea is for ENIGMA/LGM to surpass studio.   If studio is getting worse, do you want to emulate "worseness" ?  Personally as a user I would not mind ENIGMA being different, so long as there is proper documentation to properly compare it to studio, what is compatible, what is not, and for the incompatibilities offer alternatives, for example if a function is not supported, tell us an alternative, this would help those who do not know C++ or not too familiar with things yet. 

Now, my other concern, is how shitty they are making GameMaker, I am really really starting to feel it's time ENIGMA not focus so much on compatibility and just do things our own way.

Couldn't have said better myself, I personally do not mind building projects from scratch if it means I get the benefits.  Providing the program retains GML compatibility, and if something is removed that studio has, document the alternative.

There are a number of things that could just be done better in ENIGMA, and we should just say fuck compatibility already, we'd be able to do such a better job of popularizing the software, the whole clone ripoff thing just leads to comparisons and people always saying what we do and don't have. Where we could basically just do things a 1000 times better with much better design for shit.

Can you give examples as to what you can do so much better ?
Have you weighed the pros and cons ? I think your program does so many things better from the start........ 
1) It's fairly inexpensive 
2) It has a friendly and helpful community
3) It has developers that listen
4) It is made by people who know what they are talking about
5) It does not charge rob you $299 for a compiler.
6) Offers obsoleted functions that many have begged YoYo to bring back.
and the list can go on.
It might be necessary to retain some compatibility, particularly in the functions / GML department.  So I'm assuming when you say compatibility you mean with the reader/writer / IDE stuff ?

Also a good feature to have inside LGM for those who are getting started and do not know by heart all the functions, etc, available, to have an option to list all GML functions / ENIGMA specific functions / both, etc.

I know what you mean about motivation, all so well. 

As far as the GMC, over the years I was reading about people not being able to import large files into the IDE, and here as well, I'm sure I could pull those posts if I searched for them.  I use a program that converts video to GIF/PNG etc, and i recall experimenting a little by rendering a 3D animated logo and using this as intro.  After reading how it failed with some members I tried to emulate that, and it failed for me too.  When using import and picking the file, the IDE would crash, if not crash it would slow to a crawl.  Keep in mind I have an P8Z77-V Pro + Intel core i5-3570k OCed to 4.2, 16GB of RAM + EVGA GTX660Ti+SuperCLocked 2GB, handles all latest games just fine, so CPU/GPU/RAM is not an issue, besides GameMaker is still and probably will always remain a 32bit program   So the problem is the software itself, not the rig.  If I wanted to make a large game I too would not care about resources, but the program would have to let me make full use of my gear. 

I tried this a while back and yes it was with GM Studio, there have been several updates since, maybe I should go try it again, perhaps things were changed ?
Can you give me an example / spec of a PNG file you use so I can try it, what resolution, what's the frame rate, etc.

So are you using those MF PNGs as full screen cut scenes ?

Besides, isn't the PNG file stored uncompressed in RAM ? as opposed to a video file that is compressed and gets streamed from disk and not stored in RAM and as you know, uncompressed raw video frames @ a decent frame rate takes some serious disk space.  You would really have to compromise on the quality of the video (bit depth, frame rate and resolution).

Many have requested video functions in GM:S but they absolutely don't want nothing to do with that function they made it clear.  Kinda makes you wonder why ?  Why is it a function that is available in other programs and not in game maker..... If you search the bug mantis and forums you will find mention about importing or handling large files and asking yoyogames to implement some video playback function......You might find some of my posts in the mantis as well......and on the forums. These requests date back years and some are recent, all met with a categorical "NO!", they basically are telling people if they want added functionality to make it themselves.

How nice of them to say that to people who have spent hundreds of $ over the years supporting their software.

Personally have nothing against using pre-made models/textures,content, most games now use licensed content / pre-made engines.  You can have all the pre-made stuff but what it comes down to is the programming / building of the game and how good the game is, as long as there is some original aspect to the game, I'm sure people won't judge based on whether the content is made from scratch or not.

Have you ever used DAZ3D Animation Studio Pro ? they offer it FREE now  (limited time), or POSER, be good for adding live characters.  Personally I am a complete novice with all the 3D stuff !

As far as PNG,I really would love to see how you pull that off, I don't think big multi frame sprites handles well.  Read a few posts about this on GMC and people claim the same thing, even read a post here, about GM:S and handling of large sprites / large files.  I tried it myself just for the fun of it, and confirmed what people claim, it did not work .  Also PNG is image only, you would have to then play the video/audio in sync.

If you pull this game off with GM:S without issues I will be amazed.

I think from what I am reading here and on GMC and the general feeling is that Game Maker is not optimized for making big games.  I don't know if it is because of their IDE itself - perhaps the compiler itself can handle things, but getting the stuff into the IDE perhaps is what most people complain about.  Keeping in mind it's still a 32bit app and can only access 2gb at once, so you would be surprised at how much RAM those big projects can gobble up once run.

I've seen his hardware specs, they aren't glamorous but they are good, bout the same as mine. It really shouldn't be taking that long TKG.

Isn't Bryce slow by nature ? I never really liked the interface that much, never gotten used to it or had much time to use it. Spent money + purchasing add-ons I ended up never using.  I'd like to make these type of games, maybe I should dig back my Bryce.

What version are you using TKG ? Any add-on packs ?